Since President Trump was elected last November, a new buzzword has become popular on social media and IRL: "Resistance."
This word, also styled as #Resist on social media, has been used whenever the Trump administration comes up with a new policy that might affect millions of vulnerable communities. It was touted around when the travel ban happened, when Trump signed an executive order giving the green light to the Dakota Access Pipeline, and when he decided to roll back the Obama-era protections for transgender students and their bathroom use. "Resistance" has also been the word of choice for many people during marches, rallies, and even the "A Day Without A Woman" strike.
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But during last night's episode of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, the comedian-slash-queen of my heart had some choice of words for Democrats who are all about La Résistance — as long as they don't have to go to the polls.
“For all their passion and earnestness and mad crafting skills, Democrats suck at voting, specially when it counts the most,” Bee said, before adding: “It’s not enough just to yell your opinions — that’s my job! You need to vote.”
And she's not exaggerating. Let's take a look at a couple of recent elections, shall we? As in, local elections that happened after November. Yeah, that's a thing.
Let's talk about Los Angeles for example, where they held a mayoral election last week. The city, where the Women's March crowds were estimated to be between 500,000 and 750,000, had an amazing voter turnout of... 12%. Yes, you read that correctly. A grand total of 12% actually showed up to vote.
"That's less than the percent of Los Angeles that turned out to audition for the Mr. Belvedere reboot!" Bee quipped.
Granted, Democratic Mayor Eric Garcetti was re-elected. But really guys, you couldn't put on your pink pussy hat and drag your asses to the polls?
The same happened with the December runoff election in Louisiana, where the voter turnout was of only 29%. And to the surprise of no one, Foster Campbell, the Democratic candidate, lost the race.
"The other 71% of you better have been at a jazz funeral," Bee joked.
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But Democrats can atone for their sins sooner than they might think. In some states, they don't really have to wait until the 2018 midterm elections to make a difference. There are Democrats running in some special Congressional elections right now.
Bee listed some of them off: There's James Thompson, who is running in Wichita, KS; Archie Parnell, who is aiming for a seat in South Carolina's 5th District; Rob Quist, who could be Montana's only Congressman; and Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old who is running for Congress in Georgia's special election and may be worrying Republicans.
In case you forgot the lessons of the Tea Party and the last 10 years: Local and state elections matter. If it's your hope that Trump will be removed from office, well, Bee predicts that there's a "30% chance this omnishambles of a president will impeach himself by mistake."
She added, "Otherwise, it will take a Democratic Congress. And I’m afraid you can’t crochet one of those."