While the Senate was first debating The American Rescue Plan back in early March 2021, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) fought to include an amendment to the bill that was later adopted. It was a cause close to her heart that would specifically help those most vulnerable in her state.
After fighting to include her amendment, when it came to pass the bill in the Senate, she voted the same as all Republicans did. Murkowski voted No on The American Rescue Plan. In fact, almost every Republican in both houses of Congress voted No on The American Rescue Plan.
And then the Party of White Supremacy did a very white supremacist thing: It took credit for the hard work of the Party representing the majority of those othered, marginalized, and purposely erased by white supremacy.
The biggest battle for the next 18 months isn’t about what bills to pass. The biggest battle will be about how you, the American People, choose the road that would define your future by either falling back into the grasps of authoritarianism, or, by steadily distancing yourselves from your past failures where you fell for rhetoric weaponizing your White Privilege against your own country, and to instead choose to center real solutions that would heal the root causes of your disease.
For four years, you tasted the boot of shameless tyranny. You were slowly being stripped of your rights, of your humanity, of your voting power, of your bodily autonomy, and of your basic human dignity by a sycophantic white supremacist running under the guise of anti-establishment, anti-elite nationalism; he lied to you, he stole from you, he sold you to the highest bidders in exchange of being placed in the Oval Office, he stripped you of your lands, he weakened your security and power grid purposely to allow foreign power meddling, he elevated credibly accused rapists into high office and lifetime appointments, he set you back decades in your fight against climate change, he eroded your standing with your international allies, and he did all that while spoon-feeding you fear, anger, and hatred by centering White Male Grievances.
When far too many hiding behind the powerful veneer of journalistic integrity are busy gaslighting you by rewriting the narrative in attempts to deny or erase the unabashed cruelty of the Conman Years, that very cruelty that you fought desperately against and won, your most powerful line of defense is to actively de-weaponize White Privilege and to instead forge stronger fighting tools that center the needs of those historically marginalized and othered. Your objective is to strip white supremacy of its hold on you. There is no harm in recognizing how you were used and abused to kick yourself in the teeth; it is now established fact that a multitude of foreign powers manipulated your sense of white entitlement to better handicap you. Now is the time to come to terms with your utmost vulnerability and to choose instead true Progress that lifts everybody up – not just the few already privileged – refusing to leave anyone behind; a true meaningful lasting Progress that will help you not only withstand the challenges to your unique beauty, America, but to also build back better, stronger, in manners that reflect more accurately the graceful promise of your founding spirit.
And as more of you are getting their second vaccine shots, as you start getting together again with family and friends celebrating life, make it a point to always ask those around you:
Are you registered to vote, and have you verified lately if you’re still registered to vote?
Have a great Wednesday!
