How do you stand up to the man?
There’s nothing special about what the Republican Party does. They represent a belief in a world where the strong should dominate the weak. Theirs is a bastardized view of Darwinian exceptionalism, one that has little time to consider its own logical fallacies. In their eyes, there is no bottleneck of wealth forced through a self-perpetuating loop of indifference and privilege.
They see only a level playing field of opportunity where life’s losers are the axle grease that enables them to run roughshod over everyone else.
It used to be a simple equation, an ‘and/or gate,’ where some of us voted left and others voted right. We won some, we lost some; Duverger’s Law kept the two-party system ticking over quite nicely.
But something went wrong. The right went sour. It festered in its own astringent juices vowing revenge for slight after imagined slight. It frothed at the mouth at aid programs, seethed at the thought of affordable health care, and choked on the bitter gristle of minimum wages.
Where once we saw advocacy of fiscal conservatism we saw in its stead an intolerance for anything else. Conservatism, once the Yin to liberalism’s Yang became a watchword for obstructionism. They pursued their own legislative agendas with feverish obsession, but when fate decreed that the Democrats run things for a while, they sat back on their haunches.
Arms folded, they waited for the pendulum to swing their way again. Waiting for the chance to erase anything and everything the Democrats had achieved regardless of its efficacy.
La Résistance
So how do you stand up to the man?
You take the fight to them.
That’s what David Yankovich is doing.
When Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan achieved his long cherished aim of repealing Obamacare he was in celebratory mood. And why not? He’d managed to push through a piece of legislation before the congressional budget office could score it. Congressmen freely admitted that they had voted for a bill that they had not read. That 24 million Americans might lose their health insurance as a consequence of their actions didn’t seem to faze them much.
It was all true to form.
It was all too much for one man.
David Yankovich is not a politician. He’s not rich. He’s not famous. But having just recently moved to Wisconsin, there’s one label that can be attributed to the man.
He’s part of the resistance.
It's official. I have filed the paperwork and I am taking on Paul Ryan.
How badly do you want him gone?#WI01 https://t.co/HQUnxslX5w
— David Yankovich (@DavidYankovich) May 30, 2017
How badly indeed?
Ryanectomy
His background is no different to that of many other ordinary working Americans. His father was a water treatment plant worker his mother, a property manager. He played sports at high school and chess with his grandfather; he was just like any other kid. Except that he learned the importance of social justice early on his life. At just 10 years old, he attended a campaign rally and met his new hero, then-First Lady Hillary Clinton.
Later, he worked as an intelligence analyst, but it was his writing for the Huffington Post and via his own site The Broken Road that brought him to the attention of those leading the fight back against GOP corruption.
A move to Wisconsin gave him the opportunity to do more than just regale against injustices.
Although the state’s 1st District is something of a Republican stronghold, the disastrous presidency of Donald Trump provided a unique opportunity. To stand against one of Trump’s great enablers. to rise up against Paul Ryan. To evict him from the halls of congress.
That would be oh, so sweet.
From Experience, Empathy
Weeks before launching his campaign, David’s mother was placed in a medical coma due to complication arising from undiagnosed COPD and pneumonia. Evan as Yankovich was informed that he might have to make a life or death decision, Ryan was working hard to take health care coverage away from more than 20 million Americans.
This single gif represents why I am seriously considering running.pic.twitter.com/u2Tknn2fbu
— David Yankovich (@DavidYankovich) May 7, 2017
Idioms involving straw and camels barely do justice.
History will show that Paul Ryan failed to act in the best interests of the American people. It will reveal him as a self-serving crony whose only exceptional trait was an ability to divorce his ideological dick twitches from the suffering he caused. And sure, history will shame the man in the same way it has shamed other like-minded despots through the ages.
But for those who can’t wait, the prospect of David Yankovich wiping that smug smile of Ryan’s face must come as something of a consolation prize.
One too tempting for many of us to ignore.
You can follow David Yankovich on Twitter and support his bid for Congress here.
Watch Paul Ryan celebrate the coming suffering of millions of Americans (after the jump):
Featured Image: Screenshot Via Twitter And YouTube.
