There’s not much question about why Rachel Maddow is the best thing on the air in any time slot right now. It’s not just the way that she’s kicking ass on the Russia investigation, constantly finding little corners to dig in that nobody else has noticed, it’s everything that she does, and the unique, human perspective that she puts on it.
Rachel had her usual stellar show last night, but there was one segment that made me stop and really think, which I hate to do since it’s so painful for me. The segment featured two regular people, not trained activists, not talking heads, you and me. David Emerson is represented by GOP pond scum named McClintock in CA, and Andrea Mitchell is represented by a bottom feeder named Faso in NY.
Emerson spoke passionately at a town hall about his wife, who had two artificial heart valves surgically implanted over the last few years, and was caught on cell phone video. He explained to McClintock that without the medications the ACA provides, she would die. Emerson even spelled her name and told McClintock to look for her obituary if he voted for the bill. With Mitchell it was slightly different, it was an outdoor setting, up close, and she spoke to Faso about her own condition, and the necessity of the treatments the ACA provided for. Her encounter was also caught on cell phone video. Strong stuff.
The reactions of the congressmen were stunning in their differences. McClintock stood there on stage, microphone at waist level, nodding his head and wondering where to stop for lunch, he couldn’t have cared less. Faso, maybe because of the closer quarters was different, he nodded his head, spoke to her, twice leaned forward to hug her, and whisper in her ear. He stood there on the street and promised to protect her. Both assholes voted yesterday to gut the ACA and let their constituents die.
There’s an old adage in politics, “Politics has a short memory”. Normally, that’s true. That’s why an “October surprise” in June may not matter much, too much other stuff can happen to make people forget it. And that’s exactly what the Republicans are counting on right now, “politics as usual”, the sheeple have lives, they’ll forget all of this. But there’s one major difference this time.
This isn’t politics, these are people. There were more than 200 people in the town hall meeting that Emerson spoke at. People came up to him in church and said “I saw you on TV man”. The same thing with Andrea Mitchell, there were other people there, and both videos went viral, both got on national news. Their friends saw it, their neighbors saw it, other people in the district who don’t even know them, but know their congressman saw it. This isn’t “politics as usual”, this is friends, neighbors, coworkers, church members, and people are not going to forget it.
And it isn’t just these two people, in NY and CA. How many other different videos have you seen on the news, with emotional pleas for self or loved ones, explaining the importance of this one act. And it’s all over the country. What about all of the town halls with the same emotional pleas that didn’t make the 6 o’clock news, but happened just the same. In some town halls there were over 1,000 people, and they all heard those stories and pleas. And they’ll remember. The Democratic ads will help them to remember. Remember that one moving, noble moment, when one literally begs for the life of another. Remember the friend, remember the neighbor, remember all of the other people at that town hall that mean more to them than their stupid congressman does.
So, go ahead you soulless dickheads, hold your senseless little victory lap, fluff The Donald, whistle as you walk past that dark graveyard, it’s OK. Celebrate the years long struggle of tax cuts for the rich over the right to life of the rest of us, it’s OK. We remember. And we vote. And next November, when you’re putting all of the shit from your desk into a cardboard box to take down to the car, you can look once again at that stupid fucking Rose Garden selfie taken yesterday, and fondly remember “the good old days”. And know it was the beginning of the end.
Here is the Rachel segment from last night, the best ten minutes you’ll spend all day.