 So, a lot of people currently are feeling down, demoralized and even depressed because we are in such an unprecedented and just bizarre situation. Like, it really feels like we are living in the dystopian futures that, you know, we read about in sci-fi novels. It feels unreal, almost. And there are some people who feel optimistic because, you know, eventually COVID-19, this pandemic, it's going to go away, right? There's going to be a lot of damage. People are losing loved ones. People are dying. People are losing their jobs. They're losing their material wealth. But at the end of the day, we will one day be able to say that we can put this behind us. But that isn't enough for a lot of people. Like, the 2020 election, it's adding to the bleakness. It's adding to this sense of just desperation because I don't think people fully get it. I wanted to take some time to share a perspective with individuals who think that everything will be peachy keen if we just get Donald Trump out of office. Because for a lot of millennials, a lot of leftists, they don't feel that way. Now, I'm not trying to perpetuate some type of false equivalence between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. There are meaningful differences between these two individuals. But the problem is that, you know, the left had an opportunity to replace the system, possibly, or at least start replacing that system. Get us on the trajectory of social democracy. We had a second chance at electing someone who we felt actually was going to fight for us. Now, Bernie, he's not someone who I felt like was the savior. He, you know, fixed all the problems that the country had. But to me, I felt like he was going to give us a fighting chance. But now with the situation that we're in, there's no sense of, you know, an end in sight, right? Like with COVID-19, we can say, well, at least in a year or two, or like worst case scenario, a couple of years, we'll get past this. But with the current political situation we are in, there's no light at the end of the tunnel. It feels like we're going to keep repeating the same thing over and over every single election cycle. We're going to have a pendulum that swings to a Republican eight years and then a Democrat for another eight years and back and forth. And, you know, so long as we maintain this cycle of neoliberalism, it's not like things stay the same, right? The situation doesn't remain static. The country and the world deteriorates. The situation for normal working people gets exponentially worse with each cycle. So let's just explain why so many young people can't get excited right now about the prospect of getting rid of Donald Trump, even though I think that is important. The problem is that we're not going to undo the mechanisms that led to Donald Trump's rise in the first place. Any competent moral society would never allow a far-right demagogue like Donald Trump to get elected. And it's not like the United States of America is unique here. We're seeing far-right extremism pop up in countries around the world, in Brazil with Jair Bolsonaro in India with Narendra Modi. This is not a unique phenomenon. We're seeing this almost everywhere, right? And it's happening because the global capitalist consensus is failing working people everywhere. So as working people become more desperate around the world, they become more susceptible to radicalization. Sometimes they lurch further to the left. Other times they lurch to the right because a right-wing demagogue will offer them a solution. And that solution is usually bad. It's the immigrants who are causing all of your problems. They're the ones who put you in this economic situation. I'm oversimplifying it. But for an example, because this election will not actually be conducive to a change in the status quo, that's why so many people feel demoralized. So let's just think through why this is. We have a certain set of outcomes. We have two main outcomes, right? And a third possibility, which is highly unlikely, albeit still possible. So outcome number one, Trump is defeated. Joe Biden becomes president. Outcome number two, Joe Biden is defeated. Donald Trump remains president. And in the very unlikely situation, Joe Biden is replaced and steps down. Now, because I feel like that's almost, I don't want to say impossible, but very, very unlikely, we'll talk about that one first. So just on principle, I can't necessarily endorse the idea that Joe Biden should be replaced like we do some type of switcheroo at the convention. Because even if I don't like Joe Biden and I disagree with him on everything, if he got more votes, he got more votes. The only way that I would actually get on board with that situation is if he stepped down, right? And he said, I'm withdrawing my bid for the presidency of the United States. If he did something like that, I would be okay with that. But one, he would never do that. And two, even if he did do that in that best case scenario for the left, it's not going to lead to Bernie Sanders becoming the nominee. Democrats will still fight him tooth and nail. And it will be some other neoliberal who will take his place, getting us right back to square one, right? So I think we can basically rule that situation out. If Democrats switched him with Andrew Cuomo, I think that would be wrong because they're undermining people who voted for Joe Biden. And it's not really going to change the conditions in this country, right? So that doesn't really matter. So what we're really presented with here is two realistic options of what's going to take place that aren't really going to help anyone, right? So if Donald Trump is defeated, that means that we've defeated Donald Trump. Orange man, bad. That's good in and of itself, right? And the best outcome out of a Trump defeat for the left is that Joe Biden can replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, assuming she's willing to step down. So he can replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg. However, even in that situation, the best situation that we can find ourselves in given the circumstances, I don't think that liberals fully comprehend that that's not enough. The Supreme Court already has a five to four conservative majority. And if Joe Biden is able to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that doesn't change the overall makeup of the court. It's still going to be five to four, meaning that we can still see an overturning of Roe v. Wade. We can see, you know, the Obergefell gay rights, marriage equality be overturned. We will see the dismantling of unions, labor rights. So the fact that the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, which is dominant, is basically hoping for a best case scenario where Joe Biden replaces Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That tells me that they haven't thought this fully through because regardless of who replaces Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and I genuinely hope it is Joe Biden, we still have to fix the Supreme Court. And I don't necessarily know what that entails. Maybe we come up with a court packing plan, but you can't just be satisfied with Joe Biden replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They're going to dismantle our system, give corporations even more power with that five for conservative majority that they currently have, right? Now, of course, we don't want to expand the conservative lead on this court in the event that Justice Roberts wants to flip inside with liberals. We don't want to do that. But at the same time, the status quo as it is, even in that best case scenario is not a good situation. Conservatives are still dominant. And the fact that Democrats aren't actually coming up with an adequate plan to address this is unacceptable to me. It's already an issue. And to me, I worry because Democrats haven't taken this seriously. Now, furthermore, in the event Donald Trump is defeated and Joe Biden is the president, you know, I absolutely expect him to undo some of the things that Donald Trump managed to undo since Obama, right? So you can expect Joe Biden to get us back into the Paris Climate Accord. You can expect Joe Biden to try to restart the Iran deal if Iran would even be willing to come to the table. But the problem with that is any change that we see from Joe Biden, he, you know, gets back into Iran deal. In that best case scenario, he restarts DACA. All of this is most likely going to be changed that takes effect almost exclusively via executive order, which can easily be undone by the next Republican president. So any major legislative accomplishment that he achieves, that has more staying power, right? Republicans, they've been trying to dismantle the Affordable Care Act by death by a thousand cuts, but they can't just undo it with the next Republican administration. But we're not necessarily looking at a situation where Joe Biden is going to come in with a supermajority like Barack Obama. So with Joe Biden as president, you have to understand why the left doesn't feel like everything is going to be peachy keen, because fundamentally we're still going to be stuck in this same situation. And the fact that Joe Biden hasn't really even talked about policy proposals is an issue, right? It's a really big issue. We don't really know where he stands on healthcare. He says that he supports public option, but he came into the White House in 2008 saying he supported a public option and we didn't get a public option. They didn't even propose it. So that's why you've got to understand why young people are so frustrated, because even if liberals get what they want, we're still looking at a really grim situation. Now let's look at the other alternative where Donald Trump is reelected. I think this is probably the likely scenario, although COVID-19 has changed everything and Trump has bungled COVID-19, but his approval rating isn't as bad as it should be, which is astonishing to me. So Donald Trump, he gets another four years, will basically be in the same situation, albeit worse. We've kind of been on this downward trajectory into apocalypse, and that is four more years of absolutely no action when it comes to climate change. And not only that, what little progress we've made, he's going to try to undo it. Where we've made progress at the state level, Trump will try to undo that and challenge states. We're seeing this with his battle with California and their own CO2 emission regulations. So it's going to be bad if Donald Trump is elected. He most likely will be replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which gives conservatives a 6-3 majority. So any hope of maybe Roberts flipping and siding with liberals, that's gone, because it doesn't matter. They have a little bit of a cushion there. They can do what they want. They can repeal Roe V-Wade. They can do anything they want. Republicans can pass whatever legislation, however draconian it may be, and not worry about the Supreme Court overturning it. Whereas even if Bernie Sanders were elected president and he passed Medicare for All, we would have had to worry about them possibly overturning it. It would be a constant battle. So regardless of the outcome of this election cycle, we're not going to be in a good place. Now I will say that, I think objectively speaking, if you are a leftist then Joe Biden will do the least amount of harm. They're both horrible choices, but one is going to cause a little bit less destruction than the other. And you know, there's this line of thinking that, well, what if we just were really organized and we put pressure on Joe Biden? I mean, sure, that's a possibility, but the problem is that if Joe Biden were going to be responsive to the left, don't you think he would be listening to you now when he needs your vote? So if you want to be realistic about the situation, best case scenario, given the set of circumstances we have, is Joe Biden replaces Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But that's it. That's it. Now, you know, another benefit to ousting Donald Trump is that the prospect of war with Iran will largely be diminished. But the problem is that it will be diminished for another four to eight years, because another more competent Republican may come along and do what the party has wanted for decades now, war with Iran. So the problem that the left has with liberals and why the future looks so bleak is because everything that leads to wars, you know, the military industrial complex, everything that leads to economic insecurity, housing insecurity, these systems and institutions are not going to be dismantled and we're not even going to try to dismantle them. And everything that Joe Biden purports to be running on, what we know, you know, his criminal justice reform plan, he's literally undoing the harm that his policies caused in the first place. So the reason why with Bernie Sanders we felt hopeful is because even though we know Bernie Sanders is just one man, we're not expecting a utopian society after Bernie Sanders. But if we can show that social democracy, these types of policies are popular, then that could shift the Overton window more to the left. And that's really, really important. It's important because subsequent administrations in the Democratic Party know they have to adopt that line of thinking of Bernie Sanders if they want to be electable. That's what happened with FDR. But even Republicans wanted to challenge the status quo because FDR was that popular. So this wasn't necessarily a guarantee that Bernie would be as popular as FDR. Who knows, right? We didn't have Fox News back during the FDR days. But the point is that we would have been given a fighting shot. But with basically, you know, the coronation of Joe Biden as the nominee and with the prospect of him or Trump winning, that's why the left is so demoralized because fundamentally nothing will change. If Joe Biden beats Donald Trump, things are going to get a little bit better temporarily, right? He'll undo what Trump did temporarily. But everything he undoes will be undone by the next Republican. I mean, anything that Obama did that was good, Trump undid that. So we're going to go back and forth, back and forth. And over the course of time, things will get worse and worse and worse. And the problem is that whenever we think we've hit rock bottom, we go lower. Things get worse. Now we have a pandemic. So it's really frustrating. And I don't want to make this video to get everyone down and make them feel depressed. But we have to be realistic about what we're working with. We can't delude ourselves into thinking that Joe Biden is going to be good or even competent because I don't believe he will be good or competent if he beats Donald Trump. Well, okay, Trump's out of office. That's that's good. He's a psychopath. He's crazy. But at the end of the day, will Joe Biden actually change the country so we don't see another Donald Trump? No. Now, you know, some leftists may think, well, at least if Joe Biden loses, then, you know, we get to try again in four more years. But the problem with that is the damage that Trump causes in another four more years. I mean, it's it's going to be irreparable in some ways, right? Things that he does, we can undo them with a Democratic administration in the future. But a lot of what he does, you know, we can't, we can't undo that. Like when it comes to environmental degradation, we can't really undo that. We don't have another four more years to undo the progress that we've made when it comes to climate change. So it's not like things have to get worse before they get better. I genuinely don't agree that that is going to happen. Regardless of what happens, the outcome of this 2020 election, we're going to be in a bad place. And, you know, if you think that the left is going to have a better chance in 2024, the problem is that we have no leadership now. Bernie's not going to run again. So who's going to step up? Who's going to be that next left-leaning leader? What's probably going to happen is, you know, there's going to be that void that will need to be filled, but it's going to be filled by a corporate Democrat. There's going to be this vacuum left open, this space for left-wing politics in the Democratic Party. And we're going to see a charlatan like Obama come along and capitalize on it, but actually be a corporatist and not actually do anything to facilitate real change. And the reason why we could trust Bernie Sanders and that he would actually fight and not be a charlatan was because he has this 40-year track record. So the future, it looks grim. It looks bleak. But I think it's important that we're honest and open about this fact because if we lie to ourselves, then we're not really going to know what we're working with. If we misdiagnose the problems that we're dealing with, we're not going to be able to apply adequate solutions, right? If we delude ourselves into thinking we can tweet at Joe Biden to get him to adopt Medicare for All, we're never going to get Medicare for All. So the reason why I say this is to want to educate liberals who think that the left is just being babies and we're just butthurt because our guy lost. Now, this wasn't about Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders was a vessel for our ideas. That's all he was. That's it. So sure, we're mad that he didn't win, but this isn't just about our team losing. This goes deeper than that. This is about our future. And a lot of us don't feel like we have that. So that's part of the reason we need to educate people about where we're coming from. And I don't speak for everyone, but I mean, I can only speak for myself, but this is what a lot of leftists believe that the situation sucks either way. And another reason why I'm making this video is because if we know what we're working with, if we actually are realistic and we assess the situation, clear-eyed, not with rose-colored glasses about what could be and we know what we're getting, then we can, I think, be more effective in organizing. The best thing we can get out of a Biden administration that will last for a while is an RGB replacement. He gets to fill that seat if it becomes vacant. But aside from that, you know, we're not going to be able to convince him to adopt progressive policies. So within this time, we have to be real and think deeply about what we need to do as a collective to build power. And I'm not talking about, you know, just increasing our voices being louder. I'm talking about actually building power and not squandering what little leverage we have. So this is kind of an open-ended discussion. I can't, you know, concisely tell you what we need to do because I genuinely don't know. And this is a time where we should all be introspective. But what I am saying is that, one, we have to be realistic about what we're working with in a Joe Biden administration or a Trump administration. But either way, we're going to have to fight and we've got our work cut out for us. But what's most important about all of this is not that you take all of this as, you know, permission to give up. Because, oh, well, Mike says everything is bleak. Let's just check out a politics. No, not at all. That's not what I want you to take away from this. I want you to take away from this that the future has not yet to be written. It's not here yet, right? So we're currently headed down this really dangerous path. The trajectory that we're on looks bad. But guess what? We still, believe it or not, have time to change that. And it doesn't matter if Donald Trump or Joe Biden becomes president. Our actions shouldn't change, right? I mean, I'm not saying it doesn't matter like they're the same. Again, don't want to perpetuate a false equivalency. But what I'm saying is it doesn't matter insofar as the left, you know, decides what action we need to take because irrespective of what happens, whatever the outcome may be of 2020, we have to be united as lefties. And we have to be really organized. And I think more savvy going forward to actually become powerful and get the policies that we want implemented into law. Now, however we do that, I think we've got to think this through. But don't get down, get organized and really fight. That's what's really important. So, you know, I honestly don't know why I made this video. I wanted to kind of like give people who are libs this perspective, because I'm seeing people on, at least in my social circles, you know, on my Facebook timeline saying, oh, these Bernie bros, they're so insufferable. They won't stop crying because their guy lost. But it's that's such an oversimplification and it's gross, right? Because that's not what this is about. That's, I don't care, right? I'm not loyal to any one politician or party. I'll switch allegiance, you know, like that if I can get the policies that I want codified into law. And if, you know, we get in this situation, that's not possible. But you know, hear me out if hypothetically Joe Biden becomes president and he starts, you know, going crazy passing Medicare for all legalizing marijuana. I'll switch allegiance. I don't care. This isn't about Joe Biden versus Bernie Sanders. I just want policies implemented into law that will help people. That's all I want. That's all I'm looking for. I'm easy to please, I think, right? Because it's not about party. It's not about politicians. It's about policies. And that's really what I try to center myself on, you know, as personality driven as American politics can be. So I thought maybe this can be helpful for people who don't have that perspective, who don't know what millennials are dealing with. And also I thought, you know, it would be important for the left to really acknowledge what we're going to be working with because I don't want you to think that if Joe Biden is elected, everything is going to be peachy keen. But I also don't want you to think that, you know, if Donald Trump is reelected, oh, we're just going to try again and we'll definitely win in four years. You know, things don't often go according to plan. You know, my plan was for Bernie to get elected. Second time we're stronger. We know more. We can use what we learned from 2016 to get them elected in 2020. People change. Things change. And you know, a lot of things will be different in 2024. So don't bank on that. Don't only bank on electoral politics. But what I do know is going forward, try to be more savvy and try to realistically look at the situation that we're in so you know how to respond appropriately. And that's really all that I can say.