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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDisabled Protesters Just Showed Senate Democrats How It's Done
Friday, June 23, 2017
By Kelly Hayes, Truthout | Op-Ed
Source: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/41049-disabled-protesters-just-showed-senate-democrats-how-it-s-done
In a moment that profoundly encapsulated what the Trumpcare is all about, more than 40 people, including disabled protesters, were dragged from a Senate office hallway in Washington, DC on Thursday, leaving streaks of blood on the hallway floor. The scene was deeply disturbing, but it's one we should all feel compelled to confront, because it is the truth of what 24 million people could be up against, as of next week.
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So, as we make demands of the senators who have a voice in what happens next, let's remember to demand that they also answer these tough questions, both in words and in action. After watching those disabled individuals being dragged from their wheelchairs, chanting as they were hauled from their legislative halls of decision, the question screaming in my mind was both rageful and clear: Where are the Democratic senators who have proudly dubbed themselves "The Resistance"?
Last year, Democratic Congress members sat in on the House floor in an effort to bring a law about gun control to a vote, in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting. The bill at issue would have had no significant impact on gun violence in the US, but the gesture was nonetheless applauded as having signified that our elected representatives were "doing something."
It's time to make clear that the broad category of "something" is not enough.
Stating one's position in opposition to Trumpcare is not enough.
Symbolically holding the Senate floor on Monday was not enough.
Voting against the bill is not enough.
These senators have the opportunity to throw themselves in the path of what's coming, and they should be held to a standard of resistance that is commensurate with the harm with which we are all being threatened.
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This is a now or never moment for the Democratic Senate. I don't care whether they break every rule of decorum and comity; in fact, they should. The Republicans are trying to cull the herd, and they view every one of us as lame cattle.
-app
napi21
(45,806 posts)All those Pubs are up for election in 2018 and the MIST IMPORTANT thing in the world to them is keeping their seat! State wide opposition will make enough of them scared to vote for that piece of sh*t!
appal_jack
(3,813 posts)and hopefully leadership in DC.
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appal_jack
(3,813 posts)NobodyHere
(2,810 posts)appal_jack
(3,813 posts)A couple of dozen disabled activists seizing the headlines of the nation even for a brief moment is pretty impressive in my book. Without much money, many connections, or serious power, these activists effectively placed themselves as roadbumps to the Republicans' assault on them and all of us.
The point of the article is that Democratic Senators do have money, connections, and power. Being roadbumps is not a sufficient act of resistance for them. They need to do all they can. Obtain and leak the Trump pee tape, name the prostitutes that Repub Senators visit, expose the bribes: whatever it takes.
-app
napi21
(45,806 posts)Pub bills BECAUSE they are afraid of not getting elected in 2018. We don't need a lot of candidates to back away, and we'll get the bills to fail. That's the foal ya know.