"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take this anymore!" - Network (1976)
Well, now we're screwed.
Fast Track has passed both the House and Senate, and now it's all but certain that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the nightmarish pro-corporate monstrosity that refused to die, will be signed into law.
The fact that Fast Track passed makes me mad enough. What makes me furious is that my two Democratic Senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, two men that I voted for, that I supported, that I trusted to fight precisely this sort of blatant attack on the lower- and middle-classes, didn't just vote for Fast Track but were instrumental in its passing.
The quote above from Sidney Lumet's Network and the accompanying picture I just took of myself pretty much express how I'm feeling now.
However, I am NOT slinking away in defeat, not by a long shot. This is not the time to lie down and let this happen, this is the time to get angry. Really angry, like Incredible Hulk levels.
The first thing I did after I got the email with the voting results was to make my sign, snap that picture, and send it to both Senators' Facebook and Twitter pages, along with a message informing them that they've both lost my votes in the next election.
The next thing I'm doing is this article, because by heaven I'm royally pissed off, and this is one of the only ways I can vent. I've been part of the campaign to kill the TPP for years now, I've made phone calls and sent letters and emails by the dozen, and like hell I'm stopping now.
What comes next? Well, I think getting angry is a good start. Letting Senators Warner and Kaine know how exactly badly they screwed us all over is a good start. But in the end, I'm just one guy... disabled, under-employed, and largely house-bound, whose only real method of interacting with the outside world is through the Internet.
Which is why I intend to raise my digital voice as loudly as I can, as often as I can, to make damn sure that traitor "Democrats" like Warner and Kaine hear me. That's my plan, anyway.
Fellow Kossacks, this is not the end. It's the beginning.
Now who's with me?