USA-USA-USA: It All Begins with the People in the Streets-A victory on healthcare-by Charles Pierce

[kpete]

https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/891035540186963972/Q1tenzUY?format=jpg&name=600x314

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
JUL 28, 2017

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

.....The primary force driving the events of Thursday night and Friday morning was the energy and (yes) persistence of all those people who swamped town hall meetings, who wrote, or called, or e-mailed various congresscritters to show them what real political pressure felt like. I remember watching town halls in Maine, to which people drove hundreds of miles to tell Susan Collins what they thought. Those people bucked up vulnerable Democratic senators so that Chuck Schumer could count on a united Congress.

They brought pressure on Republican governors, too. People like Brian Sandoval in Nevada and John Kasich in Ohio were handed put-up-or-shut-up choices from their constituents. Perhaps the most significant Republican governor was Doug Ducey of Arizona, whom McCain repeatedly said he would consult before voting. Late on Thursday afternoon, Ducey came out strongly against the bill. But it all begins with the people who put themselves in the streets, and the people in wheelchairs who got roughed up on Capitol Hill, and all those impassioned voices on the phone, just as Lisa Murkowski's continued political survival depended on all those Alaskans who took the extra time to write in her name on a ballot.

We all decide, ultimately and individually, if the country is worth saving, one heavy lift at a time, knowing that, if the country is worth saving, we never will come to the last of them.


the rest:
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a56699/healthcare-protests-succeed/

[flamingdem]

1. Yes, yay democracy but..

the bar has been set very low by this new cast of characters.

We could be so much better off as a country.

I like the idea of young people learning democracy through this and hope they'll vote next time!

[dalton99a]

2. Resistance works.

Silence is not an option

[smirkymonkey]

3. K&R

[pangaia]

4. I talked for a good hour this am with a close friend in Sassenheim, The Netherlands.

He follows American politics very closely and knows more about what is what than most Americans.
He knows exactly what is going in and why.

Details he does not know about, I fill him in as best I can, such as why McCain's vote yes to move health care issue out of committee.

His take is just this as well.. we need 'people in the streets !!' A dictatorship here can never be overthrown any other way... It must start with 'the people.'

And he agrees with me that if we do NOT do this, we will all too soon live in a police state. Too many do not see the forest fore the trees. Including, perhaps, some/many here at DU.

[Gabi Hayes]

5. Was pierce sitting right behind Bill Browder

during his seminal senate testimony?

He was the only person in the press pen, sitting directly behind him, if that was he

Curious

Except it got zero coverage

Even the pubes didn't seem to be covering for the junta, Lindsey G, in particular, surprisingly distinguishing himself in going after DT jr.'s meeting