'Squad' Member's Attempt to Subtly Compare Herself to Rosa Parks Doesn't Go as Planned: 'Liberation from What?'
As anniversary ideas go, Cori Bush’s was an embarrassing bust.
The Missouri Democrat, radical leftist and second-wave “squad” member took to social media on Friday to commemorate one of the sparks of the Civil Rights Movement that transformed the country and implicitly compare herself to one of the great women in American history.
But she only ended up embarrassing herself in the process.
Bush was ostensibly paying homage to the Dec. 1, 1955, arrest of Rosa Parks, the Montgomery, Alabama, civil rights activist, that kicked off the Montgomery Bus Boycott and launched the national career of Martin Luther King Jr.
“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true…No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
68 years ago, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus.
We must continue to refuse to give in, in our fight for liberation.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) December 1, 2023
After quoting Parks, Bush wrote, “68 years ago, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus.”
“We must continue to refuse to give in, in our fight for liberation.”
For Bush, it must have seemed like a lay-up. Grab a little-known anniversary of a major moment in the Civil Rights Movement, co-opt it with an implied message that Bush is carrying on the mantle of leadership, toss in a major leftist buzzword like “liberation” and, voila, some freeby PR.
Not only did it come with the laziest of effort, it offered the added bonus of linking the Bush name to a heroine so revered that upon her death in 2005, she was laid in state in the Capitol Rotunda, the first woman to receive that honor in the nation’s history.
Unfortunately for Bush, it didn’t work out quite the way she envisioned.
For one thing, as the social media reaction showed, the country has changed a good deal since 1955 — and most Americans understand that it’s giants of history like Parks who deserve credit for it:
So you just compared yourself to Rosa Parks? Wow.
— Steve Moskowitz (@stevbmoskowitz) December 3, 2023
Rosa Parks was truly one of the bravest people to ever walk this earth. Don’t you dare equate yourself in any way with her.
— CallOutBs (@JeffreyHum50420) December 4, 2023
You’re fighting a fight that was won 68 years ago.
Why don’t you deal with today problems for all your constituents?
— Michelle Whitzel 𝕏 (@MichelleWhitzel) December 1, 2023
You realize that it’s 2023 and not 1953, right? Right??
— Alaskan Tequila (@LTequila4) December 3, 2023
For another, a fair-minded person might be asking, what exactly does Cori Bush need “liberation” from? A woman of no discernible distinction, she’s an American citizen who has risen to represent Missouri’s 1st Congressional District by toeing the lefttiest of lines on pretty much any public issue.
She attacks conservatives who share her skin color as “props.” She claimed Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who defended himself from deadly violence during rioting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020, was a white supremacist out to kill non-whites (all the men involved in the Rittenhouse shooting were white).
And while she’s an open advocate for defunding the police, she makes sure she has her own armed security around her. (Intellectual honesty isn’t one of her strongpoints.)
“Liberation” from what? What rights do you not have in the U.S.? What country would give you a better chance to succeed? Inasmuch as you are a no-talent Marxist, you have managed to get quite far in America. Stop whining, comrade!
— Identifier of Demosocialist Donkey Fazoo (@Ionoclast50) December 4, 2023
Liberation from what? What are you even talking about?
— VinoVeritas1985 (@VinoVeritas1982) December 1, 2023
This is some quality gibberish
— End the Simpsons (@EndTheSimpsons) December 1, 2023
All in all, there were plenty of reasons for Bush to end up regretting ever linking herself to Parks in the first place.
The men and women of the Civil Rights Movement knew what they were asking for and knew that they would get it.
The promise of freedom and justice under the law is written into the American DNA. And when the Civil Rights Movement gained its biggest successes with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it did it by overcoming opposition centered largely in the Democratic Party — the party Bush and her fellow “squad” members claim as their own.
Cori Bush can mark the anniversary of Parks’ arrest any way she wants — it’s still a free country.
But she can’t even begin to claim that she’s following in Parks’ footsteps.
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