The Sounds of Spiraling Silence
Jill's take on the Shit Show
“I’m just a bill and I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill.”
Were you just singing that line in your head? Schoolhouse Rock was a great cultural achievement, teaching a whole generation about how the levers of government work and when to use a conjunction junction.
But now, “bill” is a dirty word.
It’s so immoral there are no words
I don’t need to tell you how awful that bill is. Amazingly, it managed to get out of the Senate in an even worse shape than it went in. As of a few hours ago, it passed the House.
I am writing from a point of privilege. I won’t starve and I won’t lose my health insurance. Yet I am aching all over with the thought of the millions of people who will truly suffer because Ken Griffin needs a new yacht.
But don’t be fooled; you and I will also be paying a heavy price. I remember the days when I couldn’t get health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. Living with the terrifying prospect of no coverage took so much of my time and energy, it forced me to make some lousy career decisions all because I needed some sort of insurance. In the end, the coverage I did find was outrageously expensive and landed me in a class action lawsuit.
Now, the cost of your health care will skyrocket, you won’t be able to go to the ER because it will be filled with people who have no other option, and don’t plan on a road trip next summer because you don’t want to get stuck in a place where the nearest health care is a couple hours away.
Can’t comprehend
I struggle with thoughts of this unnecessary suffering and keep coming back to the one question that I can’t seem to find an answer to. Hannah Arendt called it, the “banality of evil.”
How is it that one human can be so thoughtless, unfeeling and so absolutely cruel to think that taking food and shelter away from those who need help the most is a thing they should celebrate.
When John Thune walked out of the Senate after finally passing the bill with the barest of margins, he looked jubilant with a wide smile on his face.
See what I did, he thought. I just lied and cajoled to get this bill across the line and never once did I think about the people—actual people—in my state who will die or go without food.
Why didn’t he look morally overwhelmed? What does he see that I don’t? Does he really think that people are just lazy and they should pull up their bootstraps? I mean, all those tech bros and hedge fund guys did it on their own without any help from the government, right?
The Spiral of Silence
I’ve just learned about this theory called, The Spiral of Silence which basically says: if I think I’m the only one who feels this way, then I will stay home and keep silent.
For the cowards in the GOP, the spiral of silence is very real. They know for certain that their constituents don’t want this terrible, dangerous bill.
Their spiraling silence stems from straight up fear. Fear of losing their job (no great loss since they aren’t really doing their jobs), and definitely fear from the threats laid against them.
Voldemort and his minions are making threats in the press. The crazy maggots, I mean, MAGA-ots, are probably jamming up their emails and voice mails threatening their families with violence. But hey, it’s just another day for them.
The GOP is spiraling down to the ninth circle of Hell and letting themselves (and the rest of us) burn in the inferno they have created.
Spiral of Protest?
If there is a spiral of silence because we think no one agrees with us, then can there also be the opposite? A spiraling up of protest because we know that millions of people do agree with us?
Do not succumb to the notion the we are doomed. Five million people marching on No Kings Day proves that there is a humongous number of Americans who are pissed off and willing to make signs and march in the streets to air their grievances.
Now that this bill has passed, even those who are not paying attention will be forced to reckon with what their government is doing to them. And it won’t be just one or two folks in town. It will be the entire town and its businesses when the major employer—the hospital or clinic—shuts down. In a few short weeks the line of economic repercussions will extend from coast to coast, and effect every single one of us.
So the next protest won’t be five million people, it will be many, many more!
What does July 4th mean?
Hot dogs and fried chicken, fireworks, a few days off, and an Aperol Spritz.
It should mean much more than this. It should fill us with pride that our country was founded more or less on the notion of equality and that the founders created a new type of government that has worked relatively well for 249 years.
This is no longer true. Our system of government is not working. But like the founders, we must argue, negotiate, and fight as hard as we must to fix it.
keepin’ the faith,
Jill
It is hard to believe that almost every republican representative supported this mean ugly bill. I don’t know how they can live with themselves , after being so cruel to the people they are supposed to represent. Don’t any of them have a conscience, and feel guilty about children going hungry, families not having health care, hospitals that will probably close because of what they have done, and so many people who will die because of them. Are there any Republican representatives with a shred of kindness and caring, for others. I hope their families are ashamed of them, as they should be.
Thank you for your words, Jill.