The Resistance

This story was going to have a softer title, but I just can’t right now. I’m mad. So it’s time for strong words about what happened yesterday. (Explicit Language ahead.)

What happened yesterday in the House is beyond anything I could have ever imagined the GOP would do. Simply put, it’s unjustifiable. Even by their ridiculous standards. Fortunately, it actually helps make them look like people we shouldn’t trust anymore. As Seth Meyers brilliantly pointed out on “A Closer Look” (which everyone should watch, btw), the GOP just did what they complained falsely about Democrats doing when the Affordable Care Act was originally passed. He played clips of Paul Ryan complaining that ramming the ACA through Congress wasn’t democratic, there wasn’t enough bipartisan debate, public feedback, CBO scoring, etc. But let’s just make this as clear as possible, that was all BULLSHIT. They were lying when they said they cared about that stuff. They just hated the bill and they wanted to complain about it. In reality, the ACA took over a year to pass through Congress, there was plenty of bipartisan support for it, the public actually got a chance to read it, the CBO did an analysis of it, and now Americans everywhere can benefit from it.

What did the GOP do with the American Healthcare Act? Everything they said they hated. They just finished the revisions of it Wednesday night, there was no time for a CBO score analysis, and GOP Congressmen willingly admitted that they hadn’t even had time to read the bill! They are full of SHIT and next year we should flip as many districts BLUE as we possibly can. Hmm, so what is in the bill that they didn’t read? Well, nothing good. Let’s go through some of the lowlights! States can opt out of covering essential health benefits such as mental health, hospital stays, and even ambulances. WTF? Someone who is sick and injured must now drive themselves to the hospital. That sounds like a good idea. States can now charge patients with pre-existing conditions more. What do GOP Congressmen think qualifies as a pre-existing condition? Well, sexual assault can now be classified as a pre-existing condition. That is morally repugnant. Take a second to think about what kind of havoc that will cause in the life of a woman who has already been through a traumatic experience. Now a woman would have to think twice about getting a rape kit done to make a man pay for what he did because her premium might spike for that. That is BULLSHIT. Thankfully, the Senate still has to revise this bill and I’m hearing they want to scrap the House bill entirely and write their own. But guess who is writing the Senate bill? All men! Seriously, you guys couldn’t even invite a woman’s input into this? This is the GOP we elected to run our government. 2018 can’t come soon enough! I’ll be out there canvassing for Democratic candidates, volunteering to sign up new voters, and writing this blog or wherever will publish me.

Now that I’m a little calmed down, how about I get to what I originally wanted to write about. The original title of this post was going to be “Why I Write this Blog.” I intended for it to be a more measured argument about why I feel this blog is necessary. Simply put, I started writing this blog after learning a lot about the Korean political impeachment from a blog. And what I realized was that there is a chance to inform others with depth and detail about the goings-on in government in a way that is entertaining and helpful. Shout-out to the Ask a Korean blog! http://askakorean.blogspot.kr/?m=1 It’s a must-read if you need to know about Korean politics in English like I do. Anyway, I decided that I wanted to share what I learn through reading the news and take my chance to advance my ideas forward. Not because they are good ideas but because they are ideas worth sharing and ideas with merit. You have those ideas too, whoever you are. I invite you to share them with me! Your voice is worth hearing, reading, listening to.

That’s what I hope to accomplish with my blog. I want to hear my own voice. I want it to be louder, prouder, and more confident of what I believe. Do you have to believe what I believe? Absolutely not. But if you read my stories and come around to my point of view, then that’s an added bonus. That’s gravy. The real goal is that I can raise a voice and add it to the resistance to everything that is going on in our country right now. This is not the country I want to see us become, and I intend to do my part to change our world. That work starts here. I’m naturally a quiet person. But if I can make my voice loud here, I can make it loud anywhere. I can make it loud as a protester. I can make it loud as a newspaper Op-Ed columnist. I can make it loud as a canvasser volunteering for Democrats I believe in. I can make it loud for my clients when I finally have a place to practice my social work. I can make it loud for the woman’s rights issues I believe in.

I am done being quiet. There is simply no more room for quiet, obedient people. It is time to RESIST. It is time to stand up and say that what is going on isn’t right and we won’t accept it. That is the RESISTANCE!