-by John Amato
On January 6, Trump held a MAGA rally in Washington D.C. to try and illegally force Congress to block congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. Trump told his followers to march with him to the Capitol and fight like hell. And that’s just what they did.
As the MAGA mob headed to the Capitol, in a historic and unprecedented move over a hundred House Republicans and six Republican senators betrayed their oath to the US Constitution and joined the Trump Insurrection by objecting to the certification.
The U.S. Capitol was sacked for the first time since the British took the Capitol in 1814. Rioters marauded through the halls of congress, hunting down Speaker Pelosi and chanting "Hang Mike Pence!"
Five people died, dozens were injured and our democracy was severely damaged. And yet even after the Capitol was finally taken back by capitol police, those same Republican lawmakers once more aided and abetted the Insurrection by objecting to the certification of the election.
Liam O'Mara is a southern California history professor running for Congress in a red-leaning suburban district. This morning he told us that "People often forget that Benito Mussolini came to power legally, through the craven action of the king and his ministers, who capitulated in the face of terror-tactics from the Blackshirts as they marched to Rome. (Mussolini himself was conspicuously absent from the violent mob rather than at its head.) On the sixth of January the U.S. saw its own March on Rome, with the president having called his supporters to DC for planned mayhem and unleashed them on the Capitol. (Then, like his predecessor, he hid during the action and did nothing.) The Members of Congress who voted, after the chaos and violence, to endorse the conspiracies belched up by our own Mango Mussolini are every bit as craven and dishonourable as their Italian forebears, and ought to be removed from office by whatever legal means we have. I am running against Crooked Ken Calvert to make sure the stain of these actions will not long rest on Riverside County."
Today is is Martin Luther King Day and those craven Republican actions are in direct opposition to everything Dr. King stood for. His principles of peace and love have stood the test of time as shining examples of what America is and can be, while the GOP has become the party of mayhem and insurrection.
Blue America has identified an "anti-Insurrection caucus" of pro-Democracy Democrats who abide by the U.S. Constitution, patriots who follow Martin Luther King's moral example and have the spine to stand up to the Insurrectionist Republicans. If you would like to show your appreciation you can donate here to let them know that you have their backs just as they had yours on that terrible day.
Colin Byrd is taking on Steny Hoyer in the 2022 primary. He told us that "inspired in part by civil rights activists like Martin Luther King Jr. and Bernie Sanders," he long ago made a lifelong commitment to fighting racism and to progressive activism."
"I’ve organized with Black Lives Matter and worked for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as well as Environment Maryland," he continued. "I was a Bernie delegate in 2016, and I am now humbled and grateful to be the youngest Black mayor in America running against the Number 2 House Democrat, Steny Hoyer. This is the first time Steny is being challenged by a sitting progressive elected official from the county that has the highest voter turnout in his district, and I am committed to crushing him by 20 plus points. But, more than winning, I will champion Universal Basic Income and Medicare for All, and, as the mayor of Greenbelt, I am especially well suited to champion the Green New Deal. Greenbelt is the most sustainable city in Maryland, and Greenbelt was literally created by the New Deal. I also support tuition free public college, cancelling student loan debt, paying teachers more, ending mass incarceration, greater investment in mass transit, taxing the rich, public financing for campaigns, and abolishing ICE, for starters. I’m running against Steny because he ignores my city and because I can actually win. I actually called on Steny to support impeaching Donald Trump the Sunday before the insurrection. When I heard the call Trump made to Georgia’s Secretary of State, I prophetically saw danger near, and Steny ignored my request, and, even after the insurrection, he was one of the last House Democrats to support impeachment. He took even longer to take the right position on impeachment than other Democrats in House leadership like Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries, and Katherine Clark."
Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, who is running for the open seat being vacated by Deb Haaland in Albuquerque, told us that "The peaceful transition of power is the foundation of our democracy. It is disturbing that this president betrays that ideal with falsehoods and attempted insurrection. His four years of racist and hateful policies against people of color and immigrants has sown fear and division in this nation of immigrants. I was chilled to see the Confederate flag carried into the Capitol upon the violent breaching of the perimeter. It made me realize that Trump was inciting hate filled emotions and racist values that were carried over from the Civil War to achieve power for himself. He cares nothing for the damage he has done, and continues to do to this country. Congress should impeach him under the impeachment Clause of the Constitution and bar him from ever holding elected office again under the 14th Amendment. Section Three of the 14th amendment was designed to quell insurrection after the Civil War. It is time that it is used again, over a century later, to stop a president whose personal ambition would lead him to destroy our democracy."
Please consider supporting the candidates, like Colin Byrd, Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and Liam O'Mara, who will always stand tall and strong for Dr. King's principles of peace and love and never buckle under to the darkness that has come to represent today's Republican Party. Please click on the Blue America congressional thermometer above and contribute what you can to the candidates on our 2021 and 2022 list.
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