An Attempted American Coup
Photo Credit: LEAH MILLIS/Reuters
Sarah and Beth share their thoughts on the attempted coup by violent domestic terrorists who stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. They discuss the sense of entitlement amongst some Americans, the needed consequences of yesterday's actions, and where we go from here.
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Episode Resources
Transcript:
Sarah: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Pantsuit Politics. We are recording on Thursday, January 7th, after an attempted American coup on January 6th. We are recording this episode and releasing it immediately. It seemed like the right thing to do, but it is also safe to assume that events will continue to move rather quickly. So it did not seem prudent to wait to release this episode so you're hearing our reactions, emotions, thoughts in pretty close to real-time.
This is Sarah
Beth: [00:00:43] and Beth.
Sarah: [00:00:44] You're listening to Pantsuit Politics.
Beth: [00:00:46] The home of grace-filled political conversations.
[00:01:00] We spent some time together on the evening of January 6th on Instagram live, we'll put a link to that conversation in the notes. We talked about how we explained what was happening to our kids. And you could see some of how we were doing in real time. I know when we started, we had some glitchiness, um, tech-wise but Sarah, you said, how are you feeling Beth?
And I said, I'm feeling a lot less calm than I'm accustomed to feeling. And I'm still carrying a lot of that adrenaline because having just experienced the whole of 2020 a year in which I learned, and I know that many of my fellow citizens already knew this, but [00:02:00] white middle class me learned so much about how fragile our institutions are, how incapable of rising to difficult challengesmany of our institutions are, just this sense of groundlessness around COVID-19.
That culminating or at least feeling like it's culminating, and I hope culminating, I hope there isn't more to come of this, in the actual taking for some time of the Capitol building by a mob of domestic terrorists was well a little bit more than I know how to process. And so my body is trying to process it for me and I feel all of that tension and that jittery, nervous energy that is not conducive to doing much of anything, but as miserable to sit in. Yeah,
Sarah: [00:02:54] I am exhausted from the adrenaline of yesterday. You know, it started flowing at one [00:03:00] o'clock and really didn't stop. I was able to, probably just from exhaustion, get some sleep, but, you know, I was shaky all day long. I was cold on and off, which is what happens to me when I get an adrenaline drunk, like a dump, I get really cold. At four o'clock in the morning, my five-year-old came to get in bed with us and said he had a bad dream, which has not happened in months.
And I have no doubt as a reaction to the energy in the house yesterday, after our Instagram live, he came into our living room and said, Hey. Are the people, the people out killing, are they coming to houses or just big buildings? And I thought, I didn't think anything. I just felt rage and devastation and sadness.
And then to wake up this morning and to make breakfast and walk the dog and have this very surreal sense that life is [00:04:00] going on but we can't go back to normal. I have a visceral reaction to everything I read this morning that even hints at normality. I had this competing emotional reaction last night when the houses of Congress came back in session and certified the election results.
So I was both, every time they'd said, like, we're going to come back. I was like, yes, that's the right thing. Yes. That's we should come back like I want to see them there. And then when they stood up and were sort of like, making speeches and occasionally cracking jokes, I was filled with such fury. It's hard for me to like even articulate.
I was so angry to watch them still vote against certifying certain States electorial college results. Like I, so I'm like in this weird in between of like wanting leadership, wanting people to tell us like, it's okay. [00:05:00] And also when they do saying how dare you, how dare you act like things are okay.
Beth: [00:05:06] I have a lot of grace for people's stress responses so I can watch something weird, like Senator Graham's speech and look at that and say, there's a lot of stress response going on here. That doesn't mean all is absolved. That doesn't mean that in the future, I would support Lindsay Graham running for dog catcher anywhere. It just means I can look at that and see a human being in the midst of stress processing at best he knows. Did he create a lot of the stress? Absolutely.
And still he's a human being processing in the midst of stress. And so I understand that for a lot of us, the stress response is going to be, I need to just do something that feels normal. I am concerned, and you, and I've talked about this a lot in a bunch of different contexts, that we never in America have any moment where we don't say, well, the show must go on.
And that our inability to do that is [00:06:00] numbing us out. I cannot imagine anything more serious than what occurred yesterday. I really can't. And the fact that it included such cartoonish elements as grown-ass men with painted faces, taking selfies posed on the desk of the speaker of the house does not detract from how serious it was.
They are not suddenly just a bunch of guys having fun because they look like amateurs doing it. They are still domestic terrorists and our country was still under attack and it was still an attempt to overthrow our legitimate government and everything you and I do here in terms of grace and respect and nuance is premised on the idea that we all fundamentally agree to live together in a representative democracy.
I have all kinds of room to debate policy within that framework but this is one [00:07:00] instance. I look at the people who did this yesterday, who barged into the Capitol building, armed and ready to do harm to people and also ready to treat it with such disrespect that they left at a broken shattered mess. I look at those people, and this is the only time you'll ever hear me say this, but I think truly, if you do not like America, you should leave.
If you want to live in an autocracy, there are plenty of them, but this was an attempt on the most foundational aspects of our shared civic compact. And the show should not go on. We should sit with that.
Sarah: [00:07:42] You know, there's so many similarities between my experience as a junior in high school, during a school shooting and like what I saw happen and what I'm seeing as people react to what happened yesterday. The photo of doors [00:08:00] being barricaded with furniture, guns drawn, the cowering behind you know, taking cover behind things. And also this need to like come back.
You know, for so long for decades, I said, that was the best thing that our administration did at our school was have us come back to school the next day, so we could be together. And it wasn't for years afterwards that I realized that that was incredibly traumatizing to have some of my fellow students, you know, it was easy for me to say that because I wasn't in the building, but they had to come back in the building.
And so it's just so difficult to watch like so many of those same instincts and arguably mistakes play out. I think for me, when I think about how I watched it unfold and what the increasing details were getting over the last few hours and will continue to get it's this weird in between of it could have been so much worse and it should never have happened.
Like both [00:09:00] things are true. I think there are really, really difficult questions that need to be asked about how the security breached happened at all. You know, this morning I woke up and I thought, well, they've been telling us they wanted to stop the steal. What did we all think that meant like that? It was just a fun phrase? They wanted to stop the steal. That's what they went to the Capitol to do.
So there's this part of me of like, we knew it, but then I can think, well, they had another stop the steal rally a few weeks ago and nothing happened. And then I watched that video of the president of the United States stand at that rally, a president who has not bothered to speak about the global pandemic that took 4,000 American lives yesterday, who has not bothered to step in front of a camera and talk about COVID-19 for weeks, go to a rally. [00:10:00] And say, we have to show strength.
We're going to walk down there. We're going to cheer them on and no one thought, Oh wait, we need more backup. So there's, that's the first part of it for me is like, What happened? How did they get in? Like, you know, I, so identify with people who are tweeting like I told my relatives, like I'm in the safest place that could be, and now realizing like, that was not true.
I've said that a million times when I worked at the Capitol or when I gave tours or when people were nearby, like, you don't want to mess around right here. Like there's three different police forces. Like the Capitol police don't play. Like I've said it a million times. And to watch it all crumble. And I don't, you know, there are videos of them fighting back mightily. There are videos of them moving the barricades. And I have lots of questions about what happened in both instances.
Beth: [00:10:50] I have lots of questions too. And I don't want to presume anything. And I think this gets to something that I was thinking about as you were talking about this, the stop the steal rallies, how there have been some, and [00:11:00] they've just been regular old garden variety, Trump rallies.
And I think what yesterday reminded me is it only takes one to go way off the tracks. And I think that's what Joe Biden means when he talks about how a president's words matter because no, the entire country has not been incited to violence by Donald Trump, but enough people have. It really only takes one person to do tremendous, tremendous harm.
And so I'm trying to really sit with myself as I have so many questions about the Capitol police and the response and the preparation for this, to hold that space of knowing we saw what appears to be photographs of police officers who were extremely sympathetic to put it mildly to these domestic terrorists.
And there were people who were exceptionally brave and worked very hard to do their jobs. And a woman was in his personal cost and a woman was [00:12:00] killed. And a lot of things are true at one time in the situation and we don't have enough information to assess them properly. And so I'm really struggling through not having a reaction, just holding onto the fact that a lot of different things, the Capitol police were not one thing yesterday.
Sarah: [00:12:18] Yeah. And that's what else to me is I'm trying to hold, it should not have happened like this. Every analysis that if these had been Black Lives Matter protests, or if these had been immigration protestors, or if they had been the disability protesters, we saw taken out in very aggressive ways. And the news media, then this would have gone down differently.
This is all 100% true. 100% true. It doesn't matter of course that the right-wing media takes images and flips it the exact other way. They take images of Black Lives Matter protesters being escorted and protesters yesterday being violently [00:13:00] pushed back and say, Oh, see? You know, that's the, that's the problem with our media landscape.
That's the problem with the internet is when there's a million images, it's not hard to flip the script. It's not hard to present a willfully misleading version of reality, which is all that this president has done. And so I think that is all that is true. And also I cannot stop thinking about how much worse it could have been.
There's not a lot of coverage of the fact that there were real bombs, one safely detonated at the RNC and another one at the DNC. I cannot stop thinking about the image of that man with zipties in the gallery. What if they had gotten to the members? What, there were some people in there that were buffoons and there were some people in there that were decidedly not, who had plans to go in, find Nancy Pelosi and execute her in front of all of us.
And I can't stop thinking about that. I can't stop thinking about how much worse it could have been. [00:14:00] You know, I think that we have to face that when the people stand up in front of us and say, Oh, well, they were just protestors or maybe there were bad elements mixed in. I don't, you know, I just, this desire to keep the show going when I cannot fathom how much worse it could have been is terrifying to me.
My instinct, and it could be very wrong. It feels like at a certain point the Capitol police made the choice to protect the members and not the building. They should have never had to make that choice. That's a failure of leadership, but no member was harmed yesterday. They were traumatized, but they were not physically harmed. And that to me is something like we cannot lose sight of. We cannot lose sight of the fact that it could have been very different.
Beth: [00:14:59] Quite a [00:15:00] few Capitol police officers were physically harmed. And so I think even as we all have this sense of, well, how could this have happened? We have to remember that there were people who were incredibly brave and who did their jobs, and we need to figure out what else occurred to put them in that horrific position.
One of my coping mechanisms is to kind of lean into pop culture things as I'm processing things that are really difficult for me. And I keep thinking about Kate McKinnon's character that she does on weekend update sometimes on Saturday night live, uh, Dr. WeKnowThis, cause I keep thinking about all the things that, that are components of what happened yesterday that we already knew.
I go through, if this mob had been primarily comprised of people of color instead of primarily comprised of white people, it would have been so much worse, we know this. [00:16:00] That there are people in this Trumpian overthrow movement with outstanding training that was provided to them by the United States military, we know this.
That in addition to other ways in which he has harmed this country, Donald Trump has removed any shared sense of sacredness in our national symbols and places, we know this and that was prominent in my thinking yesterday, watching all of this go down, I feel devastated at seeing bullet holes in doors inside the Capitol building.
Because when you try to think about what America is and again, I am not a person who reveres symbolic acts like the state of the union. I worry about the celebrity aspect that has been thrust upon the presidency, [00:17:00] but those symbols are deeply meaningful to me. And that someone goes in to that building and believes that they are entitled to write on the doors, it offends me in a way that I don't even know how to express.
And part of the reason I don't know how to express it is because the Donald Trump presidency has robbed us of appropriate respect and language for those symbols. And I wonder how we go about restoring it in a culture that is currently incapable of safely gathering together around sacred spaces and rituals.
I don't know, but I appreciate the gravity of Joe Biden's words. I thought he handled that moment as well as it could be handled from someone in his position, because at least there is heft to what he has to say. At least he recognizes that the country is listening, that people are leaning forward in their chairs waiting for what he has to [00:18:00] say.
And I hope that we can cultivate so much more respect. And, and that's another reason I think that I was so frustrated even as I tried to have grace around stress responses for some of the casual nature of what unfolded in the chambers after all of this happened. The clapping and the pretending to be so offended that representative Conor Lamb dare to call you a liar when you are lying, that casualness has no place. We have to start over now rebuilding some kind of sense of sanctity around that space.
Sarah: [00:18:36] I think for me, it's two things. One, the most heartbreaking aspect of this is watching Black and Brown members of the Capitol staff and the national park staff, who have not been particularly prioritized or protected during the COVID-19, who have not received vaccines out there, cleaning up the mess.
That's when I get like full and burn it [00:19:00] down mode, like just, it makes me so furious because I, you know, the second thing for me is that I said this last night on the Instagram live, that building is very important to me. You know, that, that was my home. I lived in Washington DC for several years. I worked in that building.
I gave tours of that building. I never, ever not a single time walked past it without appreciating it. It never got old, never seen that dome in the morning, at sunset, on a cloudy day, on a sunny day. It never, ever, ever didn't lift my heart. Pop culture moments, I think about that scene in the Contender where she talks about the church of democracy.
And I, I, I love it. And it's because I'm a student of history and I think how precious and special it is to be able to walk in those halls where so much of our history has played out [00:20:00] to think that those people acted like that where Abraham Lincoln laid in state, where John Kennedy laid in state, like it is, it is heartbreaking.
And I feel just devastated to watch it play out. And, you know, people are like, well, don't be surprised. Well, I'm not surprised, but I am shocked that anyone who purports to be a Patriot would act that way in that space, would deface those halls. And so, you know, it put me a little bit in the space of how I felt after the Nashville bombing, which we haven't talked about on here, but it's like, I'm so glad that people didn't lose their life.
And also that space, that, that city is very important to me. And what's like this weird tension [00:21:00] between it could have been worse and I'm so glad more people weren't harmed and also the space matters too. The physical space matters. We're all attached to it. It's all important to us. Yes. It was an injury. It was as an assault. It was an attack. And that, I think we, I think there's some grief.
I think that there will be a lot of grief, continued grief. I just laid in bed last night and I thought, how often have I felt like this during Donald Trump's presidency? I think about all of us sitting around the table and my friend Andy's house when he put the Muslim ban in place and people were protesting in the airports and we were just in shock and I felt that adrenaline dump and I felt sick and I felt nauseous. I think about the separation of children in the border, where we couldn't function, where we felt like, what are we supposed to do?
They're ripping these babies away. We didn't know. Like, again that just adrenaline, that fight or flight, what's happening? Just how many [00:22:00] times? Election day, Charlottesville that he's put us through this. That he's put us through this and that's why, you know, there's all this grief, there's all this sadness, there's all this devastation.
And there's just anger, you know, as the, the conversation began and continues about what should happen next, particularly to him, I just, at one point, I said out loud in my living room, like you have to protect us from him. You are not protecting us from him and you have not, you did not protect those children. You did not protect our Muslim citizens. You are not protecting us from him. He is harmful.
Beth: [00:22:41] Chad and I were talking about this before bed and he said, you know, maybe it's important that people see the chaos of Donald Trump on his way out so that we don't have to go through this again. And I said, I get that perspective. And also let us hope no one bombs an American military base [00:23:00] overseas right now. Yeah. Let us hope. There is no decision that requires a commander in chief because we do not have one and there is no purpose of the federal government if that's the truth. What you're articulating, a government that is unable to secure the blessings of Liberty for its citizens, there is no other purpose of the federal government.
That is fundamentally where we begin, and it is hard even sitting in Kentucky so far removed. And this is one of our challenges as Americans. We live in such a geographically large country and such a geographically diverse country, that it is relatively easy for me sitting here in Kentucky to be able to say to my children, no, we're safe here.
There's something really important going on in our Capitol and it, and it impacts us and it matters, but we're safe here on our house. You can still play in the cul-de-sac. It is problematic though, that we all don't share that sense of fear that at [00:24:00] large America is extremely vulnerable right now.
And that Americans all over the world are extremely vulnerable right now. And for our Congress to have gone in recess after they finished the business of rubber stamping the election disgusts me. And I certainly hope that decision is reconsidered by the time people listen to this podcast because it disgusts me the idea that Congress is finished until the inauguration, when there is no commander in chief right now, when there is no one in charge, when all we have happening, according to reports from Washington, DC, in terms of this administration, is people deciding whether they look better or worse, if they resigned today or write it out. That's unacceptable. And our members of Congress need to show up and do something about it.
[00:25:00] Sarah: [00:25:05] There does seem to be increasing discussion of invoking the 25th amendment, filing articles of impeachment or both and I can in part, understand the idea of like, well, it's only 13 days, but we saw what played out over four hours. So 13 days seems like an eternity to me. I cannot fathom. And I don't, you know, I don't want to talk about Congress as a monolith because I think one of the most important things I realized last night, watching republican members of the house of representatives in the United States Senate continue to contest this, the count of those electoral votes was like, Oh, I don't, I don't think for all of them, this is political. I think some of these [00:26:00] people are true believers in much the same way that those who storm the Capitol are. That they, they live in a false reality.
And that I can't decide if that makes me feel better or worse, that these members of Congress who literally hold power in our federal government believe that this election was stolen from him. There's a voice in my head, the student of history, that's like, of course, you know that you work there. They're not all geniuses like, and they haven't been throughout history, but still it's just so hard.
It's hard to get on Facebook and see people in your community say, well, we don't really know. It could have been Antifa and all the total and complete bullshit people are [00:27:00] spewing about what happened yesterday. It's like, how could this not be it? How could this not be the thing that shakes it all loose?
Finally, it wasn't enough that thousands of your fellow citizens are dying every day from a pandemic that they are no longer trying to manage at all. It couldn't be the separation of the children at the border. I couldn't be Charlottesville. It couldn't be all these traumas. Finally, can we stop debating whether some of his policy was worth it when we saw people literally scale the walls of the United States Capitol, but it wasn't, it wasn't. And I don't, that's a psychological break that I don't really know how to deal with with my fellow citizens, especially members of Congress.
Beth: [00:27:48] A piece of that, that I've been thinking about. And it's just one piece, because I think there's something much bigger than what I'm about to articulate going on. But one piece of it is when I kept hearing [00:28:00] the terrorist yesterday saying things like, well, this is our house and we're going to take it back. Well, our house doesn't mean yours, doesn't mean mine, doesn't mean that's my desk. Right. And my computer and my door to walk through if I want to.
I see that in conversations about the election being stolen as well. This sense that because it is not what I wanted, it had to be wrong. What we are talking about truly, when we're specific, is whether the fact that a few counties in Pennsylvania allowed voters to cure ballots where they made an error, constitutes the election being stolen.
Let's call it what it is. That is what we're talking about. We are talking about whether the fact that there might have been one or two errors in accounting, constituting the theft of an election, because you don't like the result of it. [00:29:00] That is such a symptom of this larger American ethos of entitlement that especially runs rampant in people who look like me.
Yeah, and we must get more honest about that. Even as I watched James Lankford, I was on the edge of my seat to see how James Lankford resumed, because if you weren't watching all day yesterday, James Lankford was speaking. He was one of the senators who was objecting to the approval of Arizona's election certification.
And he was interrupted by a frantic gaveling out the Senate going into recess because of the threat being posed. And you could see in his face when they interrupted him, that he didn't really understand what was happening. He was like kind of low key irritated, and that very quickly turned to some alarm.
And so when they came back [00:30:00] in after majority leader McConnell and minority leader, Schumer had spoken and vice president Pence, it's his turn to start up again. And I thought, what are you going to say? What a moment. And I was so frustrated, even though he ultimately decided to withdraw his objection, that the speech he gave had to have an element of my argument is meritorious here.
I was doing the right thing that I am entitled to do. And it is that entitlement that made me so appreciate Mitt Romney, practically staring holes into the back of Josh Holly's head when he was doing the same thing. Yep. This is the right way to do it. It is categorically not.
Zero legal scholars believe that what Josh Holly and Ted Cruz orchestrated yesterday is legally the right thing. It is not, that is not what they are entitled to do under the constitution. And I'll tell you what there is a millimeter of distance between Josh Holly and [00:31:00] Ted Cruz and Senator Lankford and others talking like that on Capitol Hill and people marching around in America saying, well, it's my right to go into Walmart without a mask, or it's my right to send my child to school.
You need to open it up. This is what I pay taxes for. We are lost in our sense of what we are entitled to as Americans. This is a shared responsibility. And if we are called to nothing else over the next 10 years, we are called to step into that responsibility in a way that we've not seen in our life.
Yup.
Sarah: [00:31:32] The righteousness blinds you to everyone else. It blinds you. They could not see. They still cannot see when it came barreling through the door with broken windows and glass around and weapons and zip ties, they could not see, they could not see. And they still can't I don't think. That is why for me, [00:32:00] I will be watching what happens next.
There has to be consequences. There has to be consequences. Impeachment, the 25th amendment, you know, w after the election, when we were talking about the Trump presidency, I said, is he a fool or is he dangerous? Or is it both? Well, a fool is dangerous. And we saw that because I think, you know, the, the reporting that even his close aides were horrified.
He wanted to watch it burn. That is abundantly clear. That the vice-president eventually had to give the order for the national guard to come in. I'm not even sure that's legal, but that he had to step in, that he has seen firsthand that his loyalty means nothing, nothing, and that he is willing to shred and burn whatever it takes, including his own legacy, which he [00:33:00] cannot see because he lost.
He ha I keep thinking about George Will. He has no bottom. That was not his bottom. It does not exist. If we were horrified, rightly so, by an attempted American coup at the United States Capitol yesterday, then we must take action to prevent him from remaining president, because that is not his bottom.
It does not exist. He will continue down this path. I think his mental state is compromised. He is not listening to anyone if he ever did. And it's dangerous. It's dangerous for all of us.
Beth: [00:33:46] I have a fear of overreacting that was created in me through some professional experiences. So I have a strong fear of being seen as over-reactive or hysterical. [00:34:00] And I recognized yesterday that my fear has led to a tendency of under reaction. And this is to me what the 25th amendment is designed to deal with. And even where it not designed to deal with it is the best tool that we have right now to ensure that the country remains safe until Joe Biden's inauguration.
You know, if you are a person who lives around people who tend to say, but the Democrats, but the media, this for me is the moment when we say no, no, but our democracy, but our country. If he is allowed to remain the president after what happened yesterday, I'm not sure what we think our constitution means anymore.
I'm really not because if we can't check what went down yesterday and his [00:35:00] orchestration and enthusiastic applause of it and his utter, inability and unwillingness to stop it. You know, when you talk about how much worse it could have been, Sarah, I keep thinking of the gratitude that I feel for the mayor of Washington DC.
A Mayor had to step up and deal with this, a mayor who I hope we can all agree should certainly be a governor because there is at least that level of responsibility in her position. But I don't think it is over-reactive to say that the 25th amendment is essential right now. It is essential that Mike Pence take charge of this until Joe Biden is inaugurated.
And I can find space in my heart, that is not hatred of Trump, because I can find space in my heart to step back and say, he watched this gleefully as it was reported, because this is what love looks like to him. And that is sad. That is sad that this is the level of affection and [00:36:00] approval that something in him really needs and celebrates receiving.
And I'm so sorry about the things that have happened in his life that have gotten him here. So there is no hatred in my heart, and I can find some compassion, but as an American citizen, there is a clear decision that has to be made here for the sake of everybody else.
Sarah: [00:36:21] Yep. I mean, I'm not, I don't want him to stop being a human. I want him to stop being president. That's right. I want him to stop being president. He is so toxic. He is so toxic. You know, I cannot, I cannot fathom how the people in his orbit, including the Republican party, even those who have you know, stepped back at this last possible moment. Even [00:37:00] Mitt Romney, who did not vote on both articles of impeachment, have justified this to themselves.
You know, and it's like, and I do feel what Chad is saying, because I feel like a little bit for me, at least like this just removes that last bit of gaslighting. That last, that last teeny tiny cornerstone that people could stand on and say, see, he left, you know, all this emotional overreaction from the left at the end of the day, it was just like any other presidency.
You just didn't like some of the things that he did, right? Like that's gone. Do not come for me with that. Like that's done. There's no justification anymore for, that's how he acts on Twitter but, but this is how he is for president. Like I will not, I [00:38:00] will not hear it anymore. I will not. If nothing else watching what happened yesterday at the Capitol erased that argument for me, and I hope everybody, forever.
Beth: [00:38:26] I want to say again, something that we talked about on Instagram live, Sarah, and just ask if you have any further thoughts or different thoughts about this. I feel really convicted in terms of the work that we do here, you know, we really try to equip you all, or at least inspire you to go out and have good fruitful conversations in your lives.
And I think being a person who works on and influences other people is incredibly valuable and important. And I also think that doesn't mean you have to do it [00:39:00] 24/7. And I think this is a moment. We are done with an election. There is not a call to action of us as citizens in this particular moment, you certainly can reach out to your representatives and tell them what you think ought to happen next.
And I think if you have energy for that, you should do so, but there is not a generalized call to action of citizens like voting in an election right now. And I think this is a really good moment for the conversation with your people who are saying things that you think are outrageous, to just be in that space of, I love you. I don't see the truth in that and be done.
I love you. I do not have it in me to talk about that today. I love you, you are wrong. And that is all I have to say today. We can talk about this later because we got to protect our own energy a little bit here. And I do think this is a time when it's really clear what's happening.
It's not complicated. And I also think that we've got to give people a little space because some of us [00:40:00] in those conversations, despite our most disciplined efforts, are going to want to elicit some kind of confession from people in our lives. You know, we're going to want people to admit that they were wrong the whole time, but it's always been like this.
It's been evident, whatever. And I think the changes of heart that are possible are usually going to happen best with some space and reflection, not with someone pulling it out of us. And so for me, I for the next week, I did not intend to get into intense debate with people who disagree with me. I just don't have it right now.
Sarah: [00:40:37] Yeah. I had a short text exchange with my father yesterday that ended with me saying there is no historical equivalent for this period. There is no historical equivalent for this. There is no protest that has taken place in the United States over the last [00:41:00] year or the last 50 years, that is equivalent to what happened yesterday at the United state Capitol period, full stop.
You know, I can, we can, there is difficult conversations to be had around values and perception and reality, but I feel pretty firm on the footing of history right now. And there is no equivalent and I will not accept anything else than that.
Beth: [00:41:26] And what's sad is that that statement was true before the mob busted into the Capitol. There was no historical equivalent for more than a hundred members of Congress breaching their obligation in a ceremonial acceptance of the state's electoral results. Yep,
Sarah: [00:41:47] absolutely. I know what really, you know, speaking of our role as citizens, what is so heartbreaking and frustrating and enraging to me is we had something to [00:42:00] celebrate as citizens yesterday. The state of Georgia elected two democratic senators on Tuesday, a Black man and a young Jewish man from the state of Georgia, the first Black Senator from the state of Georgia.
I mean, that is amazing. They were great candidates. They're going to be in the Senate. Senator Mitch McConnell will no longer be the majority leader. Real relief, real COVID relief, better vaccine distribution relief for state and local governments changes to our immigration laws. Real progress on climate change is now available to us and we didn't get a morning to celebrate that and to feel that success.
And in some ways that is, you know, the brutal reality of being a citizen, right. Of [00:43:00] wrapping yourself up in community and connection to other human beings is that there is so much beyond your control and that moments of celebration are often tightly tied to moments of heartbreak.
And it's to hold all that, to hold that celebration, to stay with that discipline of hope, to say like, you have to protect us over the next 13 days. And also it is only 13 days. All of it is true. It could have been worse. It shouldn't have been like that. We are so close. It is still dangerous. We have something to celebrate. We have something to mourn. It is all true. It is all true.
Beth: [00:43:48] We wanted to end today with a prayer for our country written by Rabbi Ayelet Cohen, we'll come back next week and talk much more about everything. And [00:44:00] I am certain events will develop rapidly and we want to be with you throughout that entire process. And whether you are a person of faith or not, I hope that you hear some wisdom in this prayer that resonates with you.
Sarah: [00:44:12] Our God and God of our ancestors, bless this country and all who dwell within it.
Beth: [00:44:16] Help us to experience the blessings of our lives and circumstances,
Sarah: [00:44:21] to be vigilant, compassionate, and brave,
Beth: [00:44:24] strengthen us when we are afraid,
Sarah: [00:44:26] help us to channel our anger
Beth: [00:44:28] so that it motivates us to action,
Sarah: [00:44:31] help us to feel our fear
Beth: [00:44:33] so that we do not become numb.
Sarah: [00:44:35] Help us to be generous with others,
Beth: [00:44:37] so that we raise each other up.
Sarah: [00:44:38] Help us to be humble in our fear, knowing that as vulnerable as we feel there are those at greater
risk.
Beth: [00:44:46] And that is our Holy work to stand with them.
Sarah: [00:44:49] Help us to taste the sweetness of Liberty,
Beth: [00:44:52] to not take for granted the freedoms one in generations past or in recent days
Sarah: [00:44:56] to heal and nourish our democracy. That it may [00:45:00] be like a tree planted by the water whose roots reached down to the stream.
Beth: [00:45:04] It may not fear a drought when it comes. Its leaves are always green
Sarah: [00:45:08] source of all life.
Beth: [00:45:10] Guide our leaders with righteousness
Sarah: [00:45:13] strengthen their hearts, but keep them from hardening.
Beth: [00:45:16] They may use their influence and authority to speak truth and act for justice.
Sarah: [00:45:21] May all who dwell in this country share and its bounty, enjoy its freedoms and be protected by its laws.
Beth: [00:45:30] May this nation use its power and wealth to be a voice for justice, peace and equality for all who dwell on earth.
Sarah: [00:45:36] May we be strong and have courage.
Beth: [00:45:38] To be bold in our action and deep in our compassion
Sarah: [00:45:43] To discern when we must listen and when we must act.
Beth: [00:45:46] To uproot bigotry and tolerance, misogyny, racism, discrimination, and violence in all its forms
Sarah: [00:45:53] To celebrate the many faces of God reflected in the wondrous diversity of humanity .
Beth: [00:45:58] To welcome the [00:46:00] stranger and the immigrant and to honor the gifts of those who seek refuge and possibility here
Sarah: [00:46:04] as they have since before this nation was born.
Beth: [00:46:07] Let justice well up like waters and righteousness, like a mighty stream.
Sarah: [00:46:13] Thank you for joining us for another episode of Pantsuit Politics. Have the best weekend available to you.
Beth: Pantsuit Politics is produced by Studio D Podcast Production.
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