That was the point of being outside of the Woodland Senior Center with my fellow protestors, because we know Mike Thompson knows.  And we wanted to hear what Thompson had to say and we thank the League of Women Voters for holding the interview and making the recording of the interview public.

What we learned from Mike Thompson last Friday afternoon was that he, too is upset with what is going on in Washington, DC, and abroad, and that he is comfortable in his reliance on the courts and the people can restore civility in DC.  The beleaguered audience of about 40 was not so sure.

It was at  time stamp 1:19:30 of the interview, when the moderator Komal Hak, Co-Directory of LWV Communications, asked "What can be applied (sanctions other pressure) toward the resolution or cessation of the Israeli Gaza conflict?"

In answering the question about Israel, Thompson did not follow from the previous interview question about sanctioning Russia. Instead, he said:

"We need to have a negotiated ceasefire, we need to stop the conflict, all the hostages need to be released, and we need to step up our efforts going forward to create a peaceful two-state solution.  This guy (Trump) came in and said he would handle it in a day, and it has gotten worse.   And we know that ceasefire that Bidden did negotiate was violated and stopped. We also know that Netanyahu has an interest in not ending this too soon for his personal and political reasons. And we need a very strong president in this country to put the pressure on to make sure that we do negotiate a ceasefire, that we keep the ceasefire, that we provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians and that we get the prisoners/hostages released and figure out how to move forward peacefully."

An attendee then asked "Why are we giving money to the Israelis to kill kids? It's wrong!" A polite recognition of the question by the moderator, but no answer from the Congressman. 

The answer to what pressure can be applied toward a cessation of the Israeli-Gaza conflict was one of about 15 questions for Thompson, which ranged from immigration and its impact on farm workers in our agricultural congressional District 4 to voting rights.  Thompson's answers discussed what the courts and public opinion could do.  He is happy to organize us into a District of Democratic party power for candidates outside the District, (following what his constituents have already been doing through Indivisible, Sister District, Mothers Out Front and other chapters for the last 7 years), but he said nothing of stepping out of his comfort zone to stand in the fields and on the campuses to make a show of his support for the most vulnerable, who do show up.

The backdrop for Thompson's interview is one where US foreign relations and domestic integrity are in flames.  And what we get from Thompson is a gentle, fumy reliance on finding rational MAGA Technocrats and Originalist Fundamentalists.

"What we need to do is be able to convince some of those constituents, in Republican districts, that they need to ramp up the pressure on their Republicans to join with the Democrats to vote the right way on these bills."

This is likely wishful thinking.  The trend is red-hardening (and blue-hardening) lawmakers who move the goalposts to make sure that the people can't interfere with their power.  What authoritarians and their followers respond to is a show of power, a willingness to defy norms, and not another lecture on being "reasonable." Show me you're willing to put yourself on the line to save democracy, Republican voters say, and so say all of us.

Mr. Thompson says he believes that it is significant that the 255 lawsuits have been filed against the Trump administration, that the record of "overstepping" executive authority will be effective and that courts combined with the long list of "bad" Republican votes against people friendly amendments to the Big Beautiful Budget will matter to enough voters come 2026.

He implores us to believe that the courts, voting records and the voice of the people combine to restore the good ship democracy.  As he said:

"There is nothing more articulate and nothing more effective than the voice of one's constituents."

He has not always shown this to be true in his own district, nor have Democratic representatives shown this to be true generally, not for nationalized healthcare, taxing the wealthy, or what had brought many of us to his LWV interview, a ceasefire and aid for Gaza.  

Sixty to seventy percent of all voters, and higher percentages of Democrats, supported calling for a complete ceasefire in 2024, with the percentages increasing for voters of all types up to and including today. 

What is true for Thompson:

"they do a ranking of bipartisanship, and I always rank real high....If we are going to do big things, we need to be bipartisan; otherwise, every time we have a majority change it all goes away."

What also goes away, women's reproductive rights, clean energy investment, universal access to education, freedom of speech, universal background checks, and a living minimum wage. The majority of Americans, and a larger majority of Democrats, have long supported these policies and spoken loudly for them.....and?

And what remains?  What remains are oil industry subsidies, unhinged military and AI security industry spending, endless funding of an apartheid government to annihilate an entire nation of people, and money, lots of dark money for incumbent politicians.  

A "bipartisan" at this time might be able to fend off some of the most obvious blows to our democracy, but Thompson's failure to make some "oversteps" of his own for the sake of democracy (and this applies to most Democratic representatives), gives the MAGA Republicans exclusivity that they don't deserve. And right now, MAGA Republicans have no fear; they have the vision of never having to be held accountable firmly in their sights. 

Thompson said at the League of Women Voters. Do as you do, and I'll applaud. 

 “We as a community need to stand up and support their (students') right to free speech. I think our universities need to stand up to their right to free speech."

They?  He. He needs to show up and join a campus protest; he needs to show up in his district, where students are being arraigned for trumped-up life-ruining felonies.  He needs to create safe spaces by showing up!

Or is Thompson playing both sides, so he remains in power as the law of the land continues its decline, and the rest of us are facing the alternative of obey or face systemic destitution? 

What is so dangerous about the side that Thompson is willing to compromise with is their willingness to turn the engines of modernity and myth into forces of oppression.

There are a host of ills that we expect our Congressperson to address. We can look at Palestine, as more Americans are, as a proxy for our fate. Do we save them and humanity, or do we watch as the babies stop crying because they are all dead? What then?

To Mike Thompson and to the rest of his minority Party, “talk is cheap." Show me. We are all running out of time.