I want to offer up my candidate to you.
I know probably not a lot of you are thinking about Martin O’Malley right now. Since Trump’s victory, you are more likely thinking of your friends and loved ones. You are more likely worrying about the future and what it holds for our country. However, I will give you one quick reason why I am thinking about Martin O’Malley right now, and offer that you join me:
Martin O’Malley is the Anti-Trump, and I want him to lead our party as DNC Chair.
On Wednesday morning, I reexamined NPR's Article about Donald Trump’s plan for his first 100 days in office and I noticed three major things about what the next four years hold: 1) Immigrants are in trouble, 2) Our climate change plans will not be fulfilled, and 3) Racism is about to become more rampant than ever.
The next thing I noticed was that these three issues are the exact three issues I loved most about Governor O’Malley’s campaign; thus, leading to my realization that he is the Anti-Trump. I want to highlight these issues for you to show why Martin O’Malley is exactly who we need to lead our party during a Trump presidency.
1. Immigration
In addition to the “build the wall” chants, Donald Trump plans remove the over 2 million “criminal illegal immigrants” from our country, implement an “extreme vetting” process for anyone coming into our country, and cut federal funding to all sanctuary cities.
Governor O’Malley has had a career about as far from that as you can get. He has always been a proponent of making the immigration process easier as well as protecting New American Immigrants. He has lead by example on this issue, making Maryland the first state to pass the DREAM act and help undocumented immigrants pursue higher education.
My favorite motif from Governor O’Malley’s campaign, “the enduring symbol of our country is not the barbed wire fence… it is the Statue of Liberty,” is the exact message we need to hear at a time like this, and Governor O’Malley lives it every day.
2. Climate Change
Regarding climate change, Trump has promised to disregard the Paris Agreement, ignore the opportunities of renewable energy, and increase our country’s dependence on coal and oil. Governor O’Malley, however, was the most progressive presidential candidate on climate change policy, vowing to strive for 100% clean energy by 2050. Similarly, Governor O’Malley believes in climate change as an opportunity to grow our economy by creating millions of new clean energy jobs.
3. Racial Equity through Criminal Justice Reform
Through all of Trump’s campaign, it has been easy to see the blatant racism that he both shows explicitly and incites in his supporters. While racism will not be solved by a single policy (are by policy alone, for that matter), our criminal justice system is a major tool for perpetuating racism in our country, and Governor O’Malley has the policies to mitigate that. He is invested in measures such as police body cameras, standard use of force regulations, and racial sensitivity training that will keep both our citizens and law enforcement safe from racially motivated violence. Further, his plans to abolish the death penalty, remove sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine, and end minimum sentencing will lessen some of the aspects of our criminal justice system that affect people of color disproportionately.
Governor O’Malley’s policies show that is exactly who we need leading our party. However, my argument extends beyond policy, as well. Looking back to the democratic primary, when Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were taking shots at each other, Martin O’Malley was taking shots too.
But he was taking them at someone else.
Donald Trump has always been Governor O’Malley’s primary target. It was finally brought to headlines during the November Democratic Debate when Governor O’Malley called Trump an “immigrant bashing carnival barker.” But I can tell you, as a loyal volunteer for his campaign, that Governor O’Malley has been attacking Trump in every speech since he launched his campaign two summers ago.
He wasn’t attacking Hillary Clinton. He wasn’t attacking Bernie Sanders. He was attacking Donald Trump — a candidate he never even got to run against — and he continued to fight him tooth and nail long after dropping out of the primary, using every opportunity he got to call him a fascist.
This is what I know I need right now. Someone who can bring us together in our time of need. Someone who can lead a party terrified for our country’s future. Governor O’Malley is ready to motivate us to stand up for what we believe in during a time when what we believe in seems like it’s slipping away. We need the candidate who promised to “Rebuild the American Dream” and a time when that dream seems so dim.
So that is why I’m offering you Martin O’Malley, the Anti-Trump, for DNC Chair.