I might point with an extraordinarily enthusiastic finger at Lori Lightfoot: Gay, Black, Female, MAYOR, Chicago. After the Daly machine. After Rohm Emmanuel. Are we as Americans as fed up as Chicagoans, who elected her by a landslide?

By a landslide. That’s one of the most powerful political statements this year. While it remains to be seen how well she’ll do, for my part as an aging, white Left-leaning Independent woman with Democratic roots (and all the attendant disappointment that entails, to your article), I will stand for anyone who will begin the sorely-needed, complete and total rewrite of American politics.

When I was in my late twenties, a pretty and shapely woman who was around several Presidential campaigns, more than one candidate did his best to take advantage of me. After too many rapes by senior officers, I wasn’t so goddamned innocent anymore. If we want something to fundamentally change, we have to fundamentally change the candidates. PERIOD.

I am not against a candidate by virtue of age. I have a problem with candidates infected by values that do not reflect the times. I no longer care who runs, what color, gender, makes no difference. I care that they are a product of long personal study, heartbreak, loss, and the kind of abuse that being an outsider teaches you. Like, being a person of color. Like, being a person of differing persuasions. Like, being a minority or an immigrant or someone not steeped in privilege. I have compassion for Biden and Bernie’s failings, but they will, by definition, fail us. They will default to what they feel they feel is right — which is no longer right for America.

I may not be alive by the time America experiences a real Renaissance. If it took this pig-led administration to get it started, it was worth it. If my votes can move us towards one, count me in.