The one where the Washington Post accidentally highlights the generational divide of the Democratic Party

One entertaining part about being a fly on the wall is being able to read how people “of a slightly different generation” view responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. I don’t know Paul Kane or Mike DeBonis, but I do know they co-authored a piece this morning in the Washington Post that answers a question that… literally no one fucking asked.

Personally, I’m not worried about whether Congress can gather in the same room, because their ability to do their job isn’t limited by a building. Congress is a group of people who makes arguments, passes bills, and casts a vote when it’s all over. Sure, there are committees, and various groups that have meetings, but I’ll stress this — none of those functions can’t be overcome with a video-conference.

This whole article could have been an opinion piece that simply said this: Democrats could have pushed to make everything happen via video-conference, but instead, they’re hemming and hawing about whether someone needs to be on the floor of Congress, doing vote by proxy, etc. This wasn’t a hard problem to solve, because we know it’s already happening. Aides and staffers are working remotely, and they’re still getting most core functions of government completed.

Just… fucking read this shit.

… House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) left the meeting with narrower ambitions — saying he hoped to move forward with remote committee work in the coming weeks to allow for the passage of the yearly defense and spending bills. Proxy voting, or any other remote voting alternative, he said, would be a heavier lift.

“We need to build confidence,” he said. “And how do you build confidence? You do it in small segments, and using the committees to do this, it seems to me, makes sense.”

(No, this doesn’t make sense.)

Yeah, I get it. It’s not normal. Nothing is normal. It’s a pandemic. Maybe, rather than acting like you’re my 59 year old aunt passing around conspiracy theories on Facebook, you should just act like you have a job to do, and use every tool available to you… and do your fucking job.

“To some, it’s not like a big deal, but it is a big deal,” he said. “There were constitutional questions which we had to explore. There are logistical questions. There are security questions. There’s also the reality that not all members of Congress are, you know, at the same level in terms of being comfortable with technology.”

(An actual goddamn quote from a sitting Congressman.)

Listen, you old fuck: I don’t fucking care whether you struggle to install apps on your phone. Call your grandson, or whatever you do when you’re squinting and holding your phone at this odd-ass cocked angle, wondering how this technology machine works. We’re expecting you to be able to govern, even during challenging times — and if that means you need to learn how to use Zoom, you need to sort it out.

Hey, Democratic Leadership: In case you’re wondering why so many people my age have lost faith in the Democratic Party, it’s because when we need you all to get your shit together, and simply do the bare minimum, you can’t. Or you won’t? Fuck it, I’m not even sure anymore. The notion that this all has to be done with a sense of tradition is pointless; Because hearkening back to the age of powdered wigs, and appealing to 18th century tradition is fucking stupid.

We need help. 25 million Americans have filed for unemployment, and the longer this goes on, the more that number will climb. True unemployment numbers are a totally different anyway, because 25 million doesn’t factor in freelancers, or businesses too small to count.

Get your shit together.