When I was growing up, I didn't consider myself to be brave.

[no_hypocrisy]

I was raised by two highly-educated people who also happened to be alcoholics and narcissists. My father was worse than my mother.

My father tried to keep me "under control" by intimidation, by threats, by punishment, by fear. Why: because I challenged him. That's all. I kept our family's dark secrets just that, secret.

Even into my thirties, my father threatened to destroy me while taking me out to dinner.

My siblings and my mother tried to tell me to tone it down with my arguing back, not to get Dad mad.

But he was so wrong about so many things.

I paid the price until the end when he disinherited me.

Think about what you just read. My father. My father!

He's gone and I'm here. And I'm the better for all those battles. Stronger. Wiser.

And I look at those Republicans in the House and in the Senate. Nary a backbone amongst them. They can't speak up for what they know is right. And they could be punished for being right.

Well, f*ck! I did it, over and over and over. And I'm still here.

I was told when I was growing up, that American Exceptionalism was our ability to fight to be right. Trump took that away too.

But when an adult survivor of family abuse is braver than a member of Congress, you'd better step back and think about it.