A few days ago I flew back from Beijing on Air China and they had a very limited English-language movie library for the 11 hour flight. I watched Roman Polanski's award-winning 2002 film with Andien Brody, The Pianist, and a less well-known new movie set in Prague, Anthropoid. Both films dealt with the resistance to the Nazis. There was an especially chilling moment in The Pianist in which 3 middle-aged Jewish men are about to be loaded on a train for the Treblinka concentration camp. One says the Jews shouldn't just march to their deaths without a fight and an argument ensues about practicalities and difficulties in mounting such an operation. They and their families all die in the camp, although eventually the Warsaw Ghetto does organize and rise up against the German deplorables. Anthropoid is about how Czech nationalists murder the Butcher of Prague, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, the 3rd-ranking Nazi, a Steve Bannon-like character.
consider making a symbolic contribution to the reelection campaigns of the members who are taking an early stand against Trumpism.
Two weeks ago, Congresswoman Clark told her constituents that she "had hoped the President-elect would use the transition period and his appointments to change course and fulfill his promise to be a President for all Americans; however, this has not been the case. After discussions with hundreds of my constituents, I do not feel that I can contribute to the normalization of the President-elect’s divisive rhetoric by participating in the Inauguration."
Similarly, Earl Blumenauer told Oregon Public Broadcasting that "Here is a person who ran a campaign that is the antithesis of everything I’ve worked for in public service" and that that attending "not a productive use of my time."
This morning stalwart progressive champion Mark Pocan (D-WI) let me know that he had intended to go to the inauguration but the way Trump lit into John Lewis, among other things, made him reconsider and that he's changed his plans and won't be going. He requested that we not raise money for him on this though, so he's not on our fundraising page. As we published, two more Democratic congressmembers announced they're staying away: Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Marcia Fudge (D-OH).
In any case, the list of members not going keeps growing. We're keeping a running tally at the thermometer here.