Elizabeth Warren was just silenced on the Senate floor for quoting Coretta Scott King

[Dill]

(02-08-2017, 11:35 AM)Benton Wrote: Same problem with most of Congress... she's wasting her time.

She can make all the speeches she wants, both sides vote pretty much along party lines. We just had the second most qualified cabinet member appointed (Devos) so far, and she was pushed through the process even after a laughably bad showing of why she shouldn't be near education. She doesn't understand the fundamentals of it... yet she's going forward because of party lines. No manner of speech was going to sway them from rubber stamping her.

If Warren really wants to change things, use her resources to go where misinformation starts. Instead of running to donors and the media saying McConnell is unfair and the situation is bad, come to Kentucky. Go to Litchfield and Frankfort and Mayfield, tell his supporters what the guy they keep sending back is doing. The only way to influence other Congress members — outside of dealing, which is common — is to influence their base. People in Kentucky send McConnell back. In a few years, almost none of them will care that he was rude (if that's what you want to call it) to some congresswoman from somewhere they've never been. All they'll care about is the same thing he always says — that he's bringing back coal, guns, God and lower taxes. Warren and other Democrats aren't changing anything if they're going to let him pull the wool over his voters year after year.

I wouldn't call the Warren incident nothing more than politics or a waste of resources. For three reasons.

1. There was a clear double standard at work. E.g. Cotton once called Schumer a "liar" and McConnell did not invoke rule 19. That was made plain to voters. Some women might be re-thinking their support for the GOP.

2. Reading Coretta King's assessment of Sessions is not an example of political posturing or grandstanding as usual. That assessment was pertinent to the matter at hand, namely Sessions fitness to be AG for all the people. People do care when politicians are "rude" with respect to issues they care about--hence the continuing effect of C. King's letter decades later. To a certain constituency, Sessions actions still matter.

3. Because a vote goes along party lines--especially in a case like the Sessions vote--does not mean the conflict is "politics, nothing more."  Or I am not sure of the sense given "politics" here. For one side, at least, the vote really was about valuation and protection of civil rights, not just sticking it to Trump. I am sure most in the African-American community saw it that way.

Also, Democrats were not voting against Devos because that was the party line. They were voting against her because she was unqualified.  Republicans (except two) WERE voting along party lines. Republicans would be happy if we view this as just a part-line vote--as if qualifications were never really the issue, just party.

I agree with your point about going where the misinformation starts--but this is not an either/or option, but rather both/and. Warren and the Democrats should take stands in the Senate, and if they are publicized, so much the better. That should help Kentuckians fuel their own grassroots challenge to McConnell.