I'm a New Englander. Everything in me rebels against the idea of being uncivil or showy in a public place. It's against my nature. But some way—somehow—America needs to understand this isn't about partisan politics now. What's happening *isn't* okay. America is under real threat.
1/ Trump spent the SOTU slandering, libeling, lying, using racist rhetoric, spreading disinformation, sowing division, using humans as props, rolling out proto-fascistic rhetoric, and doing all of it as a man who sold America out for his profit. There *has* to be public protest.
2/ Republicans need to understand that they've just greenlit the stealing of our elections by foreign powers. Half the country doesn't believe our elections are *real* anymore. That is a dangerous situation that chants of "FOUR MORE YEARS" indicate the GOP is completely blind to.
3/ Democrats can't act like it's 1990. We can't pretend doing things as we've always done them will lead to a comeback from the dark place in which we've landed. It isn't helpful to be angry *only*—but there's a time and space for *angry optimism* and the time and space is *now*.
4/ As a New Englander, my preference—were I in Congress, a nauseating notion to me—would've been to avoid the SOTU. But for those there, walking out was appropriate. Should Pelosi have ripped up the speech? I don't know. I just know sometimes you have to wave your flag and rally.
