Not All Democrats Built the Same
"What's wrong with Joyce Beatty?"
About two month ago, I met Morgan Harper and her fiancé, Sam, at Brewdog Brewing in historic Franklinton.
I had known Morgan for about a week or two. Between sips of the non-alcoholic beer I pretended to enjoy, I asked the couple if they had any cool plans that night.
They exchanged knowing glances. “Do you want to tell him or should I?” Sam asked.
I was naturally intrigued. Were they about to ask me to help rob a bank?
It was cooler than that, actually.
“I’m going to primary Joyce Beatty,” Morgan said as if she were announcing a quick jaunt to the corner store.
Most aspiring politicians await a slam-dunk opportunity before running for office. Same with elected politicians looking for a promotion. Losing sucks. Losing in public is even worse.
As a Stanford-educated lawyer, Harper could have any future she wanted within the Franklin County Democratic machine by waiting her turn like everyone else. She clearly didn’t give a damn about the potential death sentence that party elites would bestow upon her for having the audacity to challenge a popular congresswoman if her bid proved unsuccessful.
She wasn’t undertaking the challenge as a new career. She looked around and saw our Hell World as I did. She understood we now need, more than ever, politicians who understand the stakes of our times.
“Oh, hell yes,” I smiled. “I’m in.”
Harper officially declared her candidacy yesterday at Social Justice Park in downtown Columbus. (That tall man with an unkempt, tri-colored beard behind her who kept awkwardly rocking on the balls of his feet? That was your boy!)
Out of all the potshots undoubtedly taken by Real Serious Democrats yesterday, I took this one as the most ominous.
Former Ohio Democratic Party chairman Chris Redfern had to resign because he kept getting his ass kicked in elections — no small feat for an Ohio Democrat — so maybe he’s right. But considering “no vote” got 18.5% of the share in Beatty’s last election, probably not.
I recognize City Council President Shannon Hardin’s look. That’s the same face I “gave” when I saw him take the stage to introduce presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren on May 10th at Starling K8, the public school in Franklinton that Hardin helped deprive of millions of dollars of funding by awarding tax abatements to the insanely profitable CoverMyMeds to move their headquarters a few blocks within Columbus.
That tweet came as part of the social media fusillade unleashed by party officials within 15 minutes of each other. Given they all owe their power to the same source, they’re smart enough to recognize that they wouldn’t be safe if a political newcomer can poach Beatty’s seat.
“What’s wrong with Joyce Beatty?” they’ll rhetorically ask while recollecting on that nice speech they heard one night before the busy Congresswoman graciously posed for a picture with them that got 68 likes on their personal Facebook page.
I could unfurl a scroll, but that’s discourse for a later day as the primary season is dark and full of terrors.
Instead, I’ll simply talk about yesterday. We live in an era where America, the land of the free and home of the brave, operates concentration camps of migrant families along the southern border. Some people might have a problem with my classification, and that’s not my problem.
Here is how America is treating people who came here in search of a better life:
And here’s the kind of people our tax money finances to guard these camps, courtesy of A.C. Thompson of ProPublica:
Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.
In one exchange, group members responded with indifference and wisecracks to the post of a news story about a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in May while in custody at a Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas. One member posted a GIF of Elmo with the quote, “Oh well.” Another responded with an image and the words “If he dies, he dies.”
Created in August 2016, the Facebook group is called “I’m 10-15” and boasts roughly 9,500 members from across the country. (10-15 is Border Patrol code for “aliens in custody.”) The group described itself, in an online introduction, as a forum for “funny” and “serious” discussion about work with the patrol. “Remember you are never alone in this family,” the introduction said.
People read horrors like this and say, “This isn’t America!” as if this country wasn’t built on the back of racist blood conquest. This is America, and yet reading about racist guards and concentration camps makes me vibrate with rage. But my power is limited as a mentally-ill internet poster.
It’s refreshing to know that there are elected officials in America that share my outrage:
Demanding oversight and touring the camps first-hand is the kind of leadership America needs right now. It’s not enough to read about the horrors we inflict on innocent people. We are a docile people who need to be jolted into action, preferably with images and video.
Meanwhile, Joyce Beatty has been awarded a gift for a Democrat in Ohio — a seat unwinnable for a Republican. And on this rudimentary moral test, she used her bully pulpit to support Mitch McConnell’s plan to fund these horror camps.
While the nation was gripped with images and videos provided from members of Congress across the country, let’s see how Beatty (or rather her paid social media consultants) spent their Monday:
Once you remember Beatty enabled these barbaric conditions, it helps explain why a link to an aggregated story about potential “riots” at a concentration camp got less interaction on her timeline than Canada Day and a promoted tweet begging people to follow her account.
Only, like, three people have actual power in the House of Representatives. That’s why Congress is full of people who just show up, collect a check, and then go home and lay the blame of inaction on all the other idiots people send to D.C.
Beatty is a machine politician, which by definition makes her a paper tiger when the chips fall down. She is the worst kind of politician to send to Congress in the era of Trump, hence why she just got rolled over on a funding bill for the concentration camps she ostensibly opposes despite lacking the courage to call them what they are, which is concentration camps.
Maybe the voters of OH-3 will look at our safely Democratic district and be content with Neville Chamberlain-ass, hashtag Resistance leadership. Such is the risk of attempting to slay a dragon. But Beatty won’t fool everyone.
Like me, there are others who are tired of the milquetoast mindset that has led to Democrats getting our ass kicked in this state for the last 30 years.
We’re not impressed with lofty, pre-written speeches from career politicians in fancy clothes at catered dinners. We’re about that direct action to get the goods to the people, and we’re going to the bridge to elect Morgan Harper, the only progressive choice on the ballot in 2020, to Congress.
[DONATE TO MORGAN HARPER FOR CONGRESS]
THOSE WMDs. The “Pregnancy Crisis” franchise: From America to Romania… A trivial phone hack is ruining lives… Sheboygan serial toilet clogger sentenced to 150 days in jail, probation… The sibling rivalry burning up an $800 million oil dynasty… Subway got too big, and franchisees paid the price… Sperm donors can’t stay secret.
Just donated to Morgan Harper.
DJ, your righteous rage against the Xichigan Wolverines is what drew me to your writing back in 2011. Now you are using it for more important purposes. Don't ever lose it or doubt it. It is a gift.