See below for video of Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08)’s virtual townhall with the Del Ray Citizens Association in Alexandria. A few of Rep. Beyer’s comments jumped out at me, including:
“We’re actually trying to think what it is can we do that actually DOES something, that changes the outcome. Some of my friends from the Civil Rights Movement have suggested…moving to Civil Disobedience, a la Nelson Mandela or Gandhi or the like. And we we may not be too far from that. But in the meantime, there’s lots and lots of lawsuits, there’s enormous numbers of press conferences. One of the things we lack…is…that single voice equivalent to a president who can have the press conference at nine o’clock every morning and tell you everything good that’s happening, tell you everything bad that’s happening, ask what you can do that day. And I’m very much hoping that that person – whether it’s Hakeem Jeffries or Pete Buttigieg or whoever emerges soon to be the the person who’s carrying that message of the urgency and everything that we’re doing. But I promise you, none of us are sleeping much; we we feel the fear and the anxiety and the need to do something meaningful. In the meantime, we we’re getting back to Michelle Obama – just do something.”
And a bit of a pep talk at the end:
“Hang in there…at bottom, all life asks of us is that we live it with courage. These are hard times, but our parents and grandparents had World War I, World War II, the Great Depression, the Cold War, Vietnam, the Great Recession, 9/11. We’ve been through a lot of really bad stuff over the years and we’re still here and we’re 249 years old. I deeply believe we will get through this too…And I really do deeply believe that most Americans are good people who want to do the right thing and love their country. And to the extent that what this Administration does is bad for our country, there will be payback.”
Let’s hope Rep. Beyer’s right, but right now things are looking very dark for those of us who aren’t, as Beyer describes himself, ” a born optimist.”
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