A. Senator Tim Kaine, whose name might be familiar as he was the Democratic Party's nominee for vice-president, will be giving Gorsuch a chance. Nope.
B. Rep. Adam Schiff, who has been leading the call for investigations into Russian interference in the election, worries: "The radical nature of this government is radicalizing Democrats, and that's going to pose a real challenge to the Democratic Party, which is to draw on the energy and the activism and the passion that is out there, but not let it turn us into what we despised about the tea party." I don't know about y'all, but the thing I despised about the Tea Party was their ideology, not their involvement in politics. And a big thumbs-down for Schiff ignoring that the Tea Party was a corporate-funded movement masquerading as a grassroots movement, which is not what is happening now.
C. Neal K. Katyal, who served as an acting solicitor general in the Obama administration, pens an op-ed for the New York Times headlined: "Why Liberals Should Back Neil Gorsuch." Which, at its essence, is an argument for why he will stop the most egregious excesses of the Trump administration, i.e. the things that are most likely to affect the most privileged among us. Too bad for all the marginalized people whose lives will get fucked either way.
D. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi actually said these words: "Where we can engage [with Donald Trump], we certainly will. We have that responsibility to the American people, to find our common ground." No! You! Don't!
Democrats, you have one job: To say no to every single thing that Donald Trump wants.
I realize that the Democrats are getting hammered for "hypocrisy" by some of the more despicable members of the press who have no evident sense of self-preservation and disgorge false equivalencies like a dog doing tricks for biscuits, but it should not be at all difficult to articulate that Republican obstructionism was straight-up partisan garbage and resisting Trump is a moral imperative in defense of the democratic institutions of this nation, not to mention basic decency.
Trump's overarching agenda is authoritarian white supremacy. It is not possible to parse which of his initiatives, policies, or nominees "are problematic" and which "deserve serious consideration," because they all act in service to the same hideous end.
"This isn't fascism." Sure. I guess. In the same way a single cobblestone isn't the entire street.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) January 31, 2017
This is why Dems can't pick and choose what to obstruct. None of this exists in a vacuum. It's all in service to the same radical agenda. https://t.co/NodPpGqtY6
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 1, 2017
Pretending that this or that aspect of Trump's agenda is "business as usual" is the very definition of normalization. To accept any of it is to provide a stamp of credibility on all of it.
I don't want to be admonished to be tolerant of a single piece of Trump's agenda. I don't want to be lectured about civility. I want unyielding resistance.
I'm all about going high when they go low, but I'm also about when they go fascist, we go ham.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 1, 2017
The fact is: There are no points for politeness in the face of emergent fascism. And, more importantly, there are no wins with politeness in the face of emergent fascism.
Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Steve Bannon, and Jared Kushner are not politics as usual. And they are counting on the fact that they'll be treated as though they are. Any offer to work with them on anything will be exploited. They will take even more. Offering common ground to a despot is capitulation.
And the people who gave it to them will be rightfully regarded by historians as appeasers.
This is Steve Bannon talking about his political philosophy: "I'm a Leninist. Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that's my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today's establishment."
That is what we're up against. That is someone who will turn common ground into scorched earth.
The answer must be no, on everything. Or all will be lost.
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