Not Holding the Line

Disunity makes Democrats look weak ... because they are weak

Embarrassing just isn’t a strong enough word to describe this.

In the past, when a union decided that a strike was necessary to deal with bad bosses doing what bad bosses do, they held a vote. If the group voted to strike, then everyone walked out. Together. Anyone who didn’t would forever be a scab. Their children and grandchildren would be known as the children and grandchildren of scabs and treated as such. And if the company hired strikebreakers to cause trouble, the strikers would knuckle up and deal with them. That’s what it takes to win. It’s called grit, and it’s something that is in very short supply in the Trump era.

And nowhere is our lack of grit more apparent than in the shameful display of disunity we saw from Democrats during Trump’s latest address to Congress. Instead of a unified response from Dems, everyone just did their own thing. One rep shouted and waved his cane at Trump and got tossed, a few others walked out to film fundraising videos in the lobby, and many stayed and held up small, ping pong paddle-sized signs with phrases like “Elon Musk Steals” and “Save Medicaid” on them. Everyone had their own individual, mostly self-serving way to get airtime, and every one of them showed themselves to be as soft as a bag of kittens. And we all watched and asked ourselves “Is anyone actually fighting for us?”

This is what grit looks like

When you think about it, it’s kind of a silly question. As my friend, colleague, and nationally syndicated radio host Rick Smith says, “If there’s ever a street fight, a Democrat will hold your coat for you.” He’s right, and that’s what we all saw on Tuesday night – all kinds of attempts to look like we’re fighting without anyone actually throwing any punches or taking any. And I don’t know who came up with those dumb signs, but I guarantee that person graduated from an Ivy League school and has never taken or thrown a punch that wasn’t part of a video game.

To be clear, I am using fight metaphors not to provoke or advocate for violence, but rather to demonstrate that even in political fights, our representatives must be willing to put themselves at risk and stand shoulder to shoulder with everyone else on our side of that fight. Toughness isn’t about the strength of your arm; it’s about the strength of your will. When union workers use phrases like “Hold the line” they don’t mean “when it’s convenient” and they don’t mean “some but not all of us.” They mean everyone, all the time, until the job is done.

And to Democrats in Congress, I’ll say this: If our representatives can’t show unity when America is on the brink, then they should stop pretending they’re fighting for us and go get another job. You may not want to join a union shop, though. I’m not sure you have what it takes.

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Brett Pransky is a writer, a teacher, a father, and a husband, but rarely in that order. He spends his days fighting for working families as the Executive Producer of The Rick Smith Show, and his nights trying to fix the world one clever sentence at a time.

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