We’re Not Family — And I Don’t Owe You a Dime

A plainspoken rebuke of political performance, unsolicited asks, and faux kinship in campaign season.

Author’s Note: I did not write this in anger — I wrote it in clarity.

Last night at 9:30 p.m., while I was relaxing with my family after dinner, an unsolicited campaign message from a US Senator lit up my phone.

I’m thinking to myself: I never opted in to your solicitation. Not yours — or the dozens of others that arrive weekly from candidates I’ve never heard of, running in races I didn’t vote in, from districts I don’t live in. It’s one more glaring sign of how little you’ve done to protect privacy or preserve a democracy that values consent. Instead, you exploit it.

Because while this country is burning at the hands of extremists, what we get from those claiming to oppose them is a flood of donation links, hashtag-ready speeches, and email subject lines beginning with “family.”

Let’s stop right there.

We are not family. You don’t know me. And I don’t need a distant politician — not even from my state — trying to access my wallet by pretending we’re blood relations. That language is manipulative, and in this moment, it’s downright creepy.

Family shows up. Family sacrifices. Family doesn’t disappear when things are hard and reappear with a smile and an ask.

What you’re offering isn’t leadership — it’s nostalgia wrapped in self-preservation. You’re not rallying the people. You’re branding a campaign.

You speak of “turning points” and “right versus wrong,” — but where have you been? Where were you when it mattered — when your party had power and chose caution? When you had the floor, you chose silence — until you emerged after a three-month hiatus (I presume somewhere in a monastery for non-repentant Democrats) to grandstand in a filibuster.

If only that energy had been used for something helpful to the people rather than your standing in the party. You want voters to stand with you — but you’ve spent months standing down.

We are tired of being emotionally extorted every election cycle. Tired of moral speeches being the warm-up act to a fundraising plea. Tired of having our belief in democracy held hostage by a party structure more committed to maintaining its position than using it with principle.

And yes, I understand that in Black communities, phrases like “what’s up fam” or “we’re family” have cultural currency. They’re rooted in survival, in shared struggle, in real kinship forged beyond blood.

But when that language is lifted by politicians who’ve been absent from the fight, who parachute in only during campaign season, and who live lives so far removed from everyday Americans — it stops being cultural. It starts being calculated.

Please. Don’t use the language of community when you haven’t built one. Don’t pretend proximity when all you’ve delivered is distance. It’s not just tone-deaf. It’s offensive.

We are not confused. We are not apathetic. We are not your donor base. We are the people. And we are watching.

So please. Miss us with the recycled speeches. Miss us with the feigned intimacy. And absolutely miss us with the fundraising emails that close with “with love and gratitude” after months of inaction.

You’ve done enough already.

Please. Stop. At least until you can both do better and be better.

—An American Still believing in democracy. No longer believing in you.

✍🏽 This piece is part of a broader conversation unfolding here at: The Margins & The Mirror — a digital space for slow thinking, principled reflection, and unapologetic truth-telling. If this resonated with you, share it, comment below, or follow @robinwrites2025 to stay connected as we build something deeper than politics: community, conscience, and clarity.