Bay Staters have a sense of decency

Not with Trump & Co. watching it doesn't. 

the GOP would like nothing more than the discussion to stay squarely focused on transgender topics and not on the wholesale destruction of the American government

But that is the topic.  It's the topic as much as anything else is the topic.  

Yes, trans people are a small minority in this country.  But when you throw that small minority under the bus, or you look on and say "oh dear", or you deprioritize the dehumanizing way that they are treated, you are complicit in the "wholesale destruction of the American government" - the government that is supposed to stand for all of us.  

Misgendering a trans person isn't a big enough issue to focus the discussion on?  Okay.  What's big enough?  Not allowing them to use bathrooms?  Not allowing them to work as teachers or childcare workers?  Not allowing them to dress as they want in public?  Not allowing them to change their names or genders on official documents?  

I'd much rather him be a household name for being an unrelenting attack dog in calling out the Musk/Trump shit instead of staying quiet until falling into a GOP trap to shift the focus.

Fucksake.  You think he can't do both?

Your transphobia reeks.   Like, the stench is obvious.  You try to cover it up in pseudo-elevated language, but all that accomplishes is to make you seem like a pompous bigot. 

Trump et al. are using whatever their minds can wrap around as weapons, without (yet) resorting to physical weapons. Language which was clearly used with the intention to dismiss an individual, to purposely ignore basic language of self of an individual is weapon. Rep. Self (ironic name) chose to use language as a weapon and to assault a colleaque. The Representative does not have to agree with the self identification of the colleague. But basic comity - simply getting along to get work done - calls for respecting self identification of a colleague.

Assaulting another human being. it is dehumanization. It is violating the emotional and psychic integrity of a person. It is violence.

What makes Keating's response correct is that he chose to refuse to freeze or worse faun in response to Self's assault of a colleague. Keating chose to remind Self that he is obligated to act as human being of decency. Instead of acting like an alcoholic whose addiction carried him to destroying lives in the 1950s.

We are in a period when those who choose to use violence will not stop. They are addicts. Their addiction is to power. As addicts what the addiction hides is never satisfied. Just as any person addicted to alcohol, other drugs, gambling, sex or religion, the addiction has to be fed. There is no such thing as enough.

Violence by Self et al. will not stop unless it is stopped. Rep. Keating clearly told a man who chooses to embrace subtle violence that his actions will not be ignored or treated as something that has to be tolerated.

Stating an expectation of "better" from Democrats is to effectively support 1 to 3 reactions to violence:

Flight: running away

Freeze: Say nothing. Just sit while watching a person be verbally assaulted

Fawn - become compliant. Work toward the leader. Sychophancy.

my fellow Democrats

LOL Spare us your concern. I'm sure your "fellow Democrats" can do just fine without your free advice. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPaJl7tZstM

I did not take this forum for an echo chamber. Do you? Seriously, have  no tolerance for dissent? Can your worldview not withstand philosophical prodding?