Open mike 08/11/2024

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1. Jenny 1

   8 November 2024 at 8:57 am

   First Amendment of the American Constitution

   "Congress shall make no law ….. abridging the freedom of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances"

   https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt1-10-1/ALDE_00000407/#:~:text=First%20Amendment%3A,for%20a%20redress%20of%20grievances.

   In my opinion, the following is the greatest post election speech given in this election, (if not the greatest speech of the whole election).

   Elizabeth Warren

   Transcript:

   I will not ask you to look for any Silver Linings.

   I will not ask you to feel anything but grief right now.

   Donald Trump won the election and the consequences will be real and devastating.

   But I'm reminding myself and you – that on the road ahead, there will still be opportunities to fight back

   I can't tell you that we will win all of those fights.

   I can't tell you that we will win most, or even any of them.

   But when we arrive at each of those moments we will face a choice, to give up, or to press forward.

   The far right wants us to feel powerless. Extremists are counting on apathy, cynicism, heartbreak, or all of the above as their Rocket Fuel. They are counting on us to point fingers at each other and to lose trust in our ability to ever ever make change.

   I absolutely refuse to give them that satisfaction. We will continue to fight for each other.

   Look 8 years ago, in the dark days when Republicans took full power in Washington, I thought the Affordable Care Act would be gone with the snap of a finger.

   But the American people rose up.

   Activists like the late, amazing Ady Barkan and countless others put their bodies on the line quite literally. They made their voices heard, they saved health care for millions of families and they paved the way for us to expand Health Care in the past few years.

   And a Grassroots movement against far-right control, took back the house in 2018, and the White House in 2020, and the Senate in 2021.

   Don't let anyone tell you that those victories didn't make a real difference…..

   English (auto-generated – lightly edited for clarity)

   Democracy is more than just about voting once every three or four years to choose your rulers, democracy is about having the right to publicly assemble to protest, for or against your rulers policies and programs.

   Without this right. we are ruled by elected dictators. Sure we can vote them in or out, but during their tenure, if we have no right to challenge their policies while they are in office, they are still dictators, elected or not.

   The right to protest and organise and campaign against their policies, is one of the first things that autocrats try to repress. (often violently).

   "Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?" Donald Trump

   Elizabeth Warren gets it. If the Left opposition parties add their support to the protest movement against the far right's policies. We can hold back the far right, even from the opposition benches.

   From her own experience in defence of the Affordable Care Act, Elizabeth Warren knows that parliamentary opposition activism is reinforced by extra parliamentary activism, visa versa, street activism and protest are reinforced by the participation and support of parliamentary activists. The American activist Ady Barkan who was name dropped by Elizabeth Warren, reminds me of this country's Rod Donald, who expertly united parliamentary activism with extra parliamentary activism to achieve our MMP electoral system, all from an opposition position.

   Today the Hikoi to Parliament against the ACT Party's bill to roll back treaty rights starts in Northland. Already this campaign has seen the ruling National Party distance themselves from the ACT bill. Everyone who opposes this government's right wing agenda, everyone who believes in fairness and justice needs to join this Hikoi when it passes through your town.

   
   
   

   "As the far right works to roll back what we've achieved, they'll hope that we don't have the stomach to push back anymore. But we can choose to prove them wrong."

   Elizabeth Warren

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