Congratulations to the Congressional Democrats; you’ve taken the first step in your journey to becoming a viable opposition party.
Well done, you.
I’ve mentioned riding a tiger here before, in the context of managing the COVID pandemic. I said there:
One thing about riding a tiger is that it can be way more dangerous to try to get off before the ride’s over than it is to just hang on.
The same thing applies here to dealing with the fascist coup from your position in Congress: once you decide to oppose that coup, it’d be far more dangerous to stop than it would be to hang on until the process is done and its perpetrators are arrested.
Dangerous for the whole country, as well as dangerous for you personally.
Tigers are not known for the care and precision they apply to the exercise of their power.
And neither are aspiring dictators.
But the only way out is through, as the saying goes.
Like the U.S. failed to do with COVID, the only safe thing you can do now is to hang on:
- no negotiation that doesn’t restore the country to a pre-January-2025 government
- no funding for further destruction of the country
- no legitimization of what’s already been done
- no Congressional business at all that doesn’t address reversing the coup
Spend some time with Robert’s Rules of Order and a copy of your chamber’s current rules document; you’ll be amazed at how many wrenches those give you for throwing into the procedural gears.
Most importantly: don’t get off the tiger.
Stand your ground, stay together.
It’s better to grind the whole country to a standstill than to give it over to a fascist, oligarchist, christian-nationalist proto-dictatorship.
But, ya know, no pressure.
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- Yellow Stripes And Dead Armadillos: Democrats In The Middle Of The Road
- Funding Shenanigans: In Trumpistan, The Feds Budget You
- Plenary Power Rangers: Steven Miller Says The Quiet Part Loud Again
- Oh, Democrats: You’re Doing The Right Thing For The Wrong Reasons