It was possibly one
of the most idiotic things a Republican has said so far in this age of Trump.
After being assailed
by people afraid of losing their health insurance if the Affordable Care Act,
a.k.a. Obamacare, is repealed, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican,
complained of “organized opposition by people who were on the losing side of
the election.”
No shit Sherlock.
Who else is going to complain? The people who won?
“Oh god, I am so peeved that my candidate won because now he can do everything he promised.”
People who win do not complain. They celebrate. They take victory laps. They spike the ball in the end zone.
People who lose get angry. They protest. They organize other people. They show up at town hall meetings with lots of questions.
And when you threaten to take away the one thing that keeps them or a loved one alive they get into your “grill,” as Rep. Dave Brat, a Virginia Republican, discovered not too long ago.
It is a basic tenet of the First Amendment, the right of the people to seek redress from government, to protest as individuals or as groups. To organize. Lamenting that such people are organized does not silence their voices, nor does it negate the legitimacy of their grievances.
Americans, particularly many of the roughly 73 million people who voted against Donald Trump in November, are angry, and they have every right to be so. Not because Trump won although the majority of Americans who voted chose a candidate other than him.
No.
They are rightly angry because his election has removed the only bulwark against a mob of faux patriots who believe the U.S. Constitution exists simply for their pleasure.
The voices of those angry people have risen to show their displeasure with the Boob-in-Chief. They have fought efforts to marginalize women and minorities, to place a back door ban on Muslim immigration.
Mostly they have raised their voices in chorus against efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act.
Brat, a former economics professor who defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the 2014 Republican primary, was taken aback when he was accosted by women terrified of losing their health insurance.
“Since Obamacare and these issues have come up, the women are in my grill wherever I go,” Brat told a gathering of local conservatives in Virginia. “They come up to me and go, 'When's the next town hall?' And believe me, it's not to give positive input.”
Other Republicans are experiencing the same reaction.
“If I could give you an answer today, I would, but I can’t,” Sensenbrenner told a questioner at his town-hall-style meeting at the Pewaukee Public Library.
Rep. Tom McClintock of California needed a police escort after his meeting, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah faced a crowd of 1,000 people, many of them shouting “Do your job.” Things have become so tense that House Republicans were recently advised on security precautions at their meetings and district offices.
Others, such as Rep. Kevin Brady of Houston and Rep. Mike Coffman of Denver, faced similar audiences.
But such encounters are not enough.
Each protest should include voter registration drives and tips on how to keep people engaged until 2018.
Based on Republican talking points, we also can expect an assault on laws that protect us from a predatory financial class; an assault on Social Security; on women’s health; on voting rights; on public education.
The lists goes on and on. Assaults on everything that progressives hold dear. And that is the true threat to our democracy – attacks on progress by small minded men and women in Congress who want a nation this continuously looks back not forward.
No shit Sherlock.
Who else is going to complain? The people who won?
“Oh god, I am so peeved that my candidate won because now he can do everything he promised.”
People who win do not complain. They celebrate. They take victory laps. They spike the ball in the end zone.
People who lose get angry. They protest. They organize other people. They show up at town hall meetings with lots of questions.
And when you threaten to take away the one thing that keeps them or a loved one alive they get into your “grill,” as Rep. Dave Brat, a Virginia Republican, discovered not too long ago.
It is a basic tenet of the First Amendment, the right of the people to seek redress from government, to protest as individuals or as groups. To organize. Lamenting that such people are organized does not silence their voices, nor does it negate the legitimacy of their grievances.
Americans, particularly many of the roughly 73 million people who voted against Donald Trump in November, are angry, and they have every right to be so. Not because Trump won although the majority of Americans who voted chose a candidate other than him.
No.
They are rightly angry because his election has removed the only bulwark against a mob of faux patriots who believe the U.S. Constitution exists simply for their pleasure.
The voices of those angry people have risen to show their displeasure with the Boob-in-Chief. They have fought efforts to marginalize women and minorities, to place a back door ban on Muslim immigration.
Mostly they have raised their voices in chorus against efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act.
Brat, a former economics professor who defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the 2014 Republican primary, was taken aback when he was accosted by women terrified of losing their health insurance.
“Since Obamacare and these issues have come up, the women are in my grill wherever I go,” Brat told a gathering of local conservatives in Virginia. “They come up to me and go, 'When's the next town hall?' And believe me, it's not to give positive input.”
Other Republicans are experiencing the same reaction.
“If I could give you an answer today, I would, but I can’t,” Sensenbrenner told a questioner at his town-hall-style meeting at the Pewaukee Public Library.
Rep. Tom McClintock of California needed a police escort after his meeting, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah faced a crowd of 1,000 people, many of them shouting “Do your job.” Things have become so tense that House Republicans were recently advised on security precautions at their meetings and district offices.
Others, such as Rep. Kevin Brady of Houston and Rep. Mike Coffman of Denver, faced similar audiences.
But such encounters are not enough.
Each protest should include voter registration drives and tips on how to keep people engaged until 2018.
Based on Republican talking points, we also can expect an assault on laws that protect us from a predatory financial class; an assault on Social Security; on women’s health; on voting rights; on public education.
The lists goes on and on. Assaults on everything that progressives hold dear. And that is the true threat to our democracy – attacks on progress by small minded men and women in Congress who want a nation this continuously looks back not forward.
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