CONGRESSMAN JAMIE RASKIN, who is Jewish and one of the prosecutors of Trump's first impeachment, has written the closest any American politician will come to saying FU to both Netanyahu & Hamas
THIS 👇🏾
"Contempt for civilian life is the hallmark of terrorist regimes and actors, not liberal democracies. Unlike the terrorists, we reject all notions of mass guilt, collective punishment and deliberate sacrifice of civilian life for military or ideological purposes."
thanks for the heads up about congressman Raskin's first name
a congressperson, aka a member of the US House Of Representatives elected by the constituents of the district they represent from their state, does not speak for the entirety of the US government.
the only one who has been elected to speak for the entirety of the US government is the President of the United States.
Congressman Raskin speaks as a House Representative for the people of his district.
but as a respected member of the House, his refusal to dehumanize Palestinians is important
FWIW here's a great TL;DR about what the US House of Representatives does vs. US Senate
What is the difference between the House and the Senate? In this video we'll look at some of the essential similarities and differences between the House of Representatives and the Senate in the U.S. Government. We'll start with an overview of the Legislative branch of government and what their primary responsibilities are. Then we look at some similarities between the House and the Senate, such as how they are elected, what they do, and where they meet. Then we look into three parts about the differences between the two. The first part focuses on how often they are elected, what their requirements are to be a representative or a senator, and who they represent. In part 2 of the differences, we look at how they function differently. And in part 3, we look at how the leadership differ between the House and the Senate, including the positions of Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader and Senate Minority Leader. Source: https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/resources-and-activities/CVC_EED_StudentEssay_HouseSenate.pdf #House #Senate #USGovernment #Politics #Congress
Y'ALL!
Congressman Raskin has been on a roll this week:
"As Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) told me over email: “It would seem to go without saying that if they want our help, they can’t use the spending power to try to defund federal prosecution of corrupt, insurrectionist, coup-plotting, classified-document-pilfering would-be dictators at-large.”
Opinion | Republicans are desperate for Democratic help to elect a speaker - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/10/16/house-gop-speaker-race-jim-jordan/
@ingo_wichmann @blogdiva Yes, absolutely.
In US politics, "liberal" usually means relatively Left (at least, compared to center-of-US politically 😂 ) So, Republicans are not for that...
But Raskin here is not using that meaning of the term. He's talking about like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism – equal treatment under the law, private property, consent of the governed, freedom of press/speech/etc, and so on. Most Republicans (and most Democrats, I think) are definitely for that kind of "liberal".
@ingo_wichmann @blogdiva Also, worth noting there are some illiberal movements in US politics: see, equal treatment under the law ends up being not so equal sometimes, so instead of trying to fix that, maybe instead we should enforce equal outcomes in some ways. Ibram Kendi's "anti-racism" and related political ideas is an example of this. If you've heard conservatives rail against "Critical Race Theory", this is what the "critical" means: analyzing ways that US Law and "liberal" institutions have failed us.
Conservatives/Republicans are generally opposed to these political movements, so in that sense especially they're positively predisposed to "liberal democracies".
And this is why the fabric of American society is constantly torn apart.
Every post is seen as an opportunity to paint the other side black: "Unlike progressives who stand against Israel."
And this while most 'progressives' as you call them, just as many Jews, only show empathy for individual Palestinians and decry the decades of apartheid and different legal system under which Palestinians had to live.
But you summarise this empathy as: 'stand against Israel'.
There are two sides here and while one revels in committing war crimes, the other must, must do everything possible to avoid them.
speech
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦
Ben
Patricia Kayden
Matt Franz
Paul Wermer, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
therieau
John M Flores
Ingo Wichmann
Erik Haugen
LegalQuilts
Ralph Waldo Pickle Chips
Mark R. Stoneman
James M.
SteveBologna
JJ Peterson
Paul Schoe
Mariasha
Sam Young
Gareth Kitchen
Grant 🇺🇦ArmUkraine🇺🇦
TC Won't Give In To Lies
TAI
Grassroots Joe
geographile