I supported Senator Elizabeth Warren in the months leading up to the primaries and had the privilege to be a member of Penn4Warren. After Sen. Warren suspended her campaign, I remember constantly being asked I felt defeated or disappointed. I remember shortly after super Tuesday results and before the campaign was suspended, The Daily Pennsylvanian asked me to make a statement about the results. What I said was that I thought the main objective of campaign was to propagate ideas and contribute to the evolution of the political rhetoric and not necessarily winning. I cannot make a judgment on how successful our efforts were, but I think we did what we had to do.
I never considered former Vice Joe President Biden to be an ideal nominee for the democratic party in the November election for a number of reasons, but at this point, that seems to be a reality we need to face. At this point not supporting the democratic nominee is equivalent to supporting President Trump in the upcoming election. It is a matter of cutting our loses at this point.
I understand the disappointment of those who called for more progressive reforms and their opposition to the nomination of Biden. As a supporter of the Me Too movement, I am disappointed and concerned about all the sexual misconduct allegations. I am critical of certain comments and decisions Biden has made. Nonetheless, as a progressive, I want to say that its dangerous for us to sit aside and be spectators in the election process. We have changed the political rhetoric enough and have gained enough support to use that as a leverage to push for more progressive policies to be adopted and more progressive people to be in the government upon election of Biden.
There is a choice we need to make right now. We can either gather behind former Vice President Biden and demand more progressive policies or halt our efforts in the upcoming election and focus on the next one. Progress is achieved in steps. Even though we failed to nominate a progressive candidate, we have accomplished plenty. This is why senators Sanders and Warren endorsed Biden. The presumptive nominee is accused of dishonesty; so is President Trump. The extent of unfavourability is what matters. We are facing a choice, not making a choice is choosing Trump.
I call for unity among Penn community ahead of the upcoming presidential election in support of Biden to restore the dignity of the office of presidency. I ask Penn for Bernie to endorse Biden for president despite all the disagreements. Bernie supporters are arguably the youngest and most energetic and they could play an important role in increasing the election turnout. Energizing the masses and building grassroot support is the key to success in November.
BORNA SAEEDNIA is a third year graduate student from Tehran, Iran studying chemistry. He plans to attend Law School and specializes in Organic Chemistry. His email address is saeednia@sas.upenn.edu
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