General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Tonight, something kinda magical happened on the steps of the Capitol'
tweeted by, Ben Wikler? @benwikler (Washington Director at @MoveOn.)
1. Tonight, something kinda magical happened on the steps of the Capitol. It started like this:
2. Those two guys on the Capitol steps: NJ Sen @CoryBooker and civil rights hero @repjohnlewis. Another shot of the beginning:
3. Booker and Lewis started a Facebook Live to talk about Trumpcare and what this moment means for America.
6. The person I was trying to meet up with told me he was on the East Capitol steps on the Senate side. I found him, and saw this:
7. @CoryBooker @SenJeffMerkley @ChrisMurphyCT @SenGillibrand & @brianschatz, five fighters, passing around an iPhone. Whoa! Hi, Senators!
8. Maybe 20 people were sitting around them. They were telling stories about health care, laughing, answering questions. Felt like a picnic.
9. I sat down. Realized I was sitting on the jacket of @SenBobCasey, who I realized was sitting next to me. Oops! Hi! Wow! Is this real?
10. Totally real. Organic, spontaneous. Senators kept drifting out. Passers-by kept wandering over and sitting down.
11. This, I thought, must be what democracy is like in very tiny countries, or Ancient Greece. Senators & citizens kibbitzing about issues.
12 The funniest thing to me was seeing people you normally see on TV passing @CoryBooker's phone back and forth to shoot video. @SenSchumer!
13. And then @CoryBooker asked me to speak. And he said, stand up so the crowd can hear you! And I realized it had grown. A lot.
14. Suddenly everyone was on their feetand roaring. Hundreds of people. There spontaneously. Ready to fight for health care.
15. It was hard to get a shot of thr while crowd, but here's a piece of it. That's @ChrisMurphyCT holding the phone, videoing @CoryBooker.
19. People told their stories. A refugee diagnosed with cancer weeks before her graduation, alive now thanks to Medicaid.
20. A child of immigrants, born with a rare disease, now healthy and an organizer fighting for justice for allpreexisting conditions or no.
21. People asked how they could fight. We shared ways to do it. Come protest at the Capitol this week. Protest at local offices. Make calls.
22. @CoryBooker's phone was running out of juice. I had a battery! Very proud that that's my iPhone cable in the photo. Keep it going! at United States Capitol Building
30. Look, I can't predict what will happen this week. Very strong chance it will end tragically. But tonighta spontaneous, joyous protest?
31. Hundreds of people outside the US Capitol at 11pm on a Monday, thunderously promising to show up every day this week to fight Trumpcare?
32. People texting their friends then and there, asking them to show up for the human chain protest this Wednesday? (5pm! You should come!)
33. This is what it's supposed to feel like at the beginning of something big. This is what movements are supposed to feel like.
thread:
Link to tweet
watch video of the event: facebook.com/corybooker/videos/10156979723652228/
Cha
(297,528 posts)L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)Cha
(297,528 posts)sprinkleeninow
(20,254 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Demsrule86
(68,643 posts)The party of life...where as the GOP is death.
Cha
(297,528 posts)Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)But where are their bodyguards, the gop has just gotten $$$$ for?? The gop are afraid to show up at their own districts, they want taxpayer funded protection for themselves. Wouldn't it be easier, and cheaper, to just DO THE RIGHT THING??
appal_jack
(3,813 posts)Last edited Tue Jun 27, 2017, 12:28 PM - Edit history (1)
...Repugs hiding behind closed doors.
I know whom and what I prefer.
k&r,
-app
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)Timmygoat
(779 posts)That's all, just brilliant.
Lotusflower70
(3,077 posts)People looking for hope. People wanting to be heard. It was very necessary. I am glad those people got to voice their stories. It's not statistics that way. These are the faces and voices of those that will be impacted.
brer cat
(24,592 posts)spanone
(135,861 posts)Sugar Smack
(18,748 posts)Thank you for this, bigtree. Thank you so much.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)mcar
(42,372 posts)DownriverDem
(6,231 posts)is we were all warned about what would happen if trump and the repubs won. Why didn't folks believe the warnings? Now everything is a major fight that comes out of the White House and repub controlled Congress.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)Normally I'd say they need to convince about 20 million voters. But really, they need to convince about 3 senators. Not sure this is what will do it. This looked a tad like preaching to the choir. I do think some of those senators though might like a little "choir music".
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)Perhaps the new Caucus could be called the Integrity Caucus, Senators with enough integrity to stand up to Putin, Trump and monetary corruption of democracy.
Link to tweet
3catwoman3
(24,031 posts)Or Caring Caucus. Or Civility Caucus. Or Coalition Caucus.
DownriverDem
(6,231 posts)Did the MSM cover it? That is what this is about.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)and other social media platforms. More and more people are leaving tv news and relying on the immediacy of social media.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)That a couple of hundred people of a like mind got together and agreed with each other for a few hours?
Here's the reality of news. Dog bites man ain't gonna make the news. Man bites dog will.
No flashing lights, no "People Magazine" personalities, makes it really hard to get in the press.
Maybe if Brad Pitt had shown up.
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)are from a Washington Post writer asking for permission to use some of the pictures.
Deb
(3,742 posts)Thank god.
oasis
(49,400 posts)Fla Dem
(23,732 posts)Ellipsis
(9,124 posts)mountain grammy
(26,644 posts)This is beautiful.. Thank you for some inspiration so early in the morning.
AllaN01Bear
(18,353 posts)this is the way demecracy should be.
dhill926
(16,351 posts)just a big freaking fantastic wow.....
FSogol
(45,524 posts)lark
(23,147 posts)I really wish I could have been there, it's sound like it was so amazing, and the best part, it was organic and unplanned. It was people relating to others as people and sharing information about how to beat the plot to steal trillions of working class healthcare dollars and give them directly to the richest of the rich. It was people sharing and learning together. Working together hopefully we can find a way to defeat the effort to implement the Repugs dastardly plan.
Trumpcare = throwing granny out of the nursing home and onto the street or your house.
#RESIST
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,374 posts)Democrats are doing "nothing".
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)That's what they do.
barbtries
(28,810 posts)Thursday we'll know, i guess. Wish i wasn't working on Wednesday, i'd be there!
malaise
(269,157 posts)Rec
panader0
(25,816 posts)alfredo
(60,075 posts)lillypaddle
(9,581 posts)and heartwarming, encouraging, & wonderful.
LakeArenal
(28,837 posts)But of course, the dunderheads would get wind and wreck it for everybody..
TeapotInATempest
(804 posts)and is a good reminder to me that, dammit, our democracy is worth fighting for.
Enoki33
(1,587 posts)Mr. Ected
(9,670 posts)This thread reveals it.
So proud of my party. We may be fighting the odds, but we fight because it's the right thing to do.
So proud.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,681 posts)Here is the Democratic leadership...........sitting on the Capitol steps, talking to whoever came by.
I could not be prouder!
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)This feels wonderfully familiar .
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,681 posts)ailsagirl
(22,898 posts)Thanks so much for posting this!!
mfcorey1
(11,001 posts)AwakeAtLast
(14,133 posts)Absolutely amazing!
riversedge
(70,283 posts)too tired to post.
Lovely to see this.
PubliusEnigma
(1,583 posts)Hekate
(90,773 posts)BarbD
(1,193 posts)Turn CO Blue
(4,221 posts)Wawannabe
(5,676 posts)This is good vibes!
bdamomma
(63,918 posts)it may be corny to say but there is power in numbers.
watch that stupid don the con say they were paid spectators/protesters?
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)I would have gone. That is just beautiful. THIS is what Democracy looks like.
sheshe2
(83,860 posts)Thank you so much for posting this bigtree.
Those are our Dems.
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)I appreciate that they have good intentions. But as usual people who would be most directly affected by the Medicaid cuts are not included.
Heartstrings
(7,349 posts)Resist like bloody hell!
The Wielding Truth
(11,415 posts)iluvtennis
(19,868 posts)yardwork
(61,700 posts)orangecrush
(19,611 posts)Taking the government back foe the people.
lovemydogs
(575 posts)I loved this and wished I was in DC there witnessing it myself. Thank you for bringing us along
calimary
(81,440 posts)Just takes a few to start it. Or two. Or even just one.