Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘senate’

What I Want to Hear

Posted in Culture, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , on 05 Oct 2025| 2 Comments »

Republicans are blaming the Democrats for the shutdown and, following the standard congressional “I’m rubber, you’re glue” playbook, Democrats are blaming the GOP in turn. That’s a weak, schoolyard response, and I’m sick of that game. Here’s what I want to hear from Democrats:

“You’re goddamn right we’re responsible. We are shutting this shit-show down, using every tool we can muster, using the power of the minority (just as you have done so many times over the years) to obstruct, to delay, to thwart, to frustrate, to discomfit, to drive a wedge between y’all and your base, to amplify our voice and blast our message, and our message is this: We will not be complicit!

“We will not be complicit in making health care unaffordable for millions by raising premiums and cutting services (and don’t trot out that bullshit lie about us wanting to provide health care to undocumented immigrants, because you know folks need an SSN to apply for Obamacare, and the undocumented, by definition, don’t have one).  People are having a very tough time, right now, and we won’t help you make it worse. We won’t. You’ll have to sit down with us. You’ll have to take the damned meeting. You’ll have to negotiate. You’ll have to fucking govern instead of strutting around like a bunch of mooks in cheap suits running a protection racket.

“Moreover, we will not be complicit in supporting your destruction of our society. We won’t support this rogue militia you’ve created out of ICE and CBP, a force that rappels from BlackHawks down into American cities to round up people indiscriminately, en masse, without warrants, destroying property, terrorizing communities, citizens and immigrants, adults and children alike. No. We won’t.

“We’re not going to just stand by and wring our hands and think back fondly on gentler times while you erode our most basic rights. No, JD, we’re not going to be ‘civil’ in the face of your incivility, we’re not going to be silent and meek when one of the tenets of our founding documents enshrines our freedom to tell you that you’re wrong and we’re right and why.

“And we’re not going to just bite our tongues when you call everything an ‘emergency’ so you can raise the cost of goods with tariffs, withhold funding appropriated by law, extort businesses and universities into silence, prosecute individuals because they made you look bad, and slap the ‘terrorist’ label on anyone exercising free speech.

“No. We’re not. We’re going to shut this down, and we’re going to do it loudly and unapologetically. We’re going to make governing this nation as difficult as possible until you come to the table, sit down, and negotiate. We are doing this because of the real and lasting harm you are perpetrating against our nation. We are doing this because we fucking can, and because the American people need someone to protect them, to look out for their needs, their health, and their lives.”

That is what I want to hear. That is what I think we need to hear.

k

Read Full Post »

Dear Senator

Posted in Culture, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 27 Sep 2025| Leave a Comment »

I write to express my strong support for your recent vote to REJECT the continuing resolution to fund the government, and I beg you to hold fast and continue to fight for a negotiated bill that will undo some of the worst effects of the GOP’s efforts to strip American’s in need of their Medicaid and ACA assistance.

Moreover, I am also in support of the broader position that we cannot continue to fund the GOP’s efforts to dismantle the federal government, nor the administration’s obvious predisposition to limit, ignore, and outright deny American citizens their constitutionally-protected rights. A vote for the CR would make us all complicit in our own demise, and would be nothing less than appeasement of this the president’s growing autocracy.

I know that the president has threatened mass firings/layoffs should a shutdown come to pass, but I have two things to say about that.

First, he threatened this the last time, and Democrats blinked, wanting to avoid the unnecessary hardship that firings would cause to thousands of government employees. However, that concession, that concern, got Democrats nothing but a black eye and a reputation for not having the resolve to match their rhetoric.

Second, firing those employees would be the president’s choice, not a necessity, as he has the option of furloughing them instead. If he does fire thousands, yes, it will cause those employees harm, but how much harm will be caused by the loss of Medicaid and ACA subsidies? We must weigh the difference between employees losing their jobs and citizens losing their lives.

So it is with knowledge of the painful ramifications a shutdown would cause that I plead with you to stand your ground for as long as it takes to bring your GOP colleagues to the table, to push the president to take your meetings, and to force this administration to govern by negotiation and consensus, rather than by fiat.

Thank you for your past service to our state and to the nation.

In hope,

k

Read Full Post »