There is one cardinal rule in my family: You mess with one of us, and you have messed with all of us. Period.
We are all glib wordsmiths and naturally snarky, and intra-family ribbing is not only tolerated but celebrated -- as it was, happily, this past Fourth of July weekend in Vermont, where we were lucky enough to be together. We can rib each other with impunity, but no outsider, not anyone, may rib one of us without having the others join in universal condemnation. We are loyal to each other, to a fault.
And that’s a good thing.
And so, tonight, I am outraged in my dear Mom’s stead, at the United States Senate. She is 78 years old. She is a proud American who is the widow, daughter and daughter-in-law of military men who served this country with honor. She is a formerly lifelong Republican (albeit one who has always been pro-choice and actually compassionate) who willingly abandoned her party allegiance over stem-cell research and voted for Al Gore in 2000. And since 2000, and her conversion, my formerly lifelong Republican Mom has become an activist in her own terms. And she has tried to remain optimistic.
Tonight, a portion of that optimism was drained out of her. And I saw it being done. And I am mad.
It happened during Countdown tonight. Rachel Maddow had Constitutional lawyer Jonathan Turley on as a guest, and he said this:
Link.
(h/t BentLiberal)
(h/t pgm01 who, as BentLiberal points out, supplied the code!)
I am mad because people I donated money to are supporting the shredding of the Constitution I love and revere. I am mad because I do not understand why people I supported and donated to elect are caving in to the Bush Administration ~ and allowing this most corrupt and immoral and evil of Administrations to get away with what is clearly illegal (felonious) behavior. We elected you why?
And I am most mad because I had to watch my 78-year-old stiff-upper-lipped Yankee Mom get so upset tonight that she was practically in tears. This is not right. And I will not forget it.