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Congrats. Big breath. Better sleep. And onward.
Happy inauguration, Comrades, and congrats again to all of us ICG peeps for the hard work we put in to this election, and to resisting this dangerous cretin for four long years. We’ve learned a lot, and we’ve come together as an awesome, organized, and effective progressive advocacy force.
Enjoy this time fully. Sleep well. Let your tenseness unwind. You’ve earned it. And then we’ll move forward, as there will always be progressive interests to be held up and worked for. It will be a relief to work at a more normal pace, and in a more proactive, less put-out-the-new-fire way. It’s already refreshing to see Biden knocking out some powerful executive orders and installing experienced, topical experts in his Cabinet. But there are plenty of issues at federal and state (and some local) levels that will need our advocacy - environment, climate, social services, race, economic equity, campaign finance reform - and we’ll be on it. And when mid-terms roll around again in 2022, we’ll be on that too.
The Insurrection: White supremacist domestic terrorism
The January 6 attack on the Capitol seemed to be about Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. While that was the rallying cry for the event, drummed up for weeks before Jan. 6 by Trumpists like our newly elected CD2 Congressman Cliff Bentz, a rabid racism appears to be the long-lasting glue underneath.
Photos of the mob showed people with tattoos and insignias of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups. The flags being waved were Confederate. The crowd, including middle-age suburbanites, was almost exclusively white. On their way to storm the Capitol, a group of white insurgents broke into a peaceful BLM vigil nearby, re-enacted the murder of George Floyd while shouting the "N" word, then continued on to go storm the Capitol.
The insurgents, and unfortunately, millions of Americans like them, found sustenance and reassurance in the racism and xenophobia of the Trump administration. The huge anti-racist response from around the country and around the world to the murder of George Floyd upended that reassurance. It has brought renewed attention to the many murders of blacks by police and others in the recent past. It has prompted open examination of white privilege, implicit bias, and systemic racism. It has forced institutional reassessment of “diversity” efforts, recognizing many have been only window-dressing.
This is a threatening time for racists who see their “ruling class” status changing. We getting through the transition to a new administration. We’re moving beyond the specious claims of voting fraud. We’ll still need to work on the racism that has flourished in this country for over 250 years.
CD2 Rep. Cliff Bentz - Part of the Problem
Rep. Cliff Bentz showed himself very quickly to be part of the Trump insurrection crowd. He started drumming up Trump’s baseless charges of election fraud in December, then voted to object to Pennsylvania's presidential electors on Jan. 6. He stated he objected to the PA electors because he believed PA’s decision to extend the deadline for return of absentee ballots violated the Constitution. And this in spite of the fact that the 10,000 ballots in question, postmarked by Election Day but received afterward, were not even included in PA's vote count. Not what you’d call solid reasoning.
Many are rightfully looking toward the 2022 election cycle when Bentz can be replaced by a candidate with more integrity and commitment to democratic process. Oregon’s redistricting process will wrap up this summer, and the planning for retiring Mr. Bentz can begin in earnest.
Two Environmental Victories: Power of Our Voices
On Jan. 19, FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) sided with Oregon against the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and pipeline. This project had been on the drawing board for 15 years, and sought to build a 229-mile pipeline that would cross 300 rivers, streams and wetlands in Oregon, as well as a marine export terminal in Coos Bay for the piped gas. Oregon DEQ had recently denied the project a clean water permit, which the owner, Pembina, appealed to FERC. The pipeline would have been an environmental disaster in and of itself, and the entire project would have further built climate-damaging infrastructure in our state.
Two days later, Gov. Jay Inslee and the WA Dept of Ecology denied a key permit for the world’s largest fracked gas-to-methanol refinery, proposed for Kalama, WA, citing significant danger to our climate and WA’s shorelines. Several Tribal Nations and thousands of people across the PNW had advocated to Inslee and Ecology against the refinery.
If you acted on one of our many calls-to-action about one or both of these projects, THANK YOU and CONGRATULATIONS!! Our voices have power!
Quotes
If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it. - Sen. Lindsey Graham, on Twitter 5/3/2016
I have a feeling Mt. Rushmore is off the table. - Seen on Twitter 1/13/21.
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