Mitch McConnell does not get to play the victim in restaurant protest

JC Sullivan | Opinion contributor

Show Caption Hide Caption McConnell, Elaine Chao confronted at Louisville restaurant A man is seen confronting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao at Havana Rumba in Louisville, Kentucky. (Video has no sound) Oct. 19, 2018

By now most everyone knows that Friday evening a man confronted Mitch McConnell and his wife while they were dining at Havana Rumba in the Highlands. The unidentified man allegedly pounded his fists on the table. We do know that he later dumped McConnell's doggie bag on the sidewalk outside the door, all the while ranting about McConnell's political positions. Many have weighed in on social media. Here is my take:

Mitch has no one to blame but himself.

McConnell’s offices too often don’t answer phone calls, leave the voicemails full and if you can get an email through, it sits unread. If you want Mitch to hear you, the only option he gives you is paying for $1,000-a-plate dinners or confronting him if you are lucky/unlucky enough to run into him. We already pay his salary; we shouldn’t have to pay again to have our voices heard. Since he likes to talk politics over meals, we are just giving him what he wants.

Yay for this man seizing the only opportunity he has to have his views heard by the man who is supposed to work for us. His fist-pounding is a gavel in the court of public opinion.

From Mitch McConnell: Protest at Louisville restaurant didn't ruin my meal

Consider this: Trashing McConnell's food went too far. How to protest responsibly.

Hear ye, hear ye, we are fed up with not being heard. We are fed up with policies that put children in tents in the desert, locked in cages in vacant Walmarts, many never to see their families again. We are fed up with tax cuts for the rich on the backs of the working class. We are fed up with the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act that many people rely on for life-saving medical coverage. People died for lack of coverage before it and will die without it. We are fed up with policies that destroy our planet and hurt the American people.

We are fed up.

We are as full of frustration as Mitch was with food when he asked for the to-go box. And as Mitch discards our voices, his doggie bag was trashed. That the silencing of Americans is somehow considered more civil than dumping leftovers on a sidewalk makes me think we are in The Upside Down. I guess those Bostonians in 1773 were wrong too?

In July, I was one of the people that confronted the senator outside of the Bristol. I made a choice not to go into the restaurant, not out of respect for him, but out of respect for the business. A lot has happened since July. The rhetoric from the right has become increasingly more aggressive, encouraging divisiveness.

“Look at how angry the left is, huh? Look at it. The angrier they get, the better we're doing.” Is this the line of a cheap movie villain or an elder statesman?

Column: Eat at home, McConnell, until you're ready to listen to all the people

Mitch is pushing this cynical agenda. He does not get to play the victim. He garners no sympathy from me when confronted. We should not afford him the luxury of distancing himself from the anger he is celebrating.

I hope his constituents confront him and say what they would in the emails and voicemails that never get through. In two years, we will be able to speak directly in the ballot box. Until then, he works for us. I encourage Mitch to start listening to the people he is supposed to represent.

If he refuses to listen through official channels, we have not only the right but the obligation to speak in the community, in the streets, and yes, especially, in the places where we meet and talk and break bread together.

JC Sullivan is a Louisville resident.

Background: Man dumps McConnell's to-go box on Bardstown Road, witness says

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