Folks, I love the drama. The Mooch Has Struck and Priebus, Spineless To The End, is under the bus. Serves him right. Meanwhile we have yet another General attached to the White House, which makes me nervous; but I digress.
The Health Care victory was huge. Tens of millions of Americans have been waiting in terror, dread and outright panic for the Republicans to shred the health care system, which they’d have succeeded in accomplishing had it not been for Democratic solidarity, including vulnerable Red State Dems; two brave Republican women and finally, the actually heroic John McCain who stopped the proceedings cold, which caused Mitch McConnell to scowl and be depressed which is awesome.
But let’s not ignore the other side of this coin, which is what Trump is up to when people aren’t looking — and that’s his continuing rants against immigrants in general, sanctuary cities, The Other, whoever we might be — gay, Mexican, trans, female, Muslim, Jewish, Democratic, or HRC; and indeed, the rule of law.
Today Trump made a trademark scatterbrained but truly poisonous speech in New York, to a crowd of police. He advocated violence and abuse against suspects, newly arrested suspects. Note a suspect isn’t a convicted criminal and even if he/she were, we have laws against abusing prisoners. Yet here we have an American president explicitly calling for increased police brutality, against a backdrop of police violence on the streets of American cities and towns.
nymag.com/…
This is really outrageous and it’s in line with his bullying, his awful campaign rallies in which he explicitly stirred up violence in the crowds, his chanting crowds practically orgasmic with the scent of blood. Do we need to revisit the 1930’s?
And, earlier today Dartagnan published this fantastic diary featuring a NYT piece by Sally Yates no less, detailing Trump’s would be assault on the Department of Justice, on the rule of law itself:
www.dailykos.com/…
I wanted to highlight this in the hope it would get more attention, because the threat to our Republic is explicit, it is real and it’s incredibly serious.
So, we can’t afford to take our eyes off the ball. We can’t afford to be dazzled to the point we don’t see what’s going on and when people as serious and educated and experienced as Sally Yates sound the alarm, we can’t afford to look the other direction for even a moment.
It’s time for us to call our reps again, Democratic, Republican and Independent, and express our indignation with these assaults on civic virtue and American values. The only thing separating our country from the average banana republic or dictatorship is our respect for the rule of law — not “law and order” as per Trump, the thug who thinks militarized police a la Ferguson are the max — but truly, respect for justice, respect for liberty and an open, free society in which any one us can stand in the public square and say our piece, in safety, secure in the knowledge that we’re protected by our own government even as we protest it, even as we speak against the misdeeds and cruelty of the powerful.
That’s priceless, it’s rare, and we’ve fought several wars to protect it. Let’s do our part now, for I fear it’s our turn now to defend the soul of America — our civil rights and the rule of law. And that means the civil rights of immigrants, of criminals even, and even of people we fear and dislike.