What do the Democrat Party elites have against black and Hispanic candidates? A lot it appears. And they don’t just urge people not to vote for them. Slimeball operatives smear them in the shadows or even publicly. They are trying to destroy free-thinking Democratic legislators Sylvia Ortiz-Velez and Russell Goodwin, a Latina woman and black man. And now they’re doing the same to former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, candidate for governor.
The goal appears to be boosting privileged white woman Sara Russell “I have zero accomplishments but oh well” Rodriguez (see left) by kneecapping the campaigns of front runners Barnes and Francesca Hong, an Asian woman. See the pattern?
Barnes and Hong won’t go into the good campaign night like David Crowley did – heck Hong doesn’t even like the Democrat Party or the country much it appears – and it must be driving the Democrat power brokers absolutely crazy in their smoke-filled back room (which is probably a sterile office building somewhere in Madison with a Hugo Chavez banner or the Starbucks across from the Capitol.)
If I was a black, Asian or Hispanic Democrat, I’d be ballistic. It’s all a train wreck, frankly, and it’s getting uglier by the minute because the establishment elites really, really don’t want Barnes or Hong, and they keep leading in the polls with Rodriguez a distant third anyway.
If the tactics weren’t so scummy, it might be hilarious.
First, Milwaukee County Executive Crowley, the most reasonable Democrat left in the Democrat governor’s race primary, quit. Crowley fell into line and immediately urged Democrats to vote for Rodriguez, a white Karen, I mean nurse from the ‘burbs. Don’t be misled by her last name; it’s her husband’s.
But then the other shoe dropped. The only black candidate remaining in the governor’s race, Barnes, released an internal poll showing that more of Crowley’s voters switch to him than Rodriguez, which makes sense because they’re both Milwaukee officials, and she’s a boring white woman from Waukesha. So someone dropped a nasty anvil on his head. With ally ship like this, who needs enemies?
I thought Democrats were for diversity (meanwhile Republicans are embracing a black man with an inner city talk radio show, Will Martin, with open arms and warm hearts. I’ve met Will, and he’s awesome. Deeply thoughtful, fiscally shrewd and a champion of freedom.)
The ‘Barbie’ Letter
I’ve been telling you for months that Democrats behind the scenes were saying that there was going to be an oppo hit on Barnes (which, as it turns out, is an anonymous letter). He lost narrowly to Ron Johnson, so they don’t want him. Maybe they can’t control him because honestly Barnes lost against Proxmire-esque Ron BARELY in a better year for Republicans despite looking like a complete lunatic on cell phone video.
They’ve already smeared Hong by leaking her radical positions, but those were fair hits. I mean we wrote about her wanting to abolish the police before CNN, and we got it by reading her Facebook page.
I’m not arguing that Barnes is a perfect candidate or should be immune from criticism. What I’m arguing is that the tactics used against these candidates are despicable (I mean they got Ortiz-Velez criminally charged for threatening to go to the news media about their own alleged misconduct). And these tactics only seem directed against the minority candidates. It’s worth wondering why.
The problem for the smear merchants was that, with Dan Bice no longer on this earth, who would publish the smear letter? Other reporters require basic stuff. You know, like proof. We don’t print what we can’t prove.
For weeks, if not months, the letter has been circulating smearing Barnes with this unproven personal garbage, which I am not repeating. Bice supposedly had the letter before he died. And it supposedly was widely circulated at the state Democrat convention. Democrats know about this, Republicans know about this. Reporters know about this. It’s been all the buzz behind the scenes.
And so, what happens in the wake of Crowley quitting? Lo and behold, an obscure “anti-capitalist” and “anti-authoritarian” left-wing, little-heard-of online publication goes where the responsible media would not and prints it today.
Why wouldn’t any media print it? Because the letter provides no names, no proof, no nothing, just smears. They’re trying to turn Barnes into Graham Platner, but they have no names – no nothing.
Look, I don’t agree with Barnes on many issues and, if there were actually verifiable claims against him, I would not hesitate to print them. So if anyone wants to go on the record, and can prove it, write me. But I don’t care about consensual unverifiable nameless garbage. He’s a bachelor. He’s allowed to date. He’s even allowed to have s*x, not that I really want to think about it. Can we get back to talking about taxes and surplus deals instead please?
Frankly, though, allegations that – the horrors! – Barnes dates might improve his party’s reputation at this point. The Democrat Party could use a little masculine energy. Key word: consensual. And even in the hit piece letter, there’s no real allegation to the contrary.
Years ago, a reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel told me about allegations that a very prominent Republican politician was hanging out with strippers. He didn’t report it. When I asked why, he said, “Jessica, what would my lede be?” (Journalistic parlance for the first paragraph of the story.)
The same is true here. What’s the lede or the headline? “Bachelor dates women?”
How shocking.
I’m guessing the anti-Barnes smear machine couldn’t find any takers, so they dumped the hit piece online through a left-wing publication that openly admits they can’t prove it. If you can’t prove it, don’t print it. I’m not naming the publication, nor will I share the letter nor its specific accusations absent some – any, how about a shred? – of proof. Barnes can’t respond to it, either, or he’ll create the story, and every politician knows that, by denying it, you lose because the goal is to make people wonder. I will say that the “letter” mentioned the Barbie movie. To give you a sense of the taste of it.
Whatever Should Reasonable Democrats Do?
That brings me to another point. With the most reasonable Democrat falling (Crowley), what is a reasonable Democrat to do in the midst of this cacophony of chaos?
Too often, conservatives trash Democrats and call them crazy socialists. But Democrats are not all the same. Some are crazy socialists. But some are not. I have utilized my mother, an undecided and reasonable old school Democrat, as my pathway into the normal Democrat brain. I seek to understand, not condemn, and I bring my conversations with her to you because it’s my way of having a conversation with you all. She’s my Slats Grobnik, only real (see: Royko, Mike.)
My mom is in her 70s, owns a farm in Ladysmith, cans pickles, and is a retired kindergarten teacher who spends time in Wauwatosa. I asked her whether she has ever voted Republican in her life. “Nope!” she said. Her Dad was an FDR depression-era Dem who worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps and so I guess that’s just the way it’s always been. I suspect there are a lot of folks like her in Wisconsin. She’s not a crazy anarchist. She also won’t vote for Tom Tiffany no matter what I say.
I have never heard my mom, orderly German-American personality that she is, ever raise her voice, which is fairly remarkable when you think about it. But now she’s upset. At the Democratic Party.
Although she said she’d vote for Mandela Barnes after we went to a Pewaukee forum together, that was largely because she doesn’t know much about the other candidates, and he’s better known due to the Senate race. That’s the peril for Democrat elites who want him out – he’s buoyed by his name ID and frankly I think he’s going to end up their nominee despite what they try to drop on him.
In the past week, my mom was starting to gravitate more to Crowley after researching him, but now that choice has been snatched from her. And she’s not happy about it.
As the field winnows, she gets more confused.
“I am really disappointed that they are pushing people out, they don’t realize most people have no clue who is who and what they stand for. I was looking forward to some serious debates like the presidential one in the past. Let them all be seen and heard,” she said.
Here’s how the conversation concluded:
Me: Who are you going to vote for in the Democrat primary now?
Mom: I have no idea. I don’t know. I was starting to like Crowley.
Me: The Democrat elites are trying to orchestrate this for Sara Rodriguez. Do you support her?
Mom: I just don’t know anything she’s done. Why am I supposed to like her? I guess she was a nurse. Why is that better than the rest of them?
She then revealed she’s worried northern Wisconsin voters won’t elect a woman governor.
Me: What about Joel Brennan? I mean, he ran Discovery World.
Mom: I don’t know anything about him. How come you never hear about him?
I told her it makes no sense because he’d probably be a good candidate for the Democrats. I mean he was Evers’ DOA secretary. But I told her that her party is being taken over by the anarchist wing, and he’s probably too corporate. The anarchists aren’t the majority, but, in a fractured primary, they can swing things.
She said she would still consider voting for Barnes.
Me: If the nominee is Hong, will you vote for her?
Mom: No.
Me: Why not?
Mom: She’s too radical for me. I don’t believe in that.
My mom has abandoned her previous belief that Hong just wants to turn Wisconsin into harmless Norway and usher in free healthcare. I told her to research DSA, the anticapitalist group Hong belongs to, and my mom, as it turns out, is not
for abolishing the police, prisons, US Senate, capitalism, private property, the presidency, rent, and the Constitution.
Me: Will you vote for Tiffany?
Mom: No. That’s like voting for Trump.
She then ranted about Trump cutting Medicare, food stamps, and said he got rid of the Department of Education.
Me: Mom, Trump didn’t get rid of the Department of Education.
Mom: Well, he cut special education programs.
Me: So if the election comes down to Hong vs. Tiffany, what are you going to do?
My mom sounded depressed. She always votes.
“I guess I just won’t vote,” she said.
She then sent me an AI summary about Tiffany.
The opening line said he wants to freeze property taxes and eliminate income taxes.
“Why are you against freezing property taxes?” I laughed, and she ended the conversation and announced she was going to make dinner.
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