Snowflake, Jeff Fortenberry (NE-D1) took to Fox news today to cry about a piece of cardboard “laced with profanity” left in his yard last week by the Nebraska chapter of Betsy Riot.
This hiding behind your kids shit is so fucking fake and cowardly. The outrage, hyperbole, the shock, and the horror that “norms of decency are breaking down,” is such utter bullshit in the age of Trump. It’s funny how Fortenberry’s daughter’s ACTUAL TEARS over Trump misogyny had NO IMPACT on his support for Trump or his 100% pro-Trump voting record since then. The horror expressed in thousands of phone calls from his constituents have had zero impact on his unwavering support of all of Trump’s policies. But some made up story about how frightened an 11 year old is over a non-threatening non-violent sign that uses the word . . . shit (gasp!) is worth a 5 minute interview on Fox news. Somebody call a waaaaambulance for Fortenbaby.
Jeff Fortenberry thought he could vote to protect his children’s health care while voting to take it away from millions of people including his constituents. He hides out, he is never in his office, he has had 1 town hall that was laughably short where he literally wouldn’t give his constituents a place at the mic, and then he is surprised when people bring it home?
Now Jeff Fortenberry is finally as outraged as his constituents, not because he is losing his healthcare or his kids are in danger, but because his kids now know what at least 1 of his constituents thinks of him. And it isn’t good, they think he is a shithead and a traitor for siding with his party and hurting the constituents he is supposed to represent. And his daughters know, once again, that he is a giant baby.
Larger Questions
When I posted about this last week before national media picked it up, I had some commenters question whether this is effective and if so, at what? My response:
- It got his attention, and the attention of Sasse and Bacon.
- It started a lot of conversations in our local Indivisible groups and around dinner tables about what is appropriate and inappropriate civil disobedience.
- It allowed A LOT of people to express their anger over the fact that they are not being HEARD, despite tens of thousands of phone calls, protests and marches.
- And, it sounds like Fortenberry is ready to listen to his constituents for once, at least based on his begging for civil discourse and dialogue on Fox news. This should solve his problem because if he listened to constituents and held more town halls, people wouldn’t feel so desperate to find him at home.
One final outcome, gauging from the response on the Betsy Riot page, it helped them to recruit more broadly for the resistance. This breaks social norms, but it is non-violent and it inspires many of us to step out of our comfort zones and think more creatively about protesting. At least it did me.
Go Betsy!