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<Part III/The Highwayman>
<Part IV/The Highwayman>
How fitting, then, as the sands run out on yet another Halloween, that our old friend, the Highwayman, returns with yet another appropriate cartoon, capturing the moment, as certain Corporate Moderates in the Democratic Party continue chirping in the wilderness ("Tamp down, tamp down, tamp down your ambitions"), amid poll after poll showing majority after majority of participants demanding widespread changes.
The latest turn came this weekend, in Michigan, when Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed told his vanquished primary opponent, Haley Stevens, not to bother showing up for the joint event they'd originally planned on doing together. That is, until Stevens unilaterally demanded that her rival apologize for an ad -- run by an outside political group, the Rebellion PAC -- which linked high grocery prices with support for Israel -- as somehow anti-Semitic, and disavow it completely.
El-Sayed told Stevens to get on her bike, saying that she was trying to "relitigate" the bruising primary that had seen her come out second best. As he should have done, honestly, since it's not hard to draw a straight line from America's latest never-ending war in Iran -- one that the Israeli government has enthusiastically joined -- to the gas pump, and the dinner table.
To put it even more bluntly, it's doubtful that millions of Americans ever imagined a day when beef might become a luxury, followed by a gusher of whatever discretionary money they had now heading straight to the gas tank. For those who can't connect those particular dots, all we can say is -- there's some prime Florida swampland you can help us drain.
It's all eerily reminiscent of this keynote quote from Martin Luther King's classic 1963 essay, "Letter From A Birmingham Jail," which nails why the moderate, in general -- and, in this context, Democratic Corporate Moderates like Stevens, the same one who eagerly hoovered up $70 million of outside money to sink El-Sayed's primary boat, are the biggest brake on social progress:
The latest turn came this weekend, in Michigan, when Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed told his vanquished primary opponent, Haley Stevens, not to bother showing up for the joint event they'd originally planned on doing together. That is, until Stevens unilaterally demanded that her rival apologize for an ad -- run by an outside political group, the Rebellion PAC -- which linked high grocery prices with support for Israel -- as somehow anti-Semitic, and disavow it completely.
El-Sayed told Stevens to get on her bike, saying that she was trying to "relitigate" the bruising primary that had seen her come out second best. As he should have done, honestly, since it's not hard to draw a straight line from America's latest never-ending war in Iran -- one that the Israeli government has enthusiastically joined -- to the gas pump, and the dinner table.
To put it even more bluntly, it's doubtful that millions of Americans ever imagined a day when beef might become a luxury, followed by a gusher of whatever discretionary money they had now heading straight to the gas tank. For those who can't connect those particular dots, all we can say is -- there's some prime Florida swampland you can help us drain.
It's all eerily reminiscent of this keynote quote from Martin Luther King's classic 1963 essay, "Letter From A Birmingham Jail," which nails why the moderate, in general -- and, in this context, Democratic Corporate Moderates like Stevens, the same one who eagerly hoovered up $70 million of outside money to sink El-Sayed's primary boat, are the biggest brake on social progress:
"I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: 'I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action'; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a 'more convenient season.'"
Suffice to say, that "more convenient season" has long passed, and it's fair to say, those who have endured the Trump regime's horrors aren't in a mood to wait any longer for course correction, whether it's fixing what the Orange Man has broken, or to offer some type of recompense, for all the pain and sorrow that he's rained down on us.
We probably haven't heard the last of Haley Stevens, a classic narcissist, if ever there was one. It's all about her, isn't it? People like her can't live without the attention, whether it's positive or negative.
But the next time she pops up, let's haul out that MLK quote -- once more, with feeling, like that old song says -- and let her know, we haven't forgotten her shortcomings. Because we couldn't have said it better ourselves, honestly. -- The Reckoner
Suffice to say, that "more convenient season" has long passed, and it's fair to say, those who have endured the Trump regime's horrors aren't in a mood to wait any longer for course correction, whether it's fixing what the Orange Man has broken, or to offer some type of recompense, for all the pain and sorrow that he's rained down on us.
We probably haven't heard the last of Haley Stevens, a classic narcissist, if ever there was one. It's all about her, isn't it? People like her can't live without the attention, whether it's positive or negative.
But the next time she pops up, let's haul out that MLK quote -- once more, with feeling, like that old song says -- and let her know, we haven't forgotten her shortcomings. Because we couldn't have said it better ourselves, honestly. -- The Reckoner
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