Tonight is going to be awful. A-W-F-U-L.
We are going to witness the coronation of the village idiot by many, including the hateful, the hypocritical, the scared and the selfish. We’re going to be exposed to the legitimization of his reign on America when the State of the Disunion is spewed tonight, and it will largely be written by his anti-immigrant adviser. The speech has not been released to the opposition, as was once customary. Yet, nothing about this ‘leadership’ follows custom, or appropriateness, or cordial form. It is an-us versus them regime, and everything tonight will be presented to highlight all of last year’s carnage against the people who don’t subscribe to Trump’s America. Tonight will be the recounting of the actions taken to restore the United States of 1840, instead of moving us to 2040.
We know there will be no mention of a sustained six year economic run; we know there will be no mention of the unacceptable increase of hate crimes against people of color; we know there will be no regard for Black Lives Matter, Me Too, or Women’s International Marches and racial healing. No mention of broken treaties, new trails of tears, no game plan for environmental degradation, no plan for educational excellence, no plan for coast to coast homelessness, no plan for restoring American standing in Asia, in Africa, in Europe, in the Middle East.
When you hear of tax cuts, you won’t hear of the 100,000 jobs recently slashed, instead of the millions promised with its passage. You won’t be told that the Obama economy provided the foundation for the stock market growth last year, just as it has since 2010. You won’t hear about the successful recovery in the Virgin Islands, or in Puerto Rico—because it never happened. You won’t hear about the 5 million people in immigration limbo because the…well because we don’t want any more colored people coming to America.
When your bulb is dulled out, the first thing you look for is a match to light the flame. But the light of this fiery match only illuminated the dullard, and in the end, the match burns out quickly and never assumed the light of a bulb. Even if you thought that we had a flickering light, it is still 100 times better than the match shining the way through darkness. And America, we have a wet matchbox of leadership right now.
There are many reasons not to sit and watch the buffoonery. We are going to hear lies and mistruths at an unprecedented level, and it may be enough to turn one’s stomach. I concede that. I also confess that I don’t anticipate watching any of this crap.
But I was not elected to Congress. It is my right to tune out, in the same way that I don’t follow every school board or televised City Council meeting in my city. It may be shallow; it may be a big cop out, in the way that 44% of Americans didn’t vote in November 2016—but it is my mulligan, and I am pretty damn sure I’m gonna use it. I hope that all of America takes a pass, and gives him the lowest ratings ever for any presidential address to the citizenry. I want the man who lives by ratings dies tonight like a Joanie Loves Chachi spinoff series. I only hope that I can get a pass by encouraging thought amongst the other members in the resistance to the Empire.
I live in Oakland, one destination of misanthropic renegades who moved as far west in the outpost as they could to get acceptably pissed off and take a stand against American oppression, yet my Congressional representative is planning to take a personal day.
Too bad lady; it is your job. You make $174,000 a year to be there, and please don’t fool yourself in believing that you can be a rainy day Congressperson….you need to be there during times of hail and hell. You’re only in session 133 days, act like it matters.
How can Barbara Lee fight for me if she isn’t even in the arena? John Lewis cannot march against evil and then walk away from the halls of Congress. Maxine Waters cannot reclaim her time on my time; we pay her to be present. Of course we want to call it a sick day—it’s a sick day for all of America—but you don’t get to call it off.
The most important aspect of participation, of life, is showing up. Instead of giving America the chance to see a united Democratic Party in silence or irreverence of the sham, we are going to see the silence against the lies and empty chairs.
Unlike the rest of us, you actually get PAID to show up.
I am very angry about these leaders failing to lead. We need to show our children that you suck it up, you grit your teeth, but you never, ever back down from evil. Instead, we are illustrating quite nicely that if someone bullies you enough, you simply fail to complete your mission, and you literally give them the bully pulpit. You don’t get to throw your hands up in exasperation and simply walk away.
They’re just too old. Yes, Congresswoman Lee is 71; Congressmen Lewis is 77, Congresswoman Waters is 79—but that isn’t what I meant. Their outlook on what means to fight has gotten stale and crusty.
Your legislation is protest. Your speeches are defiance. Your grooming of new ideas and new leadership represents your best arguments against the policies and the policymakers. Since you won’t retire, it is clear you’re not developing the pathway for new leadership…but you’re now like a bad relationship: you won’t do right by me in staying, and you won’t let me have someone else by leaving. You want me to sit here in this mess of indifference, with you.
And you wonder why America is also very sick of Democrats…..it’s because you don’t show you have a spine, or a heart. We have walked with you down the road to the Emerald City, and instead of taking the heart transplant and securing it firmly in your chest, you dove out of the window and ran away when you needed to face the Grand Wizard. If you cannot bring yourself to fight the fight, move over. There are 300 people in your district that can better fight for me. You are a hired mercenary, and somewhere along the line you forgot that.
You think you are making a “statement.” What you are doing is allow the comedy show to go on without the heckler. The worst thing in the world for a comedian is to be playing in front of an audience that isn’t engaged. You are blowing this in so many ways I cannot stand it. He will be trumpeting that you couldn’t stand the narrative, and it will be true. His cronies will be saying what you illustrated by not showing up is cowardice and un-American; and it will also be true.
So please, get your butt in the hot seat tonight, or kindly take your ass out of office.
holowe 