I saw another congressional candidate posted in the Wholesome Bernieposting Facebook group, a nationwide group with 4,032 members. I submitted this for review. I’m not sure if they will allow the fundraising pitch but I will remove it if not.
I’m a progressive Democrat running for Congress in Florida’s 6th district. I’m endorsed by Volusia for Bernie and Our Revolution: Volusia and endorse Medicare for All and a Green New Deal.
A little about me:
Dr. Richard Thripp is a 28-year-old husband, father, and university instructor who is running for Congress as a progressive Democrat in Florida’s 6th district which centers around Daytona Beach, where Richard was born and raised. He advocates for expanding Medicaid as a step toward Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and a universal basic income. Richard has a team of volunteers behind him to flip the 6th district blue, which suffers widespread poverty, low-wage jobs, and a tenuous tourism economy that has been left behind by Republican leadership.
About this race:
Defeating Rep. Michael Waltz in November 2020 is like blowing up the Death Star. Nobody thinks we have a snowball’s chance in hell. When we succeed, it will be like dropping an atomic bomb on the Republi-con party. This is Governor Ron DeSantis’s former district, after all.
Here’s a little fundraising pitch I wrote today… I can remove this if that’s not allowed here. I need volunteers, too. I already have a team of volunteers including a rockstar campaign manager and local Bernie supporters. I’m in touch regularly with my predecessor (Ambassador Nancy Soderberg) and all of the local Democratic leadership.
When Ambassador Soderberg lost #FL06 in 2018, she left behind a power vacuum.
A 28-year-old teacher educator is now the shoo-in for the Democratic nomination.
Robbery, Lies, Race-Baiting, Trumpism, & Its Victims—Blacks, Seniors, the Disadvantaged—President Trump & Rep. Michael Waltz Must Go—Rise Up & Resist Before It’s Too Late—Vote Richard Thripp for Congress
May 9, 2020
The victims of Rep. Michael Waltz, President Trump, Trumpism, and the subjugation and perversion of the Republican party are numerous. Many victims are paying the ultimate price, after having been victimized so many times before. Hard-working families, including downtrodden people of color in midtown Daytona Beach, Eustis, DeLand. Seniors in nursing homes and assisted living facilities who are falling ill and dying from a cruel, capricious virus that could so easily have been subdued just 3 months ago. Aspiring homeowners in Deltona, barely scraping by trying to live the American dream—now facing unemployment, foreclosure, bankruptcy, destitution, hunger, and homelessness, while being chided by monsters like Rep. Michael Waltz and Sen. Rick Scott for their sense of “entitlement” and “laziness.”
Rep. Michael Waltz, as instructed by his overlords, is going on an anti-Chinese anti-Asian race-baiting tour. Here are some actual quotes I transcribed watching Rep. Michael Waltz live on Fox News at 1:30 PM today, Saturday, May 9, 2020:
There’s over 400,000 Chinese students in our universities as we speak
The Chinese government forces them to vacuum up our technology
The other piece is actually recruiting American professors
These professors are taking hundreds of billions of dollars into their universities
And then going and moonlighting over at Beijing’s universities
My legislation seeks to stop both
This, of course, is deflection, propaganda, grand exaggeration by several orders of magnitude. I, Richard Thripp, am a Chinese American born in Daytona Beach whose mother fled China after Tiananmen Square. I’m a progressive Democrat. I’ll be Waltz’s only opposition on the ballot for Florida’s 6th congressional district on November 3, 2020. I know we can do so much better.
While working on my Education PhD at University of Central Florida, I met and worked with wonderful PhD students in our college and the College of Engineering and Computer Science from China, Nepal, Serbia, Turkey, and Iran. They are kind, caring people seeking a better life, solving important problems, working around the clock on their coursework, teaching, research, and dissertations. One fellow Chinese student, in particular, brought his wife and daughter here—and got separated when they returned to China at the onset of what would become the COVID-19 pandemic. When you ostracize and incite hatred toward international students, you hurt everyone. That’s not tough. That’s not leadership.
What is Waltz’s motivation?
Waltz is race-baiting, seeking to gin up support and curry favor with the Republican National Committee and other GOP funding groups that favor right-wing extremist rhetoric. Mentored by Vice President Dick Cheney, Waltz personifies everything that’s wrong with our country. He wants to move up, to be in charge of the Space Force—his carpetbagging “representation” of Florida’s 6th district is just a stepping stone—as is his bombastic and outlandish rhetoric.
He’s also deflecting. We have learned that a Republican strategy memo directs politicians to attack China and place all the blame on the Chinese for 80,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United States of America.
This, of course, is preposterous. Don’t worry—there’s plenty of blame to go around, including for China. Chinese citizens are primarily victims of an authoritarian regime which has significantly worsened under Chairman Xi. At the same time, in the USA the Trump administration’s malevolent incompetence, malfeasance, and corruption continues unabated.
Even now, Trump’s struggle against reality continues, and we are all victims of it. He fires scientists who tell the truth. Jared Kushner, a perennial crook and failure, has been put in charge—just one of many egregious examples of nepotism, cronyism, and corruption.
The entire world—for the first time—pities us. We have the best technology companies, unparalleled prosperity, tremendous resources and expertise, and we had plenty of warning time. We were uniquely positioned to contain COVID-19 early—yet we failed miserably, and the failure continues, day by day, as American corpses pile up. Instead of taking responsibility and showing decisive leadership, what we are getting from Trump and his coterie of Republican lackeys, including Rep. Waltz, is a whitewash filled with lies, deflection, and race-baiting.
Rep. Waltz caters to conspiracy theorists and people amenable to white supremacist rhetoric. Fawning commentators on his social media postings—a small, but clamorous group—feel a strong bond with Waltz for his anti-Chinese, pro-Trump, anti-minority, anti-“socialism” rhetoric. Waltz appears on small radio stations constantly, sometimes local, sometimes hundreds of miles from his district, peddling this garbage with hosts even more boorish than Rush Limbaugh. Nationally, he appears only on Fox News—Fox News–Fox News—incessantly—unceasingly—a poster boy for Trump and Trumpism, despite appearing in a PAC-funded attack ad to warn the American people about Donald Trump in 2016, saying “Don’t let Trump fool you. Look into his real record, and stop Trump now.” Our memory is very short, and scarcely anyone notices or cares.
“There’s the track baby. Daytona 500. Air Force One, buzzing the towers. That’s America. Air Force One, buzzing the towers, Daytona 500.” That’s Rep. Waltz on February 16, 2020, flying up with Trump on Air Force One (he’s Trump’s favorite congressman) from Mar-a-Lago on their way to Washington, DC, to appear at NASCAR’s Daytona 500 race at the Daytona International Speedway, triumphantly “exonerated” in his senatorial “trial.” “Four more years!” they chanted at Trump’s ridiculous State of the Union address less than a fortnight before. This was the high water mark for Trump, Trumpism, and all his coattail-riding nincompoop followers like Rep. Waltz, Governor DeSantis, and so many others.
A New York Times report says the estimated cost of the change over 10 years is $170 billion.
One real estate mogul told me that he cracked open the champagne beside the pool the day the CARES Act was passed by Congress.
“Some people are going to get very rich out of this.”
Remember, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, and Michael Waltz chide you for laziness. They want you to beg for crumbs like unemployment benefits, economic impact payments, and PPP loans—and to feel ashamed for receiving anything. Meanwhile, these same Republican “leaders” insisted on a $170 billion giveaway to the rich in the CARES Act, a gift of $1.6 million per capita to 43,000 American millionaires, and countless trillions more in corporate welfare and “socialism” for the rich who need it least.
RISE UP AND RESIST.
THIS IS THE GREATEST ROBBERY OF THE U.S. TREASURY IN MODERN HISTORY.
THEY ARE ROBBING US BLIND WHILE AMERICANS DIE.
They want us divided, fighting each other instead of uniting against them.
Don’t let them win. We must be unified. We must focus on the big fish.
Vote like your life depends on it—because it does.
If we let Republicans lie, rob, and cheat their way to victory in 2020, there won’t be an America left to fight for.
When their done killing our countrymen and raping and pillaging our country, there will be nothing left.
Vote Richard Thripp for Florida’s 6th congressional district.
Dr. Richard Thripp is a 28-year-old husband, father, and university instructor who is running for Congress as a progressive Democrat in Florida’s 6th district which centers around Daytona Beach, where Richard was born and raised. He advocates for expanding Medicaid as a step toward Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and a universal basic income. Richard has a team of volunteers behind him to flip the 6th district blue, which suffers widespread poverty, low-wage jobs, and a tenuous tourism economy that has been left behind by Republican leadership.
Richard is endorsed by Volusia for Bernie and Our Revolution: Volusia and has joined Bernie Sanders in endorsing Joe Biden for President of the United States.
We sent this email out on May 6, 2020 to over 13,000 registered Democrats in Florida’s 6th district as an official campaign kick-off email.
Thank you all for your support, and to my volunteer Campaign Manager Emily Humphrey for designing/developing our new website, ThrippForCongress.com, and doing the technical work to make this possible! Great things are ahead.
We’ve had a great response to this announcement. Although we’ve suggested a $6 contribution for the 6th district, in the past 2 days we’ve had donations of $10, $25, $50, and $100 come in, as well as monthly recurring donations for $10 and $12, from voters all around the district. Thank you so much!
I am not taking a salary, and everyone is a volunteer in this campaign. We are not hiring consultants or paying for expensive software or platforms. We are investing when it’s needed, but we’re being very frugal about it and doing a lot with just a little. Your contribution is guaranteed to go far in the Richard Thripp for Congress campaign.
Dear friend,
These are troubling times, and the Government has failed you. With an uncertain future in environmental protection, health care, and the economy, we can’t afford inaction anymore. You deserve a leader who’ll fight for our community and solve the problems we face every day.
My name is Richard Thripp, and I am asking for your support. We stand on the cusp of a generational election that’ll shape our community forever. My experience in finance and education means I have the skills to right the ship.
I cannot do this without you, however. Politics is a group activity, and it takes a community to demand the change they need. I promise you — I won’t be caught unprepared. If you can match my fervor with a donation of $6 for the 6th district, we can start this campaign off right.
Thank you,
Richard Thripp
Democratic Candidate for Congress in Florida’s Sixth District
I am a Democrat but I am pro-life. I believe abortion is murder. But I believe pro-life goes beyond that. Every life every age is important to support. I feel like Republicans support the unborn and Democrats support after birth. It’s a dilemma for me.
My response:
May 7, 2020
Hi there,
I would emphasize that Democratic proposals will actually reduce the number of abortions, which per capita are already lower than around the time of Roe v. Wade. If you open up funding for contraception, that’s going to cut down on abortions. If you expand Medicaid in Florida, that will cut down on abortions (although pregnancy often opens access to Medicaid, good healthcare should start before pregnancy). If you raise the minimum wage, offer maternal (and paternal!) leave, and increase funding for education, that will cut down on abortions (and improve employee retention and productivity). If you lift people out of poverty and reduce homelessness, that will cut down on abortions.
These are all policies that Republicans rail against. Democratic policies tend to value life at all ages. We certainly do not suggest sacrificing lives to save the economy as is being suggested with COVID-19—which, by the way, is a false dichotomy. You have to control the virus before you can restore the economy, and the policies we are seeing now will kill tens of thousands more Americans and wreck the economy far worse and for far longer.
I, too, used to be against abortion. However, I’ve learned that there is more to this issue that does not neatly boil down to a soundbite. It’s actually extremely presumptuous for men to have the loudest voice about abortion, and yet that’s what we see with our numerous white, wealthy, and well-connected male politicians such as Rep. Michael Waltz, who espouses “conservative values” (as a divorcee, no less) and endorsed a legal argument in Louisiana that would effectively ban abortions (except for the wealthy), despite never himself having experienced menstruation, pregnancy, nor possessing a uterus.
Furthermore, the idea that Republicans are pro-life and Democrats are pro-choice is totally bogus. It came about in the 1970s by political strategists, not organically. At the time, both parties were pro-choice and they at first thought they could get liberal Democrats to be pro-life being that they were already against the death penalty (Williams, 2011). It turned out that the Republican party was the party susceptible to being radicalized by this propaganda, much as they have now allowed themselves to be perverted, radicalized, and, ultimately, destroyed, by Donald Trump.
Worldwide, 90% of abortions occur before 13 weeks. Past neonatal research suggested fetuses cannot feel pain until 26 weeks of gestation, although newer research (Bellieni, 2019; Derbyshire & Bockmann, 2020) suggests fetuses might feel pain, at a primitive level, as early as 20–22 weeks. Morally, this is an important issue, and I can see why some would argue against abortions after this age, or for a requirement that the fetus be anesthetized. The 20-week sonogram is very important for revealing birth defects which might suggest abortion, for the mother’s life or because the baby and parents would have a difficult, costly, and painful life.
Personally, my wife and I have a 14-month old son and we were lucky enough to have 7 sonograms during her pregnancy for various reasons (initial, 12-week, gender, 20-week, two 3D ones, sizing). No one plans to have a baby in the middle of completing a PhD dissertation, but abortion is not for us. However, we also are in a strong financial position and were blessed with a completely healthy pregnancy and perfect baby boy. I do not think we should be dictating the choices of other expectant mothers, most of which do not have it so easy, particularly in Florida’s 6th congressional district which has low wages and high levels of poverty. Women in our district must travel to Orlando or Jacksonville and save up about $500 for an abortion. They may have to take off work and seek transportation and childcare from their partner, friends, or family. This is not something anyone takes lightly.
Sincerely, Richard Thripp, Ph.D. Progressive Democrat for U.S. Congress in Florida’s 6th District
Snippet for Twitter: How would you respond to a pro-life Democrat facing a dilemma? Look past ideology. Florida’s 6th district, particularly Volusia County, has been left behind.
