What Kamala Harris needs most right now is us. Not just a cheerleading team, or our pledged support for the Biden/Harris ticket, but all of us. As a Black/Indian woman in politics, she has had to make ugly calculations and compromises with entrenched power. An Afro and a fist in the air weren’t going to get her where she wanted to go. She couldn’t have succeeded if she had acted like Bernie Sanders. She couldn’t even have succeeded if she had acted like Elizabeth Warren. I’m not apologizing for the harm caused by some of her stances. It is impossible to participate in that level of the state legal system and not get any blood on your hands. But Kamala Harris doesn’t need our forgiveness. She needs us. She needs us to build strong movements that can fight for justice. We want that scene where she tells some Wall Street guy: “There are a million people in the streets, Bob. What do you expect me to tell them. Try again next week? No way. I don’t care how many donor checks you write. I’m accountable to the people who elected me.”

Sure, we wanted a savior. Someone who was going to come in with fully realized clarity and boldness and stand up to the corporate and tech and billionaire bullies. We wanted someone who wasn’t compromised by or beholden to the Democratic machine. We wanted Sanders. We wanted Warren. We didn’t get them. We got a pair of people with big baggage who need work. We need to build power to make sure we can push them to do what needs to be done.

They also need us to stop attacking them. Picking Kamala Harris shows that Biden can evolve. Marching with the Movement for Black Lives shows that Harris can evolve. Not attacking them in the moment where they need to oust Tr*mp is how we show that we as progressives can evolve.

The decision not to attack is not the same as unconditional support. But consider this: when we are critical, can we temper it? Are we speaking for the benefit of the larger world or is it just something we need to get off our own chests? Is it a blog post or a personal journal entry? A podcast comment or a phone call venting to a friend?

I am on the record as being highly critical of both of them, but that was before it was solidified that they were our team to go up against Tr*mp. Back the team, people. Because if things go right for us, if we have the most progressive congress and Dems in the White House, we can really take some huge steps toward social justice in this country. We can win a Green New Deal. We can defund police. We can make The Breathe Act a reality.

We were deeply disappointed by Obama. But we need to have learned from our mistake. We didn’t build the movements needed to push him. In order to get a different outcome, we need to take a different stance. Are we bitter, jaded, determined to cast doubt on every ray of hope. Or can we grow up and do what we need to do to get the world we need and deserve? The first step is electing them, and it is NOT going to be easy. Time to pull up our big kid drawers and get to work.

The Daily Dose’s Friday news roundup will be back next week.