Grateful to Jim Acosta for having me on his show yesterday (watch the full episode here) to talk about the CBS-Colbert-Talarico fallout.
At the end of the show, we had the chance to talk about President Donald J. Trump’s upcoming State of the Union Address (it’s THIS Tuesday, folks) and what Democrats should do to protest.
I made this point, and I think it’s worth reiterating: Democrats have to abandon the “business-as-usual” playbook! We live in a time where democracy-first citizens are peacefully protesting and getting assaulted, and in some cases, murdered for it. If we are to expect our citizens to keep taking a stand against the authoritarians, then our leaders must demonstrate a willingness to acknowledge the gravity of these times.
So, jeering and heckling the President won’t be enough.
Holding signs won’t be enough.
Placing a politician in an empty room, staring at a camera, with forgettable rebuttals to the President’s lies won’t be enough.
Instead, Democrats must do something bold, something different, something unpredictable. Democrats need to boycott the State of the Union en masse. They need to instead occupy a different space, invite victims of Jeffrey Epstein and ICE to join them, and when it’s time to deliver the Democratic Party’s response to the SOTU, turn over the microphone to those brave survivors and let them tell their stories about what happened to them and why they deserve justice.
This is the one time between now and the November midterms that we can deliver a message that is simulcast on every news media outlet in the country - we have to do something different this time. Otherwise, I don’t want to hear from Democratic Party leaders that “democracy is on the line” or that this is the “most important election of our lifetimes.” If you keep treating these moments as business-as-usual, don’t expect anyone to act differently.
