Jonathan Capehart:
Right. I’m going to ignore the accusation, because it’s a lie. And it’s a lie that far right Republicans have been hurling at Democrats to cow them.
What I loved about Representative — Senator McMorrow’s response was how forceful it was, how she refused to cede ground, moral ground, to people who were seeking to attack her. I loved it. I’m glad you played that clip of her saying: I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom.
And I loved what she said to John Yang when she said, we have to take our identities back.
For far too long people on the left, elected Democrats, have — like I just said before, cowed in the face of these attacks, instead of standing up in their own — with their spines, and standing on their own two feet, and in their values and in their morals and saying, do not speak for me. Do not speak — I’m a Christian. Don’t tell me that I’m not. I’m a mom. Don’t tell me that I’m not. Don’t tell me I don’t care about my children or other children.
I want more McMorrows out there. And she’s not the only one. Last week, Ian Mackey, a Michigan state representative, went at a colleague who proposed anti-LGBT legislation and said to him directly: It’s because of people like you that friends of mine decided to leave the state because they no longer — they didn’t feel safe.
And so, if we had more Mackeys, if we had more McMorrows, who are willing to be the voice of LGBTQ people, African Americans, Asian Americans, anyone who is not the straight, white, cisgender, usually male person who is attacking them, we could — we could move this country out of this horrible conversation that we’re having now.
