I don't see or hear the words illegal and unconstitutional in our political discourse enough right now. Not from pundits, not from politicians, not from social media stuff. We should be putting the screws to the republican congress for not stopping illegal, unconstitutional stuff. They should be challenged to do that every day, by several members of the opposition party. But you cannot challenge them to join you in putting a stop to inhumanity if you are not yourself calling out the inhumanity, and narrating the illegality, and describing the constitutional violations. Open your damned mouths, Dem leadership! Create a narrative! Talk like you are teaching 7th graders what is going on. Don't use big words!
Often the Epstein thing serves as a distraction from the erosion of rights and the uses of violence that are occurring daily. The admin is using the military against American citizens daily, and promising more. But this is not and cannot be just about Trump. It is and has to be about the republican party.
None of this would happen if the GOP congress did it's job.
You have to make that connection, Dem leadership! Only you can do it!
Put the flame to the feet of the GOP congress!
Furthermore, the Epstein stuff can only put so much pressure on the R congress. The inhumanity, the illegality and corruption can put much more on them. And it creates lasting narratives, because Trump will keep this up until next year, and you have to keep narrating that the R congress is complicit in inhumanity and barbarism until then and beyond, because they are going to be complicit in inhumanity for that long.
Use simple language, like inhumane, illegal, unconstitutional, cruel, barbaric, needlessly violent, heartless, filthy, contaminated, treating people like animals, warehousing humans and concentration camp.
You should be attacking the dominant narrative with your own narrative, you are an opposition party, act like one. You cannot be a credible fighter for justice if you are never seen fighting for justice. So be seen fighting for justice. The whole party, all of you. We need stronger and more frequent attacks on the dominant narrative. The white house is out of control and the congress will not do a thing. Trump is violating the constitution, and the congress is dithering. There are concentration camps in America and the GOP doesn't care. People are being arrested without warrants. People are being held without charges. Posse Comitatus is being violated and the GOP will not hold a hearing on it. They are all complicit in Trump's crimes. They are aiding and abetting Trump's crimes. Make this clear.
Once you ring these bells for 10 or 11 months, then you turn around and you call the conditions around us republican -- republican inflation, republican recession, republican death camps, republican inhumanity toward others, republican suppression of dissent, republican corruption of the press, republican lies, republican false promises, republican election scams, republican failure.
The republican congress must be replaced because of the party's failures. That is how you do it. You develop a long narrative about them, then use it as your base of attack in the fall.
Not just Trump. The whole party of whackadoodles, crooks and bigots has to go down. They all deserve blame, they are all responsible for what is going on. The GOP stands for letting crooks off the hook, overpaying billionaires, wishing for more pollution, raising taxes, starving kids, eliminating health care, closing hospitals, dismantling rights, suppressing women, attacking gays and minorities, filling all the beds at for profit prisons, protecting pedophiles, ignoring famine, believing Putin and bowing to a madman. And this is a short list of the horrors that should weigh heavily on voter's minds next fall.
And because we are talking about justice, let me address the immigration crisis that the republican congress has created.
The right way to do drastically increase deportations is to quadruple (or more) the number of immigration courts and procedures. There are huge backlogs, and the right way to remedy the situation is to increase the speed of the system by increasing the number of people making legal immigration decisions, i.e., immigration courts and immigration judges. Never fail to say what is right.
What is wrong is grabbing people off the streets and disappearing them without warrants or charges.
What is right is doing what works within the existing system, which would mean dramatically increasing the number of immigration judges. If they had done that, there would be no American concentration camps, no armed men snatching people off the streets, and no illegal detention in foreign lands.
Offer an alternative, narrate what is going on, and fight for what is right. If you cannot do that, if you cannot live up to the fact that to lead is to teach, then you cannot lead in the fight for justice or in the fight against fascism.
Teach the nation that reads at a 5th grade level what is going on, relentlessly teach them, tirelessly teach them. Then turn to the election when the time comes.
