Goo for Guts Democratic Moderates Complain About Condemning Trump, Defending Pelosi.

(Above – Your shadow is only gonna get scarier when you’re alone.)

Greg Sargent, in his Plum Line Blog @ The Washington Post, wrote about a group of moderate Democrats who took to the pages of The New York Times to express their “discomfort” in being asked to support the House Resolution condemning *rump for his racist attacks of four Democratic Congresswomen and opposing  the Rethuglicans efforts to strike Speaker Pelosi’s comments about that resolution from the record, in which she dared to call a racist a racist.

Below is Pelosi’s statement in support of the resolution and Rep. Cleaver’s reaction to Republican protests to hearing the truth:

"I abandon the chair."

Here's the exchange on the House floor in which Rep. Doug Collins said Pelosi's statement should be stricken from the record, leading Rep. Emanuel Cleaver to storm off pic.twitter.com/554pLLERa7

— Bloomberg TicToc (@tictoc) July 16, 2019

And here is the moderates’ complaint, from the Times:

“While Democrats were publicly unanimous in their support of the resolution, some moderate lawmakers from Republican-leaning districts that backed Mr. Trump in 2016 privately voiced their discomfort. They said that while the president’s comments had been racist, the party was playing into his hands by spending so much time condemning his remarks, according to centrist lawmakers and senior aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

They were particularly angry about being asked to vote to condone Ms. Pelosi’s breach of the rules, which two of them described as throwing moderate lawmakers “under the bus” in order to help the speaker shore up support among progressives who had been alienated by her feud with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and her allies. One lawmaker described the upshot of the extraordinary episode as “another week burned on his terms instead of ours.”

Sargent was sympathetic to their political situation, but, like me, incensed about their cowardice.

“This is just terrible. To be clear, I’m sympathetic to the plight of moderates. It’s true that they inhabit districts that are far more Republican-leaning than, say, those of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of “the Squad.”

Some of the positions House moderates adopt are understandable. I personally favor an impeachment inquiry, but recognize that moderates might have legitimate political hesitations, and also recognize that the arguments against launching one are not wildly absurd. On immigration, the Senate border supplemental that moderates ultimately supported was far worse than the House version in terms of protections for migrants, but the Senate version was far better than nothing, and backing it was not unreasonable…

No amount of time condemning this — no amount of time spent telling the country as loudly and urgently as possible that it is wrong, and that the Democratic Party stands for the proposition that it is entirely unacceptable in a president — is too much…

Moderate Democrats: No matter how purple your district is, if you can’t explain to swing voters why Trump’s racist and white-nationalist displays and provocations are unacceptable in terms that they’ll understand — if this isn’t a fight you want to have — then you should ask yourself what the heck you’re doing there in the first place.”

I agree 100% with Sargent’s remarks and, for myself, will say this:

I recognize that Republican gerrymanders have made it necessary for Democrats to win purple districts in order to maintain control of the House. But the foundation on which we build that House majority is created by women who reject the Republican attempts to strip from them the autonomy of their own bodies, and minority communities the Republicans seek to marginalize every day. If, through moral cowardice or political calculation members of the Democratic party allow any part of this foundation to be chipped away we will cease to be competitive at all.

Instead of going to the NY Times and complaining about being asked to do the right thing, go to your districts and explain to voters WHY you are doing the right thing. They voted for you for a reason, go back and show them their vote was not wasted.

And remember:

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