UPDATE 1/18/17: As of midday today, the number of congresspeople who are skipping the inauguration has reached 58. See here for a running tally.
Last week, Civil Rights legend and 16-term Congressman John Lewis made a bombshell announcement, declaring in an interview with NBC that he does not think Donald Trump was legitimately elected president. Because of this, he went on to say, he will not be attending the inauguration this Friday.
Lewis’ announcement — followed by Trump’s ignorant, racist Twitter denunciation of Lewis and his constituents — has inspired numerous other Members of Congress to announce that they too will sit out Trump’s swearing-in. Before Lewis’ declared his intention, there were a handful of Congressional boycotters; now there are more than two dozen, and that number is likely to grow.
You can find a list of them on Fusion; the author of that piece, Wilfred Chan, has been keeping track of new additions on Twitter.
Please urge your representatives in Congress (House and Senate) to join the boycott! If they already have, please offer them your thanks.
See my posts here and here for information and advice on how to call/write your reps — from basic stuff on how to find their contact info as well as tips from former congressional staffers on how to make your calls and emails effective. And if making these sorts of calls is tough for you, here’s some advice on calling politicians if you have social anxiety.
While Congressional offices will be closed, due to a holiday honoring a man Lewis marched alongside, you can still contact many Members of Congress on Twitter. And definitely give support to those who already have announced, even if they aren’t your representatives. While politicians aren’t always thrilled to get feedback from people outside their states/districts, I can’t imagine anyone unhappy to get a “thank you” on Twitter.
Please also contact the White House to ask Obama and Biden to skip the inaugural as well. Probably a futile gesture but if either (or both) were to take this step it would be monumental. Go here for information on how to write or call the President.
kupo, I want to believe that the inauguration will have more tumbleweed than audience, but that’s a very thin article. It has one guy, an occasional scalper, trying to sell two tickets. Not much to hang a story on.
I was more amused by the article linked from there, where Trump said that “dress shops” are sold out:
Which… turns out not to be true.
Firstly: it continues to amaze me that he lies so continuously, so transparently, and so needlessly.
Secondly: isn’t he supposed to have more important shit to concern him? It’s just a show! I don’t recall past presidents being this needy about how many slebs would show up, and what frocks they’d wear. He has people to worry about that for him now.
@Moggie
It’s not a serous news site or anything. They report on geekdom with a feminist slant. Sometimes their articles are serious but they’re mostly fun. It’s an article about a funny thing that happened. *shrug*
Why should anybody be surprised or shocked that the Angry Cheeto has said Yet Another Blatantly False Thing Whose Falsity Can Be Revealed In Five Seconds Of Googling?
Look: Trump is a bullshitter—a con artist. He doesn’t care about ‘truth’ or ‘falsehood’. He says whatever he thinks will get people to react/behave the way he wants them to react/behave. I’m unsure if the Cheeto is actively opposed to speaking the truth (regards truth as a reason to not say something), but at this point it’s perfectly clear that the Cheeto does not regard falsity as a reason to not say something.
@Cubist
Because he’ll be president in 3 days. We should not normalize this behavior by just shrugging and saying, “Donald will be Donald.” For the same reason we shouldn’t say, “boys will be boys,” too. That normalizes the behavior. It lets him off the hook. We can’t afford to let that happen. It wasn’t okay the first time and it’s sure as hell not okay now.
Nobody here is surprised. We’re objecting to it and will continue to object to it. It’s not like he’s that annoying acquaintance in your social circle who has a habit of stretching the truth for attention where you can just smile and nod and roll your eyes behind their back and it doesn’t make a difference to your life. His lies can and will do real harm.
Also it’s a good political strategy for the left to oppose Donald strongly because we need to be able to have the moral high ground and be proven right when the presidency inevitably fails and fails hard.