Budowsky: House Democrats are America’s team

To dramatize the critical point discussed here, when former special counsel Robert Mueller testifies next week he should be asked this question:

President Trump, who was elected with support from Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, has suggested that your investigation of the Russian attack against American democracy was treasonous. What is your reply, Mr. Mueller?  

{mosads}On Tuesday a united House Democratic Caucus, along with four principled Republican members and one principled independent member, rose to strongly condemn the lies told by the president against four Democratic women of color who serve in Congress.

Again and again in recent days, the president repeated the lie that these members of Congress hate America, when in truth they love America with a passion for American justice and democracy that he will never understand.

Led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Democrats of all persuasions, from red and blue states alike, rose with unity, fury and resolve to condemn some of the darkest defamations ever uttered by any president in history.

In the most true, profound and fundamental sense these House Democrats are America’s team. They stand up for American values. They battle to defend American democracy. They resist attacks from foreign dictators and call out a president who praises them while he labels our free press and his political opponents as enemies of the people, foments racial prejudice and fear, and seeks to suppress millions of Americans from voting.

Google the words “Trump treason.” You will find that President Trump, who avoided military service when our country was at war and duty called, and is the only president in American history elected with the aggressive support of a foreign dictator he publicly praises, has repeatedly accused patriotic Americans of committing treason or hating America — while leaders of his party lack the courage to condemn this.

Regarding four members of Congress targeted by Trump’s endless slanders against their patriotism, whether we agree with them or not on individual
issues is beside the point, which is that they love our country deeply — like every member of Congress from both political parties!

It is a sad day in America when a president promotes hatred and fear to pit American against American, faith against faith, race against race — and leaders of his party lack the courage to condemn this.

It is a moral crime against the American idea when the president repeatedly propagates the slander that members of Congress hate the land they love — and leaders of his party lack the courage to unequivocally condemn this.

House Democrats are America’s team because they represent the full mosaic of the American family. They embody the magnificent diversity of the American community. They champion the true greatness of the American idea that our country is a melting pot where good people, from widely diverse backgrounds, with shared values and patriotic unity, come together behind common purposes and democratically debate our differences with goodwill and mutual respect.

The lesson learned and taught by House Democrats is that Benjamin Franklin was right. We Americans will all hang together, or we will all hang separately. The House Democrats came together this week like a band of brothers and sisters, like the inspired and united nation that landed on the moon 50 years ago this week after a great president pointed his finger to the skies and said there is nothing we cannot accomplish together.

House Democrats defeated Trump’s politics of hate and division in their historic landslide of 2018 — after Trump spent the last two months of that campaign sowing hatred and fear against the so-called migrant caravan.

Trump doesn’t just exploit fear. He tells Americans they should be more afraid. Trump doesn’t just exploit hate. He tells Americans they should hate even more.

Trump’s politics of hate and fear led his party to an epic defeat in 2018. If the Democratic band of brothers and sisters hangs together in 2020, then Republicans who back Trump’s politics of hate will hang separately on Election Day.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.