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Politics

The GOP Is America’s Abusive Partner

It’s hard — sometimes deadly — to break up with a bad actor, but we have to

Danielle Moodie
ZORA
Published in
5 min readFeb 8, 2021

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Kevin McCarthy speaking in front of podium.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

“I thought I was going to die.”

When Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez uttered those words on her Instagram Live last week, it immediately invoked the once unthinkable scene of our Capitol building under siege by White domestic terrorists. As the world watched the images of violence and terror unfold, Ocasio-Cortez was living through it—hiding in a bathroom, holding her breath, and hoping to God that she wouldn’t be found by the people hunting her.

American carnage. This is the America Trump and his sycophants delivered on January 6, 2021.

As a result of the insurrection, five people died and others were maimed — eyes lost, fingers lost, spinal cord injuries—and even after all this mayhem and trauma, Republicans want AOC and America to move on. Move on from our sacred halls of democracy being smeared with feces. Move on from windows riddled with bullet holes. Move on from the chants of “hang Mike Pence.” That’s what abusers usually do after they cause harm. That’s exactly what House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy did when he took to TV to tell the American people that everyone was to blame for the attack on our Capitol — everyone except the man with the bullhorn. Abusers urge you to forget. They even try and blame the victim for causing them to hurt you, and then the cycle begins anew.

Republicans are America’s abusers.

For four years, they have been gaslighting us into believing that Donald Trump was a great president. That his behavior was acceptable and his policies necessary to make America great. A man who can’t string together a cohesive sentence, who ripped infants from their breastfeeding mothers, banned Muslims from our shores, and threatened countless politicians, including the Ukrainian president. With each horrific action, Republicans backed his behavior and his policies 100%. And now, after…

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ZORA
ZORA

Published in ZORA

A publication from Medium that centers the stories, poetry, essays and thoughts of women of color.

Danielle Moodie
Danielle Moodie

Written by Danielle Moodie

is the host of #WokeAF Daily & co-host of the podcast #democracyish. She covers all the news and happenings at the intersection of politics and pop culture.

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