This week, many elected officials sworn āto protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against enemies foreign and domesticā ignored and abrogated that oath. But itās not just Ted Cruz & Josh Hawley or the other well-publicized cases on CNN & MSNBC. Itās not even just the West Virginia legislator who has already resigned.
As time passes, weāre finding out even more individuals either directly participated in or promoted this violent insurrection that led to the deaths of five people. One of those individuals is a Virginia legislator whom Iāve sat inches away from, Senator Amanda Chase ā who is also currently a candidate for Governor of Virginia.
Many other politicos in the state have laughed off her antics ā which include coming strapped to the State Capitol. (For those who donāt know what the euphemism āstrappedā means, it means that she comes to the Capitol with her firearm on her hip.) She can be seen here gleefully sporting her firearm in the Privileges and Elections Committee.
Again, until this week, her antics were considered idiosyncratic and somewhat humorous to some. To others, like myself, they have always been dangerous and unhinged. Even now, people who truly donāt understand what the GOP has metastasized into, believe that her candidacy is dead in the water. NOT TRUE. This is the Republican Party of Virginia ā who just two and some change years ago nominated and fully backed racist Corey Stewart ā who was even too trumpy for Trump and was fired as their state leader.
The FBI is running down the names and identities of individuals who got themselves mixed up in this Kooky Klan K(c)OVID rally; the country-jacking that they attempted after losing over and over. For today, these efforts have luckily been unsuccessful, but these individuals will not stop.
Law enforcement can bring the full weight of the law upon all of them (just as if they were black). Unfortunately, we know thatās probably not going to happen. So the remedy weāre left with, as citizens, is to disinfect our democracy by contesting every election; making every Republican answer. Itās up to us, as citizens, to apply the remedy to these perpetrators of sedition.
Thatās why I am on the horn every day talking to candidates who will challenge Virginia Republicans. Many say, āDonāt contest that district! Itās not winnable.ā I say, āf*** that.ā No team during Jordanās hay-day came to Chicago and said, āweāre just going to play 4 on 5 against the Bulls. Jordanās just too good to even try to guard.ā Thatās because when sports franchises fail, people lose their jobs. When political parties fail, their consultants fail up and end up getting even cushier jobs. Iām not having that this year.
Weāve got 45 Republican-held seats in the Virginia House of Delegates. Iām making sure we apply electoral disinfectant in all of those districts ā no matter how āRepublicanā they are. You canāt win if you donāt play and weāre going to play. Weāve got at least 15 with individuals who are in the process of getting their paperwork in or who have already done so. There are a couple of places to go to follow this. You can follow @90For90 on Twitter, or follow along as many do in Virginia at VPAP.org.
I welcome all 15 Democratic statewide candidates to join me. (As an aside, itās a beautiful thing that we have so many people stepping up to run. It means Democrats sense opportunity and theyāre right.)
These are the folks who are running statewide and who would benefit from increased Democratic turnout and candidate participation across the state. Elections are frequently won by hundreds of votes. Are you telling me that having candidates on the ballot in āRepublicanā areas will not increase the statewide candidatesā vote count in the November general election? Sell that bridge somewhere else.
The answer to this attempted country-jacking is for us to maximize participation in our democracy; to push back on this nonsense at the polls; to make Republicans realize that they canāt cheat, suppress, or lie their way out of this. I refuse to be part of allowing them to have freebies. Join me. Register some voters. Get them out to the polls. Work for candidates.
Organize. Fight. Win. 🗽
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Iām Matt Rogers. In addition to a member of the Resistance and of the DailyKos community, Iām a candidate for the Virginia House of Delegatesā 47th District. Talk to me in the comment thread.
