Powerful, troubling words (for troubling times!) by Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA04) at her town hall last night – see below for video and highlights (bolding added by me for emphasis).
“So our republic is being stress tested to the breaking point and I don’t know if we’re going to survive. I have faith that we will survive because so far, I’ll push back a little bit, technically the president has not violated a Supreme Court order yet, he’s interpreted it differently and that interpretation is up on appeal. Now if he does violate a court order, I don’t know what happens, because it’s the administrative branch that enforces it…So, so far the courts have done their job and he’s responded…except for that one instance he has backed off or he has appealed it and they’re still making their way through the court system. Ultimately it’s the people have to decide if our republic survives – not Congress, the people.
And at the end of the day, I will give him credit – my comm’s coach always says “Find one thing one nice thing you can say about the president,’ so this is my one nice thing I’ll…There are other things I could say, but when he gets pushback, he retreats. And when he gets pressure he retreats. That pressure comes from the people and the markets and the courts and sometimes even through Congress. So while some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle may not say anything publicly, they are saying things behind the scenes that have caused him to back off. But at the end of the day, the pressure has to come from the people. And there are multiple ways you can do that and I’ve given you some. If you don’t like what your elected officials are doing, you have a responsibility to speak up to them directly and indirectly. And I have seen so far when that happens, there’s a reaction.
Honestly I don’t think he likes being president this time. You know, he said he’s not going to run again; I believe him, because he doesn’t enjoy it. But if he decides, I’m not going to leave, then the people are going to have to make sure he leaves. I’m not saying through violence. But people can file lawsuits, people can protest. And every time we have made progress as a nation and when our republic has not worked the way the ideal says it should, it has been the people through voting, even when there’s voter supression through protest, through showing up in the halls of government, making their voice heard, that has turned things around.
It’s been worse than it is now. I stand before you as someone whose great grandfather gained the right to vote and then lost it. I took my oath of office to preserve, protect and defend that document that you just read on the Bible that my father kept his poll tax receipt in. Whatever obstacles were put in their way, they said ‘I’m voting anyway.’ And they didn’t say – and I’m not saying you said this, but you got me on my soap box – they didn’t say ‘Well I don’t like your position on this so I’mma stay home.’ They didn’t say ‘I don’t like the way you talk on this TV show so I’m going stay home.’ They said ‘You are going to be the head of a government that appoints judges, you’re going to be the head of a government that appoints cabinet members and other officials who are going to impact my day-to-day life, and I am going to have my perspective heard in this government by of and for the people. Because in a government by of and for the people, the only people whose perspective is heard and therefore their needs are met are the ones that participate.
It’s a two-way street. It’s a two-way street. My job is to make sure you know what your government is doing. Your job is to tell me what you want your government to do and not to give up on it. Because next year we have an opportunity to either celebrate 250 years of an idea that never happened on this earth before or to mourn that it couldn’t make it to 250. And Benjamin Franklin said that when he walked out of the hall and was asked [‘What have we got, a republic or a monarchy’]? He said ‘A republic, if you can keep it.’
It’s not up to Donald Trump whether we keep this republic, it’s up to every single one of us. If we want to keep this republic and we act on it, we will. If we throw up our hands and say ‘Well it’s not working, it’s not perfect, it’s never worked’, we lose it. I’m doing my part. And I’m going end with this: John Lewis, who my one regret is I didn’t get to serve in Congress with, he said in his final words, ‘democracy is not a state, it is an act that requires every generation to do its part to build the beloved community’. Democracy in and of itself is not the point, it is what you do with it. Are you going to use democracy to build safe communities or not? Are you going to use democracy to make sure that people who are hungry get fed or not? Are you going to use democracy to make sure the sick get care or not? Are you going to use democracy to care for your neighbor or not? Every single one of us have to commit to what that answer is going to be. And it’s hard, I know, I get it. And it’s never been perfect. But if we give up on it, we are lost. I don’t want any other kind of form of government, because I see what’s happening everywhere else, it’s not any better ultimately. We have the power to decide: is that man in the White House going to end our republic or not? And if we work together to build community in the face of chaos, we will make it as a country and we will make it as a community.”
