Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez’s town hall last week attracted an overflow crowd. Before she entered the room, I asked her to defend democracy. We made eye contact and she heard me. But during her talk, she ignored a sign in her direct line of sight demanding a response to Trump’s power grab. Instead, she sold us bipartisanship, the right to repair, the usual stuff.
Marie, do you recognize our national emergency or is that out of your comfort zone? Will you stop voting for bills that scapegoat vulnerable people and provide the legal footing to remove more guardrails? Are you willing to put your job on the line to defend our country? Yours is a precious swing vote, which confers awesome power and great responsibility.
Please don’t look away from the authoritarian playbook unfolding right now, which aims to destroy our civil society and free press, decimate government services, enable massive corruption, and wreck our economy so people struggle and are easily manipulated to blame Democrats. If Trump’s outrages instigate mass protests, he’ll have his excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act, enabling military rule. You must take courage and use the power we’ve given you to defend our democracy.
