I have been thinking about decorum
And I don't know where I stand on it, actually
The Democrats’ response to the current administration’s extrajudicial activity (too numerous to list here) has mostly been tepid, at best. (I’m linking to the New York Times with regret, because the Times continues to subscribe to the notion that if a politician speaks, it’s news, and that is part of what got us to our current dark place. Both-sidesing is killing us.)
Our courts are holding — mostly — but court cases take a long time and meanwhile, people are trying to live their lives under the specter of a authoritarian with scant to no impulse control.
I don’t know kinder, shorter words for that.
Former Pres. Barack Obama came to Hartford earlier this week as part of the wonderful CT Forum, and he never once mentioned the current president by name, though he alluded to him (as someone with “a weak attachment to democracy.” The crowd applauded that, as the crowd did a later reference about the current president’s desire to label any election he loses as “rigged.”
I didn’t go, but watched the proceedings here:
That’s the fabulous Heather Cox Richardson asking questions, and I think she did an excellent job (in addition to writing her gold standard of a Substack).
I believe we have passed the time for polite speech, and I no longer look to Obama or Schumer or Jeffries or really much of any elected politician for guidance, and I grow tired of people asking for a comment from these people. They are, it must be said, part of the problem, or they are too close to the system to see the threats our current system poses to vulnerable people.
For whatever a politician puts on social media, we are still allowing our federal government to kidnap brown people off the streets, and this Dollar Store Goebbels still has the mic:
What a load of steaming horseshit is falling out of this guy’s mouth. I don’t know a nicer way to say this, and I don’t think I’d say it nicer if I did know nicer words. This is nonsense. It’s horseshit. It’s wrong and unconstitutional and while pushing back I vow to stay within the law but I do not intend to be polite about it.
What does that mean? I am thinking long and hard about that and am open to ideas. We are living in a shit-show. How does one do that while effectively pushing for much-needed change?
Personally I am so sick of people calling peaceful protests, “riots,” kidnapping of people by armed masked individuals without warrants and without any semblance of due process, putting them into unmarked SUV’s and transporting them to unknown locations while denied access to counsel, and real fear on the part of anyone who is brown skinned or is married to a person with darker skin, just beyond my ability to even cope.
But cope we must. We must keep working at our jobs, working at our health issues, caring for those we love, and pushing back by refusing to accept that our friends, neighbors and folks we shop with at the grocery store, tremble in fear when they leave their homes to buy food. It is disgusting, it makes me ashamed to go out freely myself as it is now a privilege of people who are white, citizens, and can freely like, go to Costco. You know, I am exhausted thinking about seeing a beautiful family at Costco with 2 darling little babies, all 4 members of the family were obvious immigrants from some South American country,mor Mexico, and while complimenting them on their beautiful children, instantly thinking OMG I hope they are all going to be OK. It’s like seeing a tsunami coming at them and not being able to do anything.
This administration has destroyed the simple pleasures of life for all of us, by making us fearful of these unnamed, masked thugs who are armed and enabled to violate all of our rights including the right to due process before being deprived of fundamental rights. We have already lost any semblance of trust in the government. It is they who have sent these thugs into our communities, schools, courts, hospitals and streets. They are ripping workers who pick crops, from their work and families. They are taking essential workers from offices, schools, hospitals, and care facilities.
I notice we are not hearing about illegal gang terrorists being apprehended. Instead, they are taking grandmas, parents, and anyone who looks like they come from Mexico.
Just had to vent. Sorry. I am cooking some lasagna because I figure it is a privilege I should enjoy. I honestly pray for all of us especially the most vulnerable among us.
I'll just make my comment a suggestion for any and all: come out and run for office - any office. Join those of us who have done so and experience what it is actually like to try to effect change. Find out what it feels like when there is no good answer to a problem but you have to choose a course of action. Try to find a way to move along the best path when you do not have the votes - and how difficult it can be when you do have the votes. And be ready for the public which will stand and publicly flay you if you are not the picture of decorum every single moment you hold office.
I have been in my seat for almost eight years now. If my party decides they would like me to run again, I will do so, solely because I care deeply about the work I've tried to do, even though it's by far one of the hardest things I've ever done.