'It's time to fight everywhere and all at once'

JB Pritzker says Democratic leaders need to end their 'simpering timidity' and voters need to hit the streets, again and again

Intro by Sam Bellamy

JB Pritzker has a message for Democrats: “It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once.”

At a speech Sunday in the key primary state of New Hampshire, the Illinois governor unloaded on the timid response of many Democratic lawmakers and overwhelmed voters to Donald Trump’s steady assault on democracy. The time for compromise and strategizing is over, he said.

“Fellow Democrats, for far too long we’ve been guilty of listening to a bunch of do-nothing political types who would tell us that America’s house is not on fire, even as the flames are licking their faces,” Pritzker said. “Today, as the blaze reaches the rafters, the pundits and politicians — whose simpering timidity served as kindle for the arsonists — urge us now not to reach for a hose.”

That’s certainly music to the ears of the staff at Fight the Fire.

“Voters didn’t turn out for Democrats last November — not because they don’t want us to fight for our values, but because they think we don’t want to fight for our values,” he said. “We need to knock off the rust of poll-tested language, decades of stale decorum. It’s obscured our better instincts.”

Compromise is not realistic.

“It’s time for us to be done with optimism about their motives or their objectives, time to stop wondering if you can trust the nuclear codes to people who don’t know how to organize a group chat,” he said. “It’s time to stop ignoring the hypocrisy of wearing a big gold cross while announcing the defunding of children’s cancer research. And time to stop thinking that we can reason or negotiate with a madman, time to stop apologizing when we were not wrong. Time to stop surrendering when we need to fight.”

These comments begin at about the 22-minute mark in the video below. It’s worth watching.

“Democrats, we may have to fix our messaging and our strategy, but our values are exactly where they ought to be, and we will never join so many Republicans in the special place in hell reserved for quislings and cowards.”

The time to act is now, not during the midterms. Too much evil is happening, too quickly, as we cannot wait as our rights to be stripped away. “Today it’s an immigrant with a tattoo,” he said. “Tomorrow it’s a citizen whose Facebook post annoys Donald Trump.”

As Anne Caprara, Pritzker’s chief of staff, told The New York Times, “What we’re seeing right now is 1930s Germany; the only way to actually stop that from happening is to be very loud and vocal about the pushback. That is what is motivating everything he is doing right now.”

Pritzker says protests must expand. “Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have. We must castigate them on the soapbox and then punish them at the ballot box,” he said.

“They must feel in their bones that when we survive this shameful episode of American history with our democracy intact – because we have no alternative but to do just that – that we will relegate their portraits to the museum halls reserved for tyrants and traitors. When the courage of our civic leaders wavers, when they fail to stand up for our country in its moment of great needs, we should remind them that cowardice comes with a cost.”

Republicans are calling for Pritzker to be investigated for criminal incitement of violence.

Stephen Miller, one of many in Trump’s inner circle who regard the cop-beating Jan. 6 rioters as patriots, said the governor’s comments “could be construed as inciting violence.” Illinois GOP Chairwoman Kathy Salvi likewise criticized Pritzker’s “irresponsible and incendiary remarks.”

That’s especially rich coming from a political party whose own members say they hold back on opposing Trump because they’re afraid of physical violence by MAGA followers.

Pritzker called for marches in the streets, on the soapbox, at the ballot box and – critically – in the hall of Congress, where too many Democrats engage in navel-gazing and post-election analysis.

“Standing for the idea that the government doesn’t have the right to kidnap you without due process is arguably the most effective campaign slogan in history,” he said.