Thursday, September 2, 2021

Courage of Conviction


Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

W.B. Yeats

 

Democrat Lindsey Simmons challenged Republican U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler for Missouri's 4th Congressional District seat. Her insight and experiences are important in understanding the radical Right’s embrace of terrorism in its war on democracy and equality.

She also notes the fatal weakness in intimidated and corporate-owned institutional Democrats. Their meekness shows they lack the courage of conviction found in the pro-democracy fighters in red states.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I launched my campaign for Congress in 2019.

I was harassed. My home was vandalized, multiple times. I received violent threats. My car was followed by active Klan, with my 2 year old in the car.

We fought a righteous fight out here.

And the Dems in DC don’t give a damn.

Volunteers and activists from Columbia to Cass County, between Moberly and Marshfield and Lamar to Lebanon—these people endured the same + worse.

On their own property, close to their homes, people had signs burned to the ground, stolen, or shot up by passers-by. 

I called it terrorism as it happened. Because that’s what it is.

Violence + intimidation against civilians for a political purpose.

January 6th wasn’t a shock to us out here. It was a larger finale to a season’s long episode of aggression. 

When you stand up in a deeply red district in a deeply red state, you do it because lives depend on it.

You do it because democracy depends on it.

You do it because the future you want for your kids + grandkids depends on it. 

That future included:

▪ a new voting rights act
▪ ending gerrymandering
▪ universal healthcare
▪ codified Roe v Wade
▪ anti-lynching laws
▪ ending qualified immunity
▪ equal rights amendment
▪ prosecution of the crimes we watched unfold before our eyes the previous 4 years

 And Democrats in Washington, DC who have a seat at the table—they’re playing a dangerous game.

They’re betting our entire country’s future on this notion that if they don’t rock the boat too much, things will calm down, and they can get re-elected and do more “next time”. 

This is a damn fairytale.

We are in the eye of a storm.

And what we do now dictates whether democracy survives after 2024.

You cannot make bets with the underlying assumption being that you will win another election. 

The autocrats aren’t trying to win. They aren’t trying to beat you.

They are actively dismantling democracy such that the American people willingly hand it over.

We won the White House.
We won the House of Representatives.
We won the Senate.

Let’s act like it. 

The days of gentlemanly handshakes and agreeing to disagree are long-gone.

Nine months ago sitting Members of Congress invited terrorists to murder the Vice President and their colleagues.

They have stolen seats on the Supreme Court. 

These are not people who care about decency or precedent or the law.

They care about control.

And we need to care more about doing the hard things instead of looking bad on cable news. 

This week you have Members of a Congress threatening telecom companies if they comply with subpoenas—that’s obstruction of justice.

You have Texas subjugating women.

You have multiple states hellbent on limiting our right to vote.

You have California facing a recall. 

School board meetings are full of parents denouncing science and history.

Politicians are using that chaos to defund public education.

Our nation is in crisis and we’re pretending our hands are tied.

We lack not options for moving forward, but the courage to do so. 

There is no doubt in my mind that our nation is in safer hands with President Biden.

But there’s also no doubt in my mind that if the “political consultants” had the backbone + experience of pro-democracy fighters in red states we’d be a lot more prepared to survive this storm. 

 

3 comments:

U.P. Tim said...

Dave,
This post reminds me of a recent conversation I just had with a friend of mine. We came to the consensus that "Dems in DC don't give a damn" too. We agreed that many activists worked their tails off to win the White House, House of Representatives and Senate for the Dems. Now, we need them to "Act like it". Many are still acting, as if they are still in the minority. The Dems with all of their we need to do this and we need to do that and all talk and no action modality is becoming pathetic. We need to see some serious action now. This very well could be their last chance.

Recently, I fired off emails to my two Senators. I had to let them know how disappointed I've been with the Dems performance in DC. Let them know I could no longer support the Dems and their weaknesses. I'm really disappointed with the performance of AG Garland so far. We need action from him. My line in the sand is that if the AG's DOJ doesn't have the former guy under federal indictment by 9/1/22, I'll have to reevaluate my votes.

Dave Dubya said...

Tim,
Two words. Manchin and Sinema.

Corpo-dems are abetting the Republican agenda that's taking us away from democratic representation.

Too many Democrats act like Republicans and serve their corporate owners rather than the people.

That said, most of them will vote for voting rights reform. Too bad the anti-democratic Democrats have a lock on the damn filibuster.

Justice moves slow. Cases have to be made certain and all reasonable doubt must be overcome.

Garland could be doing what we want him to be doing. It's not his job or FBI policy to comment on ongoing investigations. There's also a lot of Trump loyalists in the FBI to work around.

SDNY is advancing their investigations as well. As with with cases against organized crime, the path to arresting the godfather is though the lower ranks.

I agree, if Trump gets away with his crimes, the republic is dead.

Check Tomi Ahonen's Twitter threads. His timings are on the early side, but these are all working their way through the justice system.

https://twitter.com/tomiahonen/status/1409794411630895106

About Criminal Prosecution

I have told you, repeatedly, this is a Mafia trial. The boss ALWAYS goes last. This is your schedule: Weisselberg indictment July (or Aug) Giuliani indictment July or Aug Matt Gaetz indictment Aug or Sept Roger Stone indictment late 2021 or early 2022.

Once again. FOUR PATHS Weisselberg trial is not Jan 6. Does not relate to Trump Presidency. It is NY STATE crimes from before. It is his TAX fraud. It is the FASTEST way to get Trump to prison Weisselberg NEXT leads to Ivanka, Beavis & Butthead Trump. After kids, is Trump trial.

A SEPARATE path to Trump imprisonment, is Giuliani. This too has nothing to do with Jan 6. It is Ukraine extortion case (so this is the criminal prosecution part, related to Impeachment 1). Giuliani trial leads to Pompeo, Bill Barr and Jared trials. After them we get to Trump.

A SEPARATE path to take Trump to prison comes via the Gaetz of Hell. This has nothing to do with Jan 6. Matt Gaetz is child rapist, his partner rapist Greenberg just pleaded guilty. He tried to buy a Presidential pardon So Statutory Gaetz leads to Roger Stone, Jared. Then Trump.

And a SEPARATE path to take Trump to prison is January 6th. Roger Stone is now targeted because one of the Oath Keepers has flipped on Roger Roger trial leads to ORGANIZERS of Jan 6 like Erik Prince, Gen Flynn, Don Jr, Giuliani & the My Pillow Guy. After them, comes Trump trial.


Smoking Gun Thread

https://twitter.com/tomiahonen/status/1422147669636665347


Trump Criminal Cases Thread

https://twitter.com/tomiahonen/status/1405143340056711168


Weisselberg Path

https://twitter.com/tomiahonen/status/1405290043770474496


Giuliani Path

https://twitter.com/tomiahonen/status/1408039931818221568


Of course none of these will stop the radical Right's war on democracy and equality.

The war against fascism never ends.

Dave Dubya said...


It will take time, but justice is in the works.

Duty to Warn:

We FINALLY got a little new info on Georgia's criminal probe into Trump’s attempt to meddle, AND Lindsey Graham's. Investigators have interviewed elections officials, and received documents. "We're cooperating fully,” says Raffensperger. This is good, but that's all it is so far.

https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1434973997586784259