Thread by @ASlavitt

COVID Update January 7: We have become the virus country. Of hate, of racism, of denial, of enablers.
They didn’t show up yesterday.

The odds we face in COVID & in our country are often long, but only because we make them long. 1/

Yesterday was despite what I heard from many not a particularly special day in the legacy of the Trump Administration. It was just televised and wearing a t-shirt. 2/

If you’re telling the country that people aren’t dying when they are— or that they are but there’s nothing you can do about it, or separating small children from their parents...breaking windows in the US Capitol isn’t your worst day. 3/

And if you were in Congress Mitch McConnell was and Lindsay Graham was or in the cabinet like Betsy Devon’s or Elaine Chao & thought all that stuff was ok, but yesterday wasn’t, you’re just the guy standing next to the evil guy carrying his bag & getting slapped around. 4/

And if you’re Traitor Josh Hawley, or Kevin McCarthy, who voted not to accept the election results AFTER someone scared you out of your office building, your self-loathing is kind of record breaking. 5/

If you’ve lived in fear of a tweet or consoled yourself with your judges or your lower taxes but yesterday you thought crossed a line & now you resign, I have news: the blood is still on your hands. Everyone can see it. 6/

If Black people stormed the Capitol, there would be hundreds of dead Black people today. Same with Muslims. We would see snipers, not cops w selfies.

And if this were carried out by a foreign government with a half a clue, our Vice President & Speaker might both be dead by now.7

And Black communities around the country are not getting vaccinated despite their higher risk and their rate of hospitalization & death.

Today someone told me they know of well off people flying to Florida to get vaccinated. 8/

Every day many people are reminded that there are people in this country who do not think they belong here.

Not yesterday. Not the last four years. Every day. 9/

Your community is dying? Nobody cares.
You’re getting evicted? Nobody cares.
Lost job? Nobody cares.

The Capitol is only a building. But a lack of outrage of what has happened to our people is what got us here. 10/

Televise 7 people in hospital broom closet on ventilators. Televise a prison with a massive COVID outbreak. Televise a nursing home where people are trapped & infected.

The Capitol is a symbol for those things & it has been getting destroyed for some time. 11/

So what do we do about it? We take advantage of what happened in Georgia and we awaken our fight, our pride, our hope, our love & our commitment to finally doing what is right.

Here goes...12/

1- The voting rights act.

Without passing the Voting Rights Act, priority number one for Josh Hawley (traitor) is to plow millions into shutting down everything but same day in person voting— accessible only to some. 13/

2- $15 minimum wage.
3- A massive investment in public health & prevention starting in at-risk communities
4- A massive affordable housing plan. 14/

5- Truth & reconciliation. Due process. Examples. Not vengeful, but just. 15/

https://twitter.com/aslavitt/status/1347363196382842881

Start there. Forget our better natures. Forget the long arc of history. Forget compromise on principal.

Create justice where it hasn’t occurred & if we can’t win hearts & minds, some hearts & minds are empty & just need to be defeated. 16/

We probably have a few more chances to bring competency, compassion, and honesty back, but I don’t believe we have an unlimited number of chances before we are too far gone. 17/

Is thousands of people dying every day enough of a signal that something might be wrong. Is the fact that 50% of people are knowingly prolonging it not a sign that society may have broken though a couple of barriers. 18/

Does it take seeing a president literally encourage his senseless mob to violate the one sight even his own party won’t tolerate for them to finally see it? 19/

Apparently 350,000 dead isn’t enough. Apparently evictions and kids without Internet and farm workers & prisoners & kids without parents aren’t enough.

Many Americans had enough long ago. And for those who are just now claiming to see it, enough of them too. /end