Yesterday, Simian had the courage to speak out about a lapse in judgment of the candidate he supports. He wrote:
Trump’s politicization of this life-or-death issue is wholly disqualifying. Lives are at stake, and once again Trump has used the situation for political gain. It shows he is not fit to serve as President.
Which brings me, sadly, to Elizabeth Warren and her proffer of a bill that ties COVID-19 funding to border wall de-funding.
Obviously, if passed Trump would veto the bill. Of course, the bill will never even get a vote. But that fact doesn’t make it any better. Warren has thrown gasoline on the trope that COVID-19 is a Democratic hoax being used to score points against Trump. Indeed, that claim is half true with respect to Sen. Warren: Warren is using COVID-19 to score points against Trump. But COVID-19 is not a hoax. People are already dying.
...
The decision by Warren to tie the border wall defunding to funding the COVID-19 response, a wholly unrelated issue of life and death, is the single worst idea I’ve heard from a Democrat in memory. In my view it is wholly disqualifying.
I am proud to be one of Warren’s constituents, I donated several times to her campaign, and I have vacillated between supporting her and Sanders as my nominee. Many of you know that I have made up my mind to vote for Sanders, but I continue to want both of them to achieve the goals we share. I wish my Senator nothing but success and hope that people not sold on Sanders will recognize that she is the best alternative to meet the demands of the times we live in. As a matter of fact, I agree with both goals represented by this proposal, and yet, Simian is absolutely correct. Almost.
I diverge after the fold...
Simian: In my view it is wholly disqualifying.
Nothing for me would make a candidate more qualified for office than an ability to listen to facts and advice from constituents and professionals, and have the humility to change course.
It is never too late to learn and become a teacher. It is never too late to heal and become a nurse. Her dangerous mingling of two vitally important goals is not disqualifying if she recognizes the dangerousness of feeding into the GOP-generated paranoia. This kind of messaging is politically sound but can have catastrophic consequences if not corrected.
As a nurse, I worry about how many of my co-workers will be reluctant to take the risk to show up because that creeping doubt already has occurred to me. My wife teaches health, and she’s already wondering when it will be necessary for her school to close its doors and when we should make that choice with our own two children. My parents are getting old, my neighbor’s respiratory status is frail, my immunocompromised friends are even more stressed out than the rest of us, and the last thing any of us needs is for even just one person that believes the ‘Democratic hoax’ BS to fill their gas, or purchase their groceries, or cast their ballot in the same locations any of us do.
And yes, we can all take precautions, but the rate at which this develops into a pandemic matters. Gasoline on the fire is too mild an analogy for the deception by tRump that Warren just abetted. I voted for her twice and donated to her campaign. I’m calling her Senate office today to let her know that she just made my workplace less safe, and that she needs to acknowledge her grievous lapse in judgment so she can help save lives.
We should all be condemning the politicization and grotesque incompetence of this administration. Any push to extract even the most just concession to the competent response to this threat is itself a threat to us all.
*********
I just got off the phone with a staffer at her DC office. I told him how much it matters to me as a constituent that has trusted her and shares her goals, that she flatly and humbly acknowledges her mistake, and does what’s necessary to help. Thank you Simian for clearly voicing what has been troubling me from before Liz had this lapse of judgment.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, contact information
Washington
309 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4543
Boston
2400 JFK Federal Building
15 New Sudbury Street
Boston, MA 02203
Phone: (617) 565-3170
Springfield
1550 Main Street
Suite 406
Springfield, MA 01103
Phone: (413) 788-2690
**********
I almost started crying when I called my Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley’s office. I recalled the three words that one of the core medics at Standing Rock repeated no matter how dangerous or traumatic situations became:
Spread The Calm
To deal with a situation as dire as this, we need to expect humility and forgiveness. Warren, Pressley, every candidate we support, even the ones we despise, need to be welcomed into being part of the solution. Those who helped stoke paranoia, despair and division need to learn how to amend their transgressions. Those who have the judgment and clarity to discern the correct path need to demonstrate how.
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, (202) 225-5111
Please. If you want those with a bully pulpit to help spread the calm, reach out to them, and then look for ways you can find your own soapbox.
We need to lead by example. If tRump is jeopardizing the lives of his constituents, we should be the ones that erect no barriers to them accepting reality. This is not a hoax at all. We don’t have time to dispel all paranoia before we try to stop the pandemic. I know we’re just about out of time on the climate emergency, but this virus will kill millions even more rapidly. Please understand that I support Warren and want her to fix the situation as best as she can. She might even show a couple Republicans that Democrats can admit their mistakes without conceding that the border wall is a monument to white supremacy and a boondoggle.
We need to set aside all other differences when addressing a public health risk of this magnitude. If you want to declare that nobody should avoid going to get tested because they can’t afford the visit, that’s completely different, because it pertains directly to our ability to stem this crisis. If she insists that doctors and nurses must be given access to the innocents in detention at the border, again, I passionately endorse that objective.
I couldn’t be more outraged at the racist demagoguery of this administration, but we must stay laser-focused, specific and disciplined when dealing with Covid-19. There are several ways the kidnapper-in-chief has undermined our ability to confront this challenge. We must address these, and cannot honestly extract them from our own pandemic prevention strategy. We don’t need to set aside other equally vital priorities altogether as we challenge Republicans to get with the program, but we do need to make sure every single issue we link to our response, is inextricable.
- Guarantee access to diagnosis and treatment, regardless of financial or geographic limitations
- Focus on adaptation and mitigation strategies, especially in highly vulnerable institutions (transportation, medical professions, education, food supply chain, etc)
- Providing up-to-date factual information about prevention and high risk items
- Encourage reporting and responsible data sharing
- Release people, including immigrants, from any confinement where they lack access to adequate care by trained medical professionals and sanitary conditions
- Coordinate with global partners and adversaries to improve best practices and scientific progress
- End sanctions on Iran and the bombing campaign in Yemen