Roy Exum
For several years I have enjoyed the news website, “The Huffington Post,” but yesterday it was removed from my computer’s Favorites bar. I believe my political stance is that of a “moderate conservative” but HuffPo has gone from “liberal,” which I often enjoy, to “way left,” which I do not. On Wednesday there was a news story with the headline, “To Save America We Must Stop Being Polite And Immediately Start Raising Hell.” It was clearly over the top.
The author, Michelangelo Signorile, apparently wants to incite riots.
He claims President Trump made his “most authoritarian power grab” to date when Trump canned FBI Director James Comey. The writer claims fascism is near, “It’s time to move beyond polite protests within specified boundaries. It’s time to escalate the expression of our outrage and our anger in a massive way,” the firebrand urged America.
“Starting today and from here on, no elected official, certainly those in the GOP defending and supporting Trump on a variety of issues, for example should be able to sit down for a nice, quiet lunch or dinner in a Washington, DC eatery or even in their own homes.” Signorile wrote. “They should be hounded by protestors everywhere, especially in public in restaurants, in shopping centers, in their districts, and yes, on the public property outside their homes and apartments, in Washington and back in their home states.”
On Tuesday in West Virginia, Health Secretary Tom Price was walking to the state capitol when Dan Heyman, a reporter for Public News Service, started aggressively peppering Price with questions about health care. The reporter thrust his cell phone between members of the Secret Service and was audibly told to move back. With Secretary Price silent, Heyman pushed harder and was promptly arrested, spending eight hours in jail and now out under a $5,000 bond.
News reports confirmed Heyman was far from “professional” and the police incident log read, “Heyman was aggressively breaching the Secret Service agents to the point where the agents were forced to remove him." One state official concurred: “It was his physical action and not that he was asking questions that crossed the line.”
What really matters in Signorile’s wish for what he calls “The Resistance” to “immediately start raising hell” came true.
Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education, was the commencement speaker at Bethune-Cookman, a traditional black university in Florida. The nation’s liberal newspaper reported she was roundly booed while the state newspapers said there was “mixed” reaction. One thing is for certain: When graduates heckled DeVos and turned their backs to her, B-C president Edison Jackson interrupted the speaker and told those graduating, “If this behavior continues, your degrees will be mailed to you. Choose which way you want to go.”
DeVos also asked for calm. “Let’s choose to hear one another out,” DeVos said, “I am here to demonstrate in the most direct way possible that I and the administration are fully committed to your success and to the success of every student across this great country.”
No matter – the Bethune-Cookman crowd, which delivered 50,000 signatures of protest to the university’s board of trustees, wanted in on the quickly-morphing "Resistance.”
Signorile wrote he didn’t exactly want violence but cited incidents with gay rights activists worked so valiantly to halt the spread of AIDS some years ago. “The sacred floor of the New York Stock Exchange was invaded. The National Institutes of Health were stormed. The CBS Evening News was literally interrupted by an activist who got on the set.
“Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral by the virulent homophobe Cardinal O’Connor was stopped by die-ins in the aisles of the iconic church. A giant condom was even lowered over the home of the late horrifically anti-gay Republican senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina,” he recalled in his article.
The writer also heartily endorsed civil disobedience. Seriously! “Desperate times call for desperate measures, and for civil disobedience in the tradition of the civil rights movement. Democrats who don’t push hard should be targeted too. Right now, all business in the Senate should be made to stop immediately by Democrats, for example, until we have special counsel in the Russia probe (which Democrats have called for). And we have to make them do it.”
Lord have mercy – all of this on a news website! “So, I’m imploring some in the Resistance to up the ante. Everything that’s already been undertaken - the marches, the phone calls to Congress, the letter-writing, the protests, the town halls, putting up candidates for House races has been powerful and needs to continue. But it’s time to be more forceful and more captivating.
“The firing of Comey is an audacious turn toward fascism that must be stopped before it’s too late. We are now fighting for our lives as we know them. There’s no time to waste,” Signorile warned in closing.
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JUST BEFORE YOU push life’s “reset,” there is this: On Tuesday of this week Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed a bill that – hello! -- increases fines for civil disobedience, and seeks to punish “conspirator” organizations. The ordinance, HB 2128, targets protests that disrupt “critical infrastructure” with felony charges and a minimum of a $10,000 fine. There are further fines of up to $100,000 and up to 10 years in jail for those found damaging facilities. Trust me, legislation across the country will follow. Sleep easy.
royexum@aol.com