Can Parlor Games Save Us Now?
Dear Democratic leaders:
Now is not the time for parlor games.
The MAGA and Musk team are thwarting our democracy and plundering our national resources at breakneck speed. We must all meet this Constitutional Crisis with speed, with new strategies, and with bold acts of defiance.
Now is not the time for parlor games.
Democratic leaders, you are not simply fighting against “the other side of the aisle.” This is not the usual partisan battle, nor the prelude to your next election campaign. You are operating against a man who wants to make himself king. You must use the strategies that people use to fight kings.
Now is not the time for parlor games.
The President and his right wing and white nationalist allies are operating with a sense of arrogance and impunity from court oversight. They are breaking the law and waiting for the courts to catch up to them. Even when the courts might eventually rule in favor of justice, it happens too late. It happens after an Executive Order has set in motion bad processes at agencies. It happens after the employees threatened with firing have quit in disgust.
And, worse, the court rulings can come after an unconstitutional Executive Order has frightened vulnerable people into believing they are already smashed. Or, after a person has voluntarily left, believing that they will soon be deported. The courts cannot fix sudden fear inspired by the sudden moves of a would-be despot.
Now is not the time for parlor games.
Democrat Congresspeople, you did not need to be sitting in the room as the Orange President took the world stage with his calculated and demoralizing Joint Session speech. Your presence helped fool some people into thinking our government was still operating correctly. Every minute of your silence was approval of the coup that MAGA and the white supremacists are unfolding inside the heart of our government.
You should have been outside with any brave Americans who were in the street outside the building.
Or, while the MAGA and Musk team were busy self-aggrandizing, you should have used your power to be in government buildings: to save documents, to save the government, or to leave the DOGE team secret, descriptive notes on their desks. Anything, but to be a mostly passive audience to the MAGA coup and chaos crew.
Now is not the time for parlor games.
Congressman Al Green was right to wave his golden cane of righteousness at the morally contemptible Orange President.
And, the Democratic Congresspeople who came out to sing “We Shall Overcome” and stand by Al Green, they were not only justified to overturn some rules of decorum: They were brave and they were correct, to stand up to the destruction and the plundering of the MAGA insurrection happening right now inside our United State government.
We all — elected officials, candidates, residents, and citizens — must stand up to this historical plundering and outrage. A human being can not sit down and fix something that is so swift and so wrong.
Dear Democratic leaders: Now is not the time for parlor games.
When you have a strategy session, please invite those Democrats who are brave and bold and creative. You must invite Congressperson Al Green to plan with you. You must invite Congressperson Jasmine Crockett. You must invite Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez into the backrooms with you. You need to listen to these folks who have risen above the fray with courage and creativity. They are on to something.
And, if there is a Democrat who has been around a long time, sure, you can lean a little bit on their reasoning and institutional knowledge. Ask them to submit a position paper to the committee meeting. But, please, please, do not let any longtime, rulebook-following, inside-playing Democrat officials come into a meeting about how to counter an insurrection, and talk down the brave people from being brave, or make overly nice suggestions on how to play parlor games with the Republicans.
Now is not the time for parlor games.
Now is the time for revolutionary actions both inside and outside our government. Now is the time: for revolution; for bravery; for singing together inside government buildings; and for waving golden canes of justice.
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Kimberly Wilder is a poet, community organizer, and perennial candidate. She lives in Riverhead, Long Island, NY and likes to cause good trouble side-by-side with her family and friends.
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