(Former Member of Congress Gabby Giffords, and her husband and life-partner, Astronaut, Navy Captain and Senator from Arizona, Mark Kelly)
I thought I knew pretty much everything about the 2011 attempted assassination of former Arizona Member of Congress, Gabby Giffords, and her remarkable and arduous recovery from being shot in the head.
Then I watched an eye-opening CNN documentary about her entitled Won’t Back Down, and was inspired anew. As the son of a strong woman who fought polio for 92 years, few things move me like the daily, determined struggle to overcome disability.
Giffords’ story is astonishing, as is the unshakeable love story between her and Mark Kelly, an astronaut and genuine American hero—whose bald head and broad smile remind me of a modern day Dwight D. Eisenhower.
I love watching how Kelly still takes her hand and gently guides her through crowds each time she speaks. I love Gabby’s inspiring story for all of us, to never give up; I love how much Mark Kelly loves her. This is the essence of life, and love, and hope, and the right stuff we like to see in our leaders, and ourselves.
Every member of the Democratic National Committee, as well as Joe and Jill Biden, should watch “Won’t Back Down,” this weekend, while they are contemplating how to supercharge the Democratic Presidential ticket for 2024.
After a tumultuous week in American politics, with included an alleged attempted assassination of Donald Trump which left him with a tiny bruise and tea-bag like bandage on his right ear, it’s time for the Democrats to shake things up, and field a national ticket of true courage, grace, genuine patriotism, reverence for Democracy, and a determination to end gun violence in this country.
I hope that when leading Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries & Chuck Schumer, and others, have met with Biden and informed him of the increasingly dire prospects in the 2024 election, they were thinking of how best to add great value to a national ticket which should be headed by former sex-crimes prosecutor Kamala Harris, history’s candidate against the most anti-women, anti-human rights, anti-democracy GOP ticket of all times. All they need to do is watch “Won’t Back Down,” to get their answer. The inherent heroism and courage of Arizona’s Senator Mark Kelly, and Gabby Giffords leaps off the screen.
I’ve floated Kelly’s name before as a possible running mate for Harris, and put him at the very top of powerful political partners along with Governors Josh Shapiro (Pa.), and Andy Beshear (KY). But a series of unforeseen events over the past week have altered the Democrats political landscape entirely.
With the shot heard around Trump’s ear being fired in Pennsylvania last weekend, and his cult members convinced that, somehow, a Deity would choose to push an AK-15 killer bullet away from Trump’s head and into the body of a retired firefighter, it’s urgent to remind the country what true courage looks like, in addition to that exhibited by the firefighter who covered his family with his own body to protect them from harm.
Gabby Giffords actually did take a bullet to the head. In fact, the bullet didn’t buzz past her ear, but, instead, tore through the entire length of the left hemisphere of her brain. Six other human beings were killed and 18 injured at close range by the gunman that day in January, 2011, in that Tucson shopping center parking lot. Gabby needed multiple operations, and within 15 days of the shooting, was moved into a rehabilitation facility, because of her remarkable progress.
Incredibly, one-month later she was already walking with the assistance of a shopping cart. Over the coming months, she underwent still more surgery to repair her cranium, and yet, by June 15—just 5 months after she was shot in the head—Gabby Giffords returned home to her husband Mark Kelly and their family. At no time during her long recovery did she go out to play a round of golf.
Instead, Gabby, and Mark Kelly, devoted their lives to helping others, crusading to end gun violence, in every form—including pushing for new bans on Assault Weapons, and strict controls on who could purchase guns and where. The following year, in July 2012, following another mass shooting in Colorado, the GOP(Guns Over People) Senators, again killed an attempt to reinstate the Assault Weapon Ban, originally passed in 1994. Less than 6 months later, in December, 2012, 20 children—mostly 7 and 8 years old—and 6 adults—had their bodies torn to shreds and some decapitated by another gunman using an Assault Weapon, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
That’s the kind of powerful message Gabby Giffords can articulate for the Democrats, campaigning across the country, along side her life partner, Senator Mark Kelly, who has been by Gabby’s side every step of the way during her continuing rehabilitation and her devotion to ending gun violence in this country. That’s how the Democrats counter the make-believe martydom of Donald Trump, and reveal that behind his made-for-television white gauze pad on Trump’s right ear, the Emperor has barely a scratch.
Still, another new development this past week—the selection of billionaire Peter Theil’s newest playtoy, JD Vance, as the GOP’s candidate for Vice-President—has also pushed Mark Kelly to the front of the Democrats who would be strong additions to their national ticket. Kelly has already beaten Thiel badly once.
Thiel—who doesn’t believe in democracy and has advanced the wacky notion that the United States began to fall apart when women got the right to vote—poured $15 million dollars into Vance’s 2022 Ohio Senate campaign, to get his paid-for protege elected. That very same election cycle, a Thiel funded PAC spent $13 million pushing the candidacy of Blake Masters, another one of his underling lackeys, in a GOP Primary, for the Arizona Senate seat held by Mark Kelly.
In the general election, Thiel’s PAC pumped another $8.3 million in the campaign attacking Kelly. Not only did Mark Kelly hold onto his Arizona Senate seat by beating Masters by 5% points, he raised $62 million for his re-election campaign, beating Thiel and his spoiled billionaire friends at their own game.
Kelly, an astronaut who has not only flown actual space missions— something which Silicon Valley’s boy billionaires only fantasize of doing— he also raised more campaign capital than the Venture Capitol Valley boys did. What better national public figure, and authentic American hero, to go up against the unpatriotic billionaires, and Thiel’s paid-puppet JD Vance, for Vice-President?
The benefit of adding Mark Kelly—who won in a swing state with broad bipartisan appeal— to the national Democratic ticket, is that the Dems than get two national celebrities added to their team, instead of one: Kelly AND Gabby Giffords, who can campaign in tandem around the nation, and redirect the campaign narrative.
Even the new ticket name flows nicely: “Kamala & Kelly.”
Such a bold, visionary move by the Democratic Party—as evidenced by Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly in the movie “Won’t Back Down,” and in real life—would clearly show American voters that they are unafraid of passing the torch of public service to a new generation of authentic leaders, and eager to vigorously continue the struggle for decency, democracy, human & civil rights, economic and environmental justice, and a more humane society.