The GOPs silencing of Elizabeth Warren is a brutal reality check for Democrats

[mcar]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/02/08/gops-silencing-of-elizabeth-warren-is-a-brutal-reality-check-for-democrats/?utm_term=.c9ccf64891d1

Social media is aflame with the news that Senate Republicans voted Tuesday night to silence Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) from speaking out about attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, after Warren had the temerity to read aloud from a letter by the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. that castigated Sessions’s history on voting rights. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) defended the move by claiming that Warren had “impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama.”...

But the point is, Republicans don’t care what message this sends. And herein lies the way in which this whole episode symbolizes the unsettling broader reality that Democrats face right now. Warren was shut down from speaking by Republicans who employed an arcane Senate rule; Democrats are shut out of power, and Republicans will use any and all procedural means at their disposal to render them as powerless and irrelevant as possible. And Republicans see no reason to fear any political repercussions from whatever message any of it sends.

Republicans pocketed a Supreme Court seat that was President Obama’s to fill and will now likely get their choice of justice installed in it. If Democrats filibuster that choice, or filibuster the next justice Trump picks, Republicans will likely nuke the Senate rules and blow past Democratic opposition. Republicans are totally abdicating any meaningful oversight role toward Trump, despite his unprecedented conflicts of interest and possible corruption, and they are unlikely to pursue independent probes into Russian meddling in our election, making it less substantially likely that the public will ever be fully informed about these things. Republicans have clearly signaled they will do everything they can to prevent other institutional watchdogs from exercising any oversight of their own. This will only get worse...

But Democrats are going to be shut up. They are going to be shut out. They are going to lose. A lot. And it’s going to be dispiriting and difficult. The response to this particular Warren episode has thus far been innovative and energetic. The question is whether this kind of energy can be sustained.

[spanone]

1. K&R...

[RadiationTherapy]

2. I think "republicans don't care what message this sends" is an understatement.

I think the act is the message and clearly communicated.

[malaise]

3. Bernie is reading the letter now

Udall read it earlier - they are waking up

[mcar]

12. Why are male senators allowed to read it

but not Sen Warren?

I'm glad they are doing it but I hope the sexism is being pointed out.

[Bettie]

22. Because Right Wingers

don't like "uppity" women who dare to speak up.

The menfolk they can deal with, but those damned women who don't know their place are a problem.

[zentrum]

21. Can always count on Bernie.

Why isn't Schumer leading this charge?

[randome]

27. He is and your attempt to sow division on this issue is unwelcome.

Here. Have a heart.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Donald Trump's scorecard:
Muslim ban = failed. Yemen raid = failed. Approval ratings = failed.
Mexican wall = failed. Economic utopia = failed. Grade point average = 0.[/center][/font][hr]

[dubyadiprecession]

4. Not really.

That letter is getting read again and again today by other senators with no consequence.

This is embarrassing to Turtle McConnell !

[wildeyed]

5. Yes.

It can be sustained. We will lose, but we will also hang their actions around their necks and let them drown in upcoming elections. What cannot be sustained is the muzzling of the MAJORITY of Americans who did not vote for this mess. They can gerrymander and strip voting rights, but eventually there will be a day of reckoning for them. It is inevitable. Plus Trump is clearly unstable and corrupt. Every day is a day that someone might find the smoking gun that will force him out of office. The game could completely change tomorrow.

[dalton99a]

6. Republicans have declared full blown war in the Senate on Democrats.

[old guy]

9. By doing so they have also declared war on the fundamentals of our democracy.

This is only the beginning.

[Cha]

7. It is another brutal reality check in a long line of them recently..

They silenced Elizabeth but then they let Jeff Merkley read Coretta's Letter... they don't care what kind of message this sends but Women do and Democrats and all fair minded people do.

Link to tweet

This is not to say that Republicans can’t be defeated in important ways. Trump and Republicans may be backing off their vow to scrap protections for people brought here illegally as children. Republicans are running into massive trouble with their push to repeal and replace Obamacare, and Democrats have effectively drawn attention to Republicans’ bumbling, incompetence and shrugging lack of concern for how repeal would harm millions. It’s not hard to see GOP efforts to roll back financial oversight going down to defeat. The opposition to Trump’s immigration ban has effectively dramatized the cruel realities of Trumpism and may, at a minimum, dissuade Trump from trying more policies like it. And so on.

Thank you for this, mcar

So which repubs didn't vote to censor Senator Warren?

[mcar]

13. Not only power-hungry amoral hypocrites

but sexist too!

[bravenak]

26. I just sent Murkowski a nasty message

[Cha]

29. Mahalo, brave! I couldn't

believe the women on there even if they were gop

There's 54 of them but I don't know them well enough to know who didn't vote to censor Elizabeth or if they were just out of chambers?

[mr_lebowski]

28. I don't see Sessions on the list perhaps he felt obliged to recuse himself

But only since, you know ... he knew he'd win w/o his own vote.

What I don't understand is why this rule can be invoked when 'Senator' is not the friggin' job he's asking to get? He's looking to LEAVE the Senate, IOW. That rule shouldn't be able to even be applied in this case, it should be null and void.

[Cha]

30. I dunno.. there's 4 other gops who didn't vote to censor Elizabeth

I'd like to know why?

[IamFortunesFool]

31. Unbelievably, Ted Cruz did not vote against her

But that may be because he was feeling the Bern debating healthcare on CNN...not sure if the timing is correct, but that has to be why. That evil plague rat wouldn't have missed out on the chance to jump on the bandwagon.

[MFM008]

8. Wasn't about the letter

It was payback for Warren attacks on maggot during campaign.

[flamingdem]

10. Dems stay strong

and keep reading

[malaise]

14. Schumer just condemned ReTHUGs about the silencing of Elizabeth Warren

[flamingdem]

16. Schumer is a-okay, good that he's tough

[C_U_L8R]

11. Republicans can't shut us all up

In fact, I think they just helped us find our voice.

[workinclasszero]

15. "But the point is, Republicans dont care what message this sends."

This is our country under a republican tyranny and Trump is their Dear Leader.

They hold all the power in this country in their greedy fists. Only a Federal judge here and there are stopping this country from becoming the Fourth Reich tomorrow.

That's not hyperbole either.

[FloridaBlues]

23. Have to agree with you republicans don't care and they keep getting rewarded at the ballot box

They know time is on their side two years is a long time to keep up protest.
I hope we do continue for the next two years and for the millions of people who sat home will protest at the ballot box

[Initech]

17. Fuck them all. This is utterly despicable, one of the worst things they've done.

[90-percent]

18. Oh, please

I think they can top this one on an almost daily basis. No morals and no inhibitions is a bad way to go through life, Republicans!

-90% Jimmy

[zentrum]

19. Every Dem must read

...the letter. Stop Complaining. Just read! Make the letter get more coverage than it ever would have.

Called Schumer's office this morning to say he must lead all Dems do this.

Please Dems---have some passionate leadership.

[manicraven]

20. One brutal reality check after another! Welcome to tRump and the GOP's America!

Despite being the actual majority, the zealot minority controls everything, and no matter what we try, they're pushing through their regressive, horrendous agenda that will cause great harm to the planet, enrich the wealthy even more, harm minorities and women, blur the separation of church and state (if not destroy it), and on and on...

[TygrBright]

24. It's an amazing opportunity for Democrats, too.

We already KNOW we can't win party-line votes, at all, even on critically important matters.

DUH.

Any maneuvering for leverage in the "scraps bin" of things the GOP doesn't care about enough to enforce party-line unity on, is pointless.

Here's the opportunity:

>>But the point is, Republicans don’t care what message this sends.<<

We can't fight them on the votes, but we can fight them on the principles. We can fight them on the basis of how a legislative process SHOULD work in a democracy. We can fight them on the principles of transparency, ethics, and trustworthiness.

One thing Americans fear even more than ISIS, terrorism, and brown immigrants?

CORRUPT GOVERNMENT

Straight from the horse's ass-er-mouth.

We can win the principle, if we concede the reality: We have no power to stop the GOP doing what it wants to do.

But we can expose what they want to do, for what it is.

Racism
Cronyism
Misogyny
Greed
Pork-barrelling
Pandering
Lying
Vote-selling
Xenophobia
Sleaze
Corruption

We can win that fight IF we stay unified, if we don't flinch, if we invite every sling and arrow they can throw at us, by remaining clear, vocal, polite, unapologetic, honest, assertive, and above all, principled.

We can shine klieg lights into the sty, and spotlight them at the trough.

Take the victories where they are, and I think this one is a bigger potential victory than most of the pundits think, right now.

It's a long-haul tactic that requires us to absorb a lot of short-term punishment and pain.

But if we're a big enough, unified enough, snowbank, not even the GOP plow can sweep away the ultimate victory.

certainly,
Bright

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

25. It's wonderful that a lot of spontaneous resistance has arisen. But, I'm

going to reiterate my belief that we need leadership to organize the resistance. There is a lot of concern and anger out here, but most people are overworked, stressed, and not sure where to best put there anti-Trump energy.

People feel good signing petitions, but there's a lot of advice saying, don't waste your time on them. I suspect they are a fundraising tactic for the organizations creating them. Which, OK, if that works. But I would like to see the data.

Coordinated action judged worthwhile by those in a position to know, and to prove to me that they know, would be helpful.