Rhetoric, Rhetoric

By Jon Tyson on Unsplash

I, like many were livid when I heard that Ilhan Ohmar, the representative in Minnesota, was sprayed by a right-wing attacker with some unknown substance. And yet, stood strong through the rest of her speech to her town hall. It’s admirable. But one point that she highlighted, was why this even happened in the first place.

“Now, in the four years when Joe Biden was president, my death threats went almost to zero”, she had told The Guardian. She goes on to blame Trump’s rhetoric against her as a person, as to why she is getting those many threats once again. And it’s obvious. Trump hates strong women. He hates that they have any power at all.

He has said horrible things about her, racist things, misogynist things. He does the same with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Jasmine Crockett. All of this rhetoric lends to embolden others to do the same violence, and go even further in attempts to hurt them. To scare them out of power. But it won’t work on them, and they have all said as much. And that is what makes the bigots the most angry. Their unwillingness to give up. To give up on what they stand by.

This is the difference between an effective Democrat with principles, and an ineffective one. When they are threatened, many Democrats shrink into their shell and just say, ‘Oh well, they are lying and being cruel and rude’. Which, yes. But that’s more like tattle tailing than standing up for your principles of Justice, peace, diversity, and most importantly, accountability. I am begging more Democrats to do what Ilhan did. To step up and reiterate that they are not going to give in to intimidation.

For a year now since the Inauguration, Democratic constituents have been screaming at our representatives to do some kind of concrete action against this administration. But how are they supposed to do that when they can’t even call out what the administration does that emboldens their chaos and their cruelty? Not only their actions but their words?

Democrat Representatives’ lives shouldn’t have to be threatened for Democrats to come out and tell the rest of the US like it is, that Republicans are being cruel, disgusting, and purposefully evil in their words and their actions. Make their cruelty embarrassing again.

As I have seen, Democrats aren’t persuasive. They aren’t resolute. I’m generalizing, of course. There are a few Dems who are resolute in their beliefs. Not enough, however to embolden Democratic constituents to call out their friends, family, and neighbors who are being cruel as well. To embolden folks to protest against this administration. To give them actual hope that cruelty won’t prevail.

In short, Democrats aren’t being the leaders that we wish they were. If they were, maybe the overall rhetoric surrounding this country wouldn’t lead to attacks like those on Ilhan Ohmar. Maybe Dems should go on Fox News more often to call out their bullshit. Maybe they actually go to the front lines of the protests and get tear gassed by ICE that they so desperately think is going to be a fine organization if they just “have better training”.

What’s the most frustrating is that they know the whole system is corrupt, they just don’t care enough to fight against it. They want to stick to their ‘protocol’, even if Republicans left their protocol back in 2015.

This whole post is just me venting, perhaps. But I wouldn’t have to if I had leaders that actually met this current moment, and could stand up with conviction against the current oppressors that wish myself and many others, dead.