Sen Patty Murray is in it for long haul-if thats whats needed: "This is a marathon, not a sprint"
Patty Murray
Week Three of the Trump Administration
YESTERDAY · PUBLIC
I know it feels like a lifetime to so many of us, but we are now through week three of the Trump Administration. A whole lot has happened, but here are five thoughts and observations that I wanted to pass along.
Resistance matters. People who don’t like what they are seeing from President Trump can make their voices heard, they can fight back, and they can truly make a difference. It was so amazing to see millions of people, in communities across the country, come together at the women’s marches to send a message to President Trump the day after the inauguration. And it was so inspiring to see that energy rise up again to fight back against Betsy DeVos, a nominee for Secretary of Education that so many of us thought was absolutely wrong for our students and schools. People called their Senators (so much that the Senate voicemail system crashed!), they wrote letters, and they showed up at protests in their communities. And although she was confirmed after Vice President Pence had to come over to the Senate to break a 50-50 tie, two Republicans felt enough pressure from their constituents to stand with every single Democrat and vote to reject her—and I am confident that if we had more time, we could have pushed one more.
The courts matter—a lot. When we have a President like this one, who so clearly doesn’t respect the rule of law, the constitution, or our American values and precedents—having a strong and independent judiciary is more important than ever. When President Trump issued his unconstitutional, un-American, and truly appalling executive order banning Muslim immigrants and refugees, he caused so much chaos and fear across the country. People across the country were outraged, I vowed to do everything I could to fight back—but it was Judge James Robart in Washington state who stepped in to halt it, and it was the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that rejected President Trump’s attempt to get it going again. That case isn’t over, but it has made it even clearer to me than ever before just how important it is that our Judiciary branch be protected from political influence and pressure, and just how critical this Supreme Court fight is going to be.
President Trump is breaking many of his promises. When President Trump promised to fight for workers and middle class families, many of us were pretty skeptical (to put it mildly). But I have to admit, I did not anticipate how quickly and brazenly he would break this promise and make it crystal clear that he will be a President who fights for millionaires and billionaires like himself, and not workers and middle class families. There are so many examples of this,even in just the first three weeks, but the easiest way to demonstrate it is to look at who he has chosen to lead his government agencies: Wall Street bankers, corporate CEOs who have profited by hurting their workers, billionaires with conflicts of interest and unresolved ethics issues, oil company CEOs with ties to Russia—and those are just a few of them.
President Trump is keeping many of his promises. President Trump campaigned on hate and division, and he has already started delivering on that. He said he would ban Muslims, build a wall, and deport millions of people from the country—and he is trying as hard as he can to do that too. So although there is certainly a whole lot we should be skeptical of when it comes to his campaign promises (and certainly when it comes to who he is fighting for), it seems pretty clear to me that there’s a whole lot about what he said he would do that he intends to carry out. So we have to continue the fight--not just for these three weeks, but throughout this presidency.
This is a marathon, not a sprint. I’ve seen so much amazing energy and fight over these past three weeks. We need to keep it up. We can’t allow President Trump to keep moving the bar on what is normal or OK, and we also can’t let him distract us from focusing on the issues that matter most and the ways he is truly trying to hurt people across the country. So I am going to do everything I can to keep up this fight now, in the months ahead, and for as long as it takes. And based on what I am hearing from so many people online, in person, and in letters—I know you are too.
When Leonard Cohen passed away a few days after the election, Senator Cory Booker posted a passage from a song of his on Facebook that I really appreciate, and that I reread whenever I am feeling overwhelmed, or tired. So, three weeks in, and with 205 weeks still ahead of us, that excerpt that my friend gave to me seems like a good sentiment to leave you all with for now.
The birds they sang at the break of day.
Start again, I heard them say.
Don't dwell on what has passed away,
Or what is yet to be.
Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in.
https://m.facebook.com/notes/patty-murray/week-three-of-the-trump-administration/10155040070179640/