by Helen C. Tansey
February 5, 2020
Frances Perkins: “The door might not be opened to a woman again for along, long time and I had a kind of duty to other women to walk in and sit down on the chair that was offered, and so establish the right of others long hence and far distant in geography to sit in the high seats.” (to Carrie Chapman Catt)
Madame Speaker, you and you alone have setback the hard-earned, hard-fought suffragist movement decades in mere seconds by appallingly ripping up the President’s State of the Union address behind his back last night. Your thoughtless, disrespectful, angry behavior as Speaker of the House NOT Speaker of the Progressive/Neoliberal Party would never have been achieved without standing on the shoulders of those strong, formidable, purposeful women who came before you.
Madame Speaker, you are no Suffragist. Neither is your merry band of sycophants who too wear white in faux solidarity exploiting our foremother’s history for your own selfish purposes. No, your actions throughout last night’s State of the Union address was unbecoming of a leader of us proud, honorable, strong suffragists. True suffragists know we come from a long line of women who would never allow our emotions to trump our focused actions. True suffragists know we win through strength, thoughtfulness and preparation for our moments in history. True suffragists know our work is bigger than ourselves.
Those shoulders you stood on last night provided you with the opportunity to reach the pinnacle of power you so abuse. Those shoulders you and your colleagues stood on provided all of you a front row seat to power rather than merely watching it as a spectator from the Gallery.
Your collective idiocy has set back women’s ability to be taken seriously in the power houses of America for decades.
Your nervous antics throughout the President’s address – your constant shuffling of the papers of the President’s speech, your constant stares toward your faux suffragists, your constant mouth movement, your constant eye movement, your constant head nodding – wasn’t that of a Stateswoman, but rather of a jittery high school teenager cowardly making fun of your teacher behind his back all the while attempting to look cool in front of your classmates. Watching you was just plain awful. Obviously, your intention was to distract and fooled no one.
President Trump has made no secret for his lack of trust in you nor has any use for your political ineptness. We know you nor Sen. Schumer were clued in on the military operation in Iraq that assassinated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani. Why? Because the President does not trust either of you. Neither of you were invited to the signing of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, an Agreement you purposely sat on for more than a year. We know the President has wanted to pass a strong infrastructure bill to put more Americans back to work for nearly two years now of which you only recently introduced. All you have achieved as Speaker is dividing your Party even more, which has now grown into an even greater division in our America.
If there is nothing else President Trump has demonstrated through his actions these last three years it’s his lack of desire to even entertain playing politics with a bunch of vipers who have relentlessly, with little consequence, trashed him, his family, his staff, his achievements and his voters. What sane person would? Especially given the depths you and your DC/NYC Swamp pals have gone to, since the day he was sworn into office, to destroy him.
Well Madame Speaker, the line you crossed last night is a line too far. This life long devoted suffragist has lost all patience with the whole lot of you. I am tired of your lies. I am tired of your wasteful, useless schemes. I am tired of your expressed hatred for President Donald J. Trump. I am tired of your relentless whining, excuses and sanctimonious attitude. Most of all, Madame Speaker, I am tired of you hating America.
Your neoliberal/neocon World Order is dead. After last night’s abhorrent public display of anger, you nor your colleagues have any hope in resurrecting it. Ever. You have demonstrated quite clearly, on a world stage at that, that you are incapable of decorum let alone strong-focused leadership that serves America. It is time to either relinquish your Speakership or to resign altogether. Honestly, Madame Speaker, your services are no longer needed. America with all her blemishes is back and we, the true suffragists will never trust you to protect our precious freedoms nor our rights again.
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