Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures
Very few people would have anticipated the level and duration of violence and destruction in the cities of America that have been 
displayed over the last two months. Even our Republican Senators seem to be throwing up their hands in frustration and complaining at the feckless Democrat mayors and governors in our states.
But that seems to be all that our Senators are doing.
And this country needs to see earth-shaking changes in Congress or we will watch our country go down in flames.
So, I’m speaking to the Republicans in the Senate: Please take my suggestions seriously, as painful as it will be for you to follow through.
Senators, you should immediately stop business as usual. Decrying the disruptions, quoting the Constitution and blaming the Democrats are fruitless actions.
No one is listening to you. No one cares.
Stop attending rubber chicken dinners or giving campaign speeches in order to be re-elected. If you don’t immediately change direction, there will be no Senate seat for you to fill.
Here are my three suggestions if you really care about the future of this country:
- Act as a unified body of Republicans. Drop the petty fights. Stop negotiating with the Democrats, which is akin to negotiating with terrorists. Focus on the most important issues: the rule of law, the power of the federal government, and the power of the people. When you see foolish issues come up like another $600 per month for the unemployed and worry about your choices because you want to be re-elected, stop arguing. All of you need to be on the same page (which means denying the $600), which also requires you to be forthright about backing the President. I don’t care if you don’t like him if he offends your sensibilities. You must demonstrate—which means voting for his policies—that you want to preserve this country. That goal should be your primary concern. That unity also should be demonstrated by making a powerful statement to the people.
- Speak to the people directly. Film commercials that show all of the Republican Senators with Trump standing with you. Each commercial can focus on an interview with different Senators—attacking the violence that is happening; pointing out the betrayals of the Democrats; of support for sending in Federal law enforcement to protect federal property. I expect the commercials will go viral on YouTube. Have the Republican National Convention buy one-page ads in all the major newspapers except the NY Times and the Washington Post. Send the same message of unifying the country, re-establishing the rule of law, and supporting the Constitution. Use these efforts to educate the public that the Constitution is not an archaic document, but the foundations of a lawful existence, and will be the basis for re-establishing peace and order in this nation.
- Appeal to the American people. Remind them that you serve them, that you need not only their support but their participation in this effort. Tell the people you trust them to find jobs just like they did before the coronavirus struck the country; tell them you want to empower them to take back their country by honoring and celebrating the Constitution; tell them you don’t want to dictate what they should do, but serve them in the most productive way possible to put the country back on the right track; tell them you want them not to be oppressed by Marxist tyranny, but free to practice the Bill of Rights. List the first ten amendments of the Constitution every chance you get and apply them to everyday life: free speech means that no one has the right to demand political correctness in your words or demand that you close your churches or synagogues; right to bear arms means that you have a right to protect yourself, your family and community from those who wish to enslave you under a Marxist/socialist regime. Let them know that you will be right there with them to ensure that not only will their rights be protected, but you will work together to save the nation from tyranny, so that everyone can exist in peace and safety in the United States of America.
* * * * *
If you truly care about the future of this country, for the freedom and prosperity of its people, please take action now.
Prove to the world that we are still that City on the Hill.
Published in Politics
As long as we are shut down, cowed and crippled by dumb COVID policies and silenced by the Woke Revolution in corporate America, I don’t know there is much they can do. It would be nice to have them at least take a unified, forward-looking position for election purposes instead of the traditional RINO fetal position but I am not optimistic.
I refuse to give up. There’s too much at stake, @oldbathos. So I figured I’d go all out in my suggestions. They may be prepared to lay down and watch the country collapse, but from my little corner of the world, I just won’t do it.
I would add that there is no good time to take these actions. In fact, this might be the best time. I think people are becoming frightened by the violence and disruption and may be willing to come along. But of course, that assumes that the Senators act. Okay, good point.
Perhaps the Republican members of the House and Senate should gather together outside the Capitol building and make a declarative statement along the lines of:
“We invite our Democrat colleagues to join us here and now to condemn the ongoing anarchy, arson, attacks on law enforcement officers and other innocent Americans at the hands of Antifa, the Marxist Black Lives Matter organization, and other violent groups that are tearing our nation apart. We invite them to stand with us now to do so. We will wait here for two hours to see if they will emerge to join us. If they refuse to join us, then let that refusal to condemn this ongoing violence send a clear message to the American people that the rule of law and their respective oaths of office to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic are meaningless to them.”
…or words to that effect.
Now, whether mainstream media outlets actually cover the event is another matter entirely.
This is an awesome idea, @brianwatt!! Somehow it would also need to be on YouTube, too!!
I accept checks.
What is frightening to me is that people are unable to make the moral distinction between protesting and violence. We need something like what you suggest – something surprising and unusual that will break through the MSM narrative. Something that will catch the attention of the average American voter.
My friends in Portland are all parroting MSM and saying, “oh its not bad here, its just downtown” (BTW, that’s not true. There was the arson attack on the police union building in north Portland – blocks from where I live). The rioting mobs here in Portland are attacking the federal building and the federal officers. Not one of my liberal/leftist friend will condemn these acts without qualifying it with condemnation of tear gas tactics or (stupidly) the federal presence in Portland. One friend is a county probation officer another is an attorney with the federal Interior Department.
I am continually surprised that the GOP never reprised the Contract With America paradigm Gingrich deployed in ‘94. Driving the agenda with a coherent plan, a platform makes sense, especially when people crave sanity, clarity and leadership.
@susanquinn, too sensible to be done. (sigh) Our Republiwon’t senators are a sad lot too often.
Just how bad does it need to get to be ” bad”?? When it gets to their neighborhoods? I’m sorry, @johnberg. You were talking about leaving the area, weren’t you? Sigh.
In some specific cases, I think we are past the point of there being a distinction. The “protesters” are knowingly providing cover for the rioters. (What is that old saying? “You are either with us, or with the terrorists.” Seems fitting again…)
Many protesters are being payed an hourly rate to provide cover for the rioters. Since the rioters are engaged in felony assaults against federal law enforcement officers, those paid could possibly be charged as accessories and this thing could get rolled up pretty quickly limited only by the availability of federal holding cells. I understand a lot of vacancies are available at Guantanamo.
My 24-year-old grandson works for one of the local politicians in Portland, and he just texted me a smiling selfie of the result of his being tear-gassed (he’s been participating in all the “protests”). I told him he should be careful, as an arrest record wouldn’t look very good on his resume. He responded that, with the people he works for, it would be an asset.
I’ve told him that I know what they are protesting against, but have never heard what they are demonstration for. I’m still waiting for an answer. It is very easy to express dissatisfaction with something, but a little more difficult to come up with a solution — that requires some thought and effort.
Indeed. The world turned upside down. Thanks, @jimmcconnell.
Pray for two things: (1) we return to a time when we accepted that what happened in the distant past does not condemn the present for any individual, and (2) he moves from “woke” to whatever the opposite of that might be.
Did your grandson have an answer?
As I read this statement, it occurred how tragic this era is. The Democrats are afraid of each other. They wouldn’t dare do this.
I’m still waiting…
The first step is to admit there is a problem. There is a well-funded anti-American anti-family race-baiting Marxist-socialist revolution. Step two is to crush it.
If House and Senate Republicans would learn this one lesson, we’d be significantly better off . . .
We always give away too much. I understand they worry about being “the bad guys” because they supposedly want to be fiscally responsible, but maybe if they were, now and then, people would understand, @stad.
If the Republicans in the US senate ever acted in any sense of unity behind a Republican President, it would be the first time in my lifetime.
Like I said, desperate times call for desperate measures. If these people can’t see beyond their next elections, they can watch the country fail.
I’m still baffled by the look on Harris Falkner’s face as Fox cut away from McEnany’s recent press conference. She’s smart, but she looked stupefied. Granted she had a manager telling her that they were cutting off the White House feed, and telling her to come up with some words of explanation quickly; and she was probably surprised and a little confused that the White House would show those videos; but she looked like she’d never known this stuff before, and was stunned and incredulous. Whatever she was thinking, she was transfixed by the videos being shown.
Are you responding to a different post, @flicker?
No, not intentionally. I was thinking that “desperate times call for desperate measures”. But few seem to be acknowledging, or even aware of, the straits that we are in. There seems to be more willful blindness and delusional thinking than embracing, or reporting of, or knowledge of, the truth. And the media reporters, who are supposed to be among the most well informed, seem to either not want to say, or actually don’t know, what is going on. If even Fox News cuts away from McEnany’s press conference documenting the the social convulsions, how are people supposed to know? And if people don’t know, how are we to mount a groundswell of resistance while people don’t even know what we’re talking about?
I’m reminded of a commenter here who lives in Portland who didn’t know that rioters were blinding policemen with lasers … because he hadn’t seen it anywhere in the local press. And he was looking for other sources to verify a remark made to this affect.
If Harris Faulkner doesn’t know, is it possible that Republican Senators don’t know the extent of it either?
My gosh, @flicker, it’s certainly possible, but it’d be hard to believe. But there are some, too, who want to ignore it or deny that these things are happening. Or they believe these disruptions are the problems of the states–the very states they represent. But let the mayors and governors take care of business. Good grief. And thanks for elaborating.
My pleasure. And I do think Faulkner knows about it all. I think that she found it inappropriate to report on or to discuss. Either way, I wager most of the people (mostly on the left) who would be encouraged to call their Senators don’t know the extent of the rioters’ depredations.
Jerry Nadler: “Antifa’s a myth.” Not to worry. Nadler is only the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.