jOSH rILEY sPEAKS aGAINST aTTACKS oN lAW aND oRDER bY dONALD tRUMP
This evening, Congressman Josh Riley released the following statement:
“If you’re a violent criminal, terrorist, or active MS-13 gang member and you’re unlawfully present in the United States, then you should be deported. That’s common sense. And no matter who you are or what you’re accused of, you’re entitled to due process under our Constitution. That’s a bedrock American value. Those two principles don’t conflict.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is entitled to a hearing in the American courts where he can make his case and defend himself. The Supreme Court correctly said so and the Trump Administration needs to comply with that order. If the Administration refuses to do so, then Congress needs to give the courts additional tools to enforce their orders and uphold the Bill of Rights.”
Thank you to Josh Riley for making this statement.
In response, I want to make a statement about the purpose of this podcast. Earlier today, a Democrat from New York’s 19th congressional district left a message on the social media platform Bluesky complaining that my work on Josh Riley Watch is not helping anyone, and implying that I must be a professional troublemaker who is being paid by mysterious nefarious organizations to cause trouble for Congressman Josh Riley.
I admit that I am sometimes a troublemaker, but only on an amateur basis, never as a professional. This podcast, and the web site that goes with it, are paid for and maintained by myself, and nobody else.
I created Josh Riley Watch because I am a voter in New York’s 19th congressional district, and because I donated money to Josh Riley, volunteered many times for his campaign, and voted for him on Election Day. Anyone who spent any time with the Josh Riley campaign in Ithaca last year knows who I am.
I worked to get Josh Riley elected because his predecessor, Marc Molinaro, was a dishonest member of Congress who employed toxic means to enact a toxic ideology.
However, three months ago, Josh Riley became our member of the U.S. House of Representatives. When he took the Oath of Office, Josh Riley became the person who holds power for us in Washington D.C. I do not believe that it is the proper role of any voter to support any elected official just because of the political party that official belongs to. I believe that elected officials need to earn the support of voters, and that it is the responsibility of voters to exert pressure when elected officials don’t represent their needs and their values.
I produce the podcast Josh Riley Watch because I want Josh Riley to be a better member of Congress. If Josh Riley doesn’t feel pressure from voters, he won’t become a better member of Congress.
On August 4, 1857, Frederick Douglass said the following:
“Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reforms. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. . .
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its mighty waters.
The struggle may be a moral one or it may be a physical one, or it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
I agree with Frederick Douglass’s vision of popular involvement in the political struggle for liberty. Those in power will not take action to defend our liberty unless we make it worth their while to do so, and unless we make it painful for them to abandon the defense of liberty.
Josh Riley will not become the member of Congress we want him to be if we just sit on our hands and send money to his campaign and hope.
It is not clear whether we still have a democracy in our country, but I intend to go on acting as if we do. That’s the only way democracy is going to survive. We all need to show up for this struggle.
This Saturday, Ithaca’s part of a nationwide protest against Trump’s fascism begins at 11:00 AM in Dewitt Park. In Binghamton, a protest begins at 2:00 PM outside the county courthouse.
This Saturday, choose a protest. Get your butt out of your chair and be there.
Be part of the struggle.
