A volunteer at the Democratic National Convention left the event knowing she would not be voting for Kamala Harris.
The woman, who introduced herself as Evan in another video, said that she left the DNC because it “sickened” her.
“I just got back from the DNC, where I signed up to volunteer. When I initially signed up to volunteer, Joe Biden was still the nominee; it wasn’t yet Kamala Harris. I’ve worked in progressive politics for a long time,” she said, explaining that she has “worked for many different Democratic candidates—Senate candidates, House candidates, and even some Democratic organizations.”
“As the years have gone by, I found myself getting more and more disillusioned with the Democratic Party, although until now, I’ve never said that out loud or anywhere public. I just want to say that by saying this, I’m not necessarily saying that the other party is better. I’m just giving you my experience working with the Democrats.”
“Throughout my career, I’ve mostly done campaign fundraising, so I’ve seen the way that it works behind the scenes. I know that candidates spend 8, 9, 10 hours a day just calling donors and begging rich people for money. It’s pretty much the only people that they talk to,” she continued, adding that the “majority of their time is spent calling and begging rich people to give them money for their campaigns. What this inevitably means is that we don’t actually live in a democracy; it’s just rich people calling the shots and having the access to talk to the politicians.”
“When I first got into politics, I thought that Democrats were the party of the people,” the woman added. “But at the DNC this week, I felt like I was in a building with the most elite and out-of-touch people in the entire world. It very much felt like, ‘Let’s just have a huge party and forget all of our problems because the vibes are good.’”
When I was there, I didn’t feel any connection to real America or the place that I come from, which is the Midwest—Kansas City, Kansas, and Missouri. I didn’t feel any connection to the people that I know right now who are struggling to buy their groceries or pay their rent. The people who want to know what both candidates are going to do to materially affect change in their lives.”
She explained that while she listened to the speeches at the DNC, she felt herself becoming “mad” because she “didn’t hear anything about the economy—definitely not in Kamala’s speech, and not very much in the others as well.”
“Instead, I heard generic platitudes, things like ‘joy,’ ‘respect,’ and ‘integrity. What does that even mean? ‘Let’s make the military the most lethal in the world.’ I thought I was part of the anti-war party. I thought I was part of the party that fought for the underdog, that championed working people. When and how did we just become the party of academia, anemia, and affluence? Because that’s what we are right now.”
“How can we ever say that we’re going to fight corporate power or give a voice back to those communities that have been left behind when above the delegates on the floor and levels and levels and rings of suites were donors in corporations that were literally looking down on the people below from above?” the volunteer said. “That’s what Chris Cuomo said and he’s absolutely right.”
She noted that she went to the DNC “hoping that I would feel reconnected to the Democratic Party, that I would have more of a sense of understanding of Kamala and her candidacy and what she stood for.” Instead, she “ended up leaving feeling the opposite—more disconnected and alone than ever.”
At the end of her video, she declared, “I don’t think I can support Kamala Harris for president. I don’t even know if I can call myself a Democrat anymore. I don’t know who I’m going to support, but I know it’s not her.”
