erik lundegaard

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Friday December 04, 2020

'This Has to Stop'

Last month—was it just last month?—a friend asked if Joseph Welch's line to Joe McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings (“Have you no sense of decency? At long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”) would have any meaning for today's GOP. I said no. I said the point of Trump from the beginning was a lack of decency. That was part of his appeal; that's why they glommed onto him. That's why they still do. So we wondered if not that, then what? What might pierce the GOP/Fox News/right-wing propaganda veil to help them finally see the monster they've created?

I don't know if Gabriel Sterling's press conference the other day is the answer to that, but it's the closest I've seen. Here it is in case you didn't see it. It's a thing of beauty. Not just what he said but the way he said it. The controlled anger. It's like his anger pressed his words into diamonds:

Good afternoon. My name is Gabriel Sterling. I'm the Voting System Implementation Manager for the state of Georgia. And just to give y'all a heads up, this is going to be sort of a two-part press conference today. At the beginning of this, I'm going to do my best to keep it together because it's all ... gone ... too ... far. All of it!

[Trump attorney] Joe diGenova today asked for Chris Krebs, a patriot who ran CISA, to be shot. A twenty-something tech in Gwinnett County today has death threats and a noose put out saying he should be hung for treason because he was transferring a report on batches from an EMS to a county computer so we could read it. It has to stop. Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop. We need you to step up and if you're going to take a position of leadership, show something.

My boss, Secretary Raffensperger, his address is out there. They have people doing caravans in front of their house. They've had people come on to their property. Tricia, his wife of 40 years, is getting sexualized threats through her cell phone. It has to stop.

And a voting system implementation manager from Sandy Springs, Georgia shall lead them. Or should lead them. Instead we're stuck with Mitch.

So far, neither President nor GOP Senators have taken up Sterling's call.

Posted at 06:58 AM on Friday December 04, 2020 in category Politics