Without courage, America may be lost - by Will Bunch

[kpete]

.............



.......the character that voters admire most is courage.

We need courage from Speaker Pelosi and congressional Democrats to understand that the only way to respond to a narcissistic bully like Trump is with an equally resolute show of force, and with every tool in the toolbox. That includes an impeachment probe to counter the president’s abuses of power. That response – for a POTUS that even Pelosi admits has probably committed high crimes and misdemeanors – requires Congress to follow its constitutional duty, do what’s right and not expedient, and realize that voters don’t reward politicians who lead by focus group.

But it’s not just Congress.

We need more courage from Mueller himself, whose reluctance to testify before the American people, who’ve paid his salary for the last two years, and to better explain his report isn’t just bizarre but threatens to tarnish an admirable record of public service that goes back to his heroism in Vietnam.

We need more courage from the mainstream media to show that it fully understands – and is willing to inform the public by any means necessary – the authoritarian threat posed by Trump. That means no-more embarrassing puffery like Sunday’s utterly bizarre article in the New York Times that celebrated the bullying nicknames that Trump gives to Democrats.

We need more courage from the broader Democratic Party establishment and some of its rank-and-file voters who don’t really want an open debate and a contest of ideas in the 2020 primaries. They seem determined to rally behind the most predictable – and, frankly, tired – choice not out of a passion but out of fear – the fear of how Trump and white working-class men might bully a woman or someone with innovative, progressive policy proposals.

We need more courage – and I’m sorry if this offends anybody, but it needs to be said – from the everyday citizens who aren’t happy with what’s happening in this country, and who did take to the streets in record numbers on January 2017, over the mere threat of Trump autocracy, yet are sitting on their couches now that the president is making those threats come real.



MORE:
https://www.philly.com/opinion/commentary/trump-nancy-pelosi-impeachment-democrats-bullied-20190526.html

[DinahMoeHum]

1. Goddamn pay wall. . .

[watoos]

2. Well said,

but the M$M is complicit with the far right. There are a few good reporters but cable news pretty much sticks to the right wing narratives.

An impeachment inquiry would change the narrative otherwise we are going to get Barr's fairy tale about how the treasonous FBI and Democrats spied on poor Donald Trump.

[Atticus]

3. Guess what? If we are going to salvage our democracy, we---you and I---are going to have to

piss off a lot of people, some or them family and neighbors. We are going to have to "go public" in our own communities with the opinions we post here. Some of us are going to have to stand toe to toe with spittle-flecked red-faced screaming haters and openly laugh at their willful ignorance and call it just that: "willful ignorance".

This fight will not be won at a keyboard. It will be won by showing the less courageous and the less involved that most of us do NOT back this government and that changing it is our civic responsibility as "good people". We have to make the "I don't do politics" crowd realize that yes, damn it, they DO have skin in the game.

[Boomerproud]

4. Beautifully said. The article was spot on.

I don't care who is offended because they are on the wrong side in principle and history. Isn't saving ourselves motivation enough?

[democrank]

5. Let's send this collection of truth to the Greatest Page.

Thank you for posting this, kpete.

[world wide wally]

6. But aren't we "the home of the brave"?

[CrispyQ]

7. Wish I could give this a hundred recs.

Thank you for posting. It's worth the time to read the entire commentary.

[appalachiablue]

8. K & R. 'Cowards die a thousand deaths'

Last edited Mon May 27, 2019, 03:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Collective Action, Courage, Optimism ->>

Climate Action: Protests Make People More Optimistic About Change, Research Shows, May 27, 2019.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016232615

[chowder66]

9. This article should have started off by demanding republicans to be courageous and it should

have been peppered throughout to hammer the point. I'm getting pissed off about how it comes down to everyone BUT the republicans.
And to use one single Republican as the 'model' because he went point by point pisses me off as well. There have been plenty of Democrats that have
been calling for impeachment for a long time and didn't need the report to say as much.

While I agree to some extent on some of what the writer has to say, I would take it more to heart if he and others in the media would start calling out the horrors of the Republican party. They need to be hammered about their blatant disrespect of Americans and our constitution. They are worse than Trump and they are not being called out in the most serious ways.

[mountain grammy]

10. Excellent.. we need more courage..

Kick, kick, kick..

[smirkymonkey]

11. K&R