GOP leaders just rallied in support of cruelty
Labor Day is a holiday most of America spends with their families. Some of us even spend a little time reflecting on what the labor movement and the unions that built it have done for our country, such as weekends off, the 8-hour workday, a minimum wage, paid overtime, child labor laws, workplace safety laws and the largest expansion of the middle class in American history — just to name a few.
But for most of us living in Colorado, Labor Day is a time to enjoy the beautiful outdoors, our state’s amazing recreational opportunities, or a good oldfashioned barbecue in the park.
That is unless you were one of a handful of washed-up, rightwing zealots who spent Labor Day protesting outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Aurora. Unlike recent demonstrations outside this controversial facility condemning the inhumane
conditions inside and the misguided federal policy behind its existence, these folks were not there to protest the horrific treatment of asylum-seekers or the Trump administration’s deplorable tactics in permanently ripping families apart or the detestable policy of locking kids in cages.
No, these people spent their Labor Day rallying outside this facility in support of the thoroughly un-american conditions inside. And this wasn’t a handful of Qanon, Infowars conspiracy theorists. I mean, they were most certainly in attendance, but this protest was led by the vice-chair of the Colorado GOP, Kristi Burton Brown, former Republican congressman and gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo, national conservative celebrity columnist Michelle Malkin and local AM radio personality Randy Corporan. Joining them were Colorado Republican lawmakers Rep. Susan Beckman and House Minority Leader Patrick Neville — along with representatives of the pathetic, doomed effort to recall Gov. Jared Polis.
By attending this demonstration, these Republican leaders overtly and outwardly showed support the indefinite separation and detention of families and this administration’s shocking refusal to provide medical care to sick children.
We no longer merely have a disagreement about public policy or the direction of our state or our nation. These are fundamental and defining issues for every American and every human being. This demonstration celebrated a wildly destructive and hateful worldview that should strike everyone as fundamentally anti-american.
It shook me to my core. A massive hurricane is raking the Southeast Atlantic coast after devastating the Bahamas, while our president prepares to escalate a trade war that we are very clearly losing. And on the heels of more mass shootings that have become too frequent to produce news, one party denies that these problems exist, insists we do nothing, and then cheerleads federally sanctioned cruelty.
Above all, it is unfathomable that so many of these people claim the mantle of Christianity, yet act against that faith’s most fundamental teachings at every opportunity. In Matthew 25, Jesus discusses what will happen to humanity on Judgment Day, how God will choose who will ascend to heaven and who will not. I would invite those who protested against imprisoned immigrants in Aurora on Labor Day to read these words carefully: ” ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’
Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or without clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you?’
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “That seems pretty clear. We should expect better from every Coloradan and every American. We are better than the saddening and infuriating actions these cheerleaders of cruelty demonstrated on a holiday weekend. Our state is kind, compassionate, caring, humane, and, yes, progressive.
The fact that so many Colorado Republican officers, elected officials, and MAGA-HAT wearing supporters attended this despicable affair should be instructive to good-hearted Coloradans when ballots arrive roughly 13 months from now.
Ian Silverii is the executive director of Progressnow Colorado, the state’s largest progressive advocacy group.