Ayanna Pressley upended the Massachusetts political order on Tuesday, scoring a stunning upset of 10-term Representative Michael Capuano and positioning herself to become the first African-American woman to represent the state in Congress....
Her victory carried echoes of the surprise win in June by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who trounced a longtime House incumbent, Joseph Crowley, in New York.....
There is no Republican on the November ballot in this storied Boston-based district, which was once represented by John F. Kennedy and is one of the most left leaning in the country....
“This is a big wake-up call to any incumbent on the ballot in November,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a Boston-based Democratic strategist. “We’ve been in a change election cycle for years. But Trump may have opened the door for all these young candidates, women, people of color, because voters want the antithesis of him.”...
“It felt like a good time to give someone who’s not a white male a shot,” said Linus Falck-Ytter, 26, a software developer, after voting in Cambridge. “And I liked that she’s more outspoken about helping underrepresented communities.”...Linus Falck-Ytter. I'm just going to guess that's a white male.
Capuano was himself a big liberal so she had to "win by out-liberaling a liberal" —as one Democratic politico put it.
She argued that the needs of the district had changed over time and that the overwhelming “hate” coming from the White House required more than simply voting the right way. Battling Mr. Trump and overcoming longstanding economic and racial inequities required an entire movement, she said, suggesting she was better positioned than Mr. Capuano to spearhead that effort with what she called “activist leadership.”Well put!
Moreover, she argued that her life experience — her father struggled with drug addiction and was incarcerated for most of her youth, and she is a survivor of sexual assault — better prepared her to help people who have lived through trauma and other struggles. Perhaps the defining line of her stump speech was this: “The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.”
“With our rights under assault, with our freedoms under siege, it’s not just good enough to see the Democrats back in power, but it matters who those Democrats are,” she said. She lacerated Mr. Trump as “a racist, misogynistic, truly empathy-bankrupt man,” but said that some of the policies that have created economic inequities in the district were put in place when Democrats were in the White House and in control of Congress.Welcome, Ms. Pressley. As that ogre Trump likes to say, we'll see what happens.
“Change isn’t waiting any longer,” she declared. “We have arrived, change is coming and the future belongs to all of us.”
ADDED: A good — and much up-voted — comment at the NYT:
This victory is also a warning to the Black political establishment. Deval Patrick and John Lewis supported Capuano in a show of old guard male solidarity. And Byron Rushing, a Black, old guard, high ranking state legislator, was defeated last night too. They did not recognize the moment.AND: "A lot of men are quaking in their boots this morning" — That assumes the men are wearing boots. I'm visualizing guys who've left their sneakers by the door and are propping their stocking feet up on the coffee table, leaning back, relaxing on the sofa, and looking for what they call "a good time": "It felt like a good time to give someone who’s not a white male a shot.” Don't worry, the women will handle everything, and do nothing but thank you, because you're doing your part by going utterly passive.
A lot of men are quaking in their boots this morning. Those that aren’t should be.
Posts
82 comments:
We need a full report from Titus.
One must be careful with the refining fire lest you end with scorched earth.
“Linus Falck-Ytter.”
Want to bet that his maiden name is Falck?
“Change isn’t waiting any longer,” she declared. “We have arrived, change is coming and the future belongs to all of us.”
Hope and change.
We are the ones we have waited for.
Historic.
She’s the female Obama.
Tribalism and intersectionality will destroy America unless the Dems wake up.
..but said that some of the policies that have created economic inequities in the district were put in place when Democrats were in the White House and in control of Congress
Full on Socialism, in other words...
Remember that their districts are two of the most liberal in the nation and these candidates are just like Trump- anti-establishment types bucking the system that insulates the old guard.
The system doesn't like that.
If they're lucky they'll be used by the establishment for some juicy sound bites but don't count on getting your New Venezuela any time soon.
“The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.”
Well put!
Let the Victim Olympics begin!
Falk-Yitter is a coder from MIT who lives in Waltham via Cleveland/Germany.
A lot of men are quaking in their boots this morning. Those that aren’t should be.
Men are waiting to be entertained.
The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power
That seems like a terrible idea. Pain is distracting and could cause one to lash out with vengeful behavior.
Blogger David Begley said...
"Tribalism and intersectionality will destroy America unless the Dems wake up."
I thought that was their objective...
The incumbent was moved into this district after MA lost a congressional seat and the district maps were redrawn. This district is a minority-majority one for the black and Hispanic communities around Boston (in contrast, look at the demographics of the 8th district that this one is surrounded by).
I'd view this less as an upset and more as a guy losing a game of musical chairs.
""A lot of men are quaking in their boots this morning. Those that aren’t should be.' Men are waiting to be entertained."
Then I'm picturing them in stocking feet propped up on the coffee table.
There are no boots to quake in.
I'd view this less as an upset and more as a guy losing a game of musical chairs.
Yes. Anomaly or freak show, take your pick, but not the start of a national trend. It will fizzle.
Just one question for this Democrat, and all of them.
Under what constitutional power are you able to do what you promise?
White Dems have been an endangered species in the big cities for quite a while. This is just a purge of the remaining ones who the rising Dem power players [the race and diversity hucksters] missed. So watch out DiFi.
"The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power."
That sounds good until you think about it.
Welfare mothers
Gang members
Drug addicts
Dropouts
Abusive spouses
Democrat Senators questioning Supreme Court nominees
The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.
A lot of pain, of course, is self-inflicted.
That's why it's probably not a good idea to elect, say, a homeless man to the White House. Or to vote for somebody because they're addicted to drugs.
Suffering can make you stronger and build character. I don't want to suggest that people who have suffered are unfit for office. The very best people are people who have suffered a loss, a failure, a setback.
But suffering can also create anger and a thirst for retribution.
Suffering, in and of itself, does not connote goodness. Suffering is what it is, painful and hard. The people who suffer either become better for it, or worse. It can go either way.
The "new breed" Democrats who are knocking out folks who have been in office for a long time are only succeeding in knocking out some of the most liberal older Democrats. It will move the left's margins a tiny bit, but replacing a long term congressman with an inexperienced one will dissipate the power the far left has. It will be years before Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez have the kind of power the men they are replacing have.
A lot of men are quaking in their boots this morning. Those that aren’t should be.
You want more Trump? Because this is how you get more Trump.
A lot of men are quaking in their boots this morning. Those that aren’t should be.
American voters are sexist racist misogynists and we're going to fix that by running more women!
Limbaugh We're Fierce, We're Feminists, We're in Your Face
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEMAgO-3cGs
that's what it reminded me of.
iowan2 said...
Under what constitutional power are you able to do what you promise?
The power to appoint Supreme Court justices. Constitutional power grows out of the barrel of the Supreme Court.
It will be years before Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez have the kind of power the men they are replacing have.
Spoken like a true swamp dweller. It's a self fullfilling prediction.
Always good to see real examples of the double standard we all know is there. The Tea Party was not reported is this way. Those Tea Party types were presented as kooks and idiots. Today on the left they are young pioneers seeking the truth.
"and positioning herself to become the first African-American woman to represent the state [of Mass.] in Congress"
Perhaps, but she'll hardly be the first loon. MA continues to send loon-after-loon to Congress.
Spent a few days in the Berkshires recently. They seem to view politics in a different light that coastal Bostonians.
Funny that liberal MA is just getting around to electing a black woman to congress.
This is the all politics is local district. I used to be in it but when it was redrawn in 2012 they put the line down the middle of my street. It became more of a Boston district than a Cambridge Somerville district. So the former mayor of Somerville lost to a current Boston City councilor. What’s surprising is that it didn’t happen sooner.
"With our rights under assault, with our freedoms under siege, it’s not just good enough to see the Democrats back in power"
--
That started out well and went off the rails of logic.
Look for her to advocate more of the former.
Because Social Justice!
"Linus Falck-Ytter. I'm just going to guess that's a white male." Exactly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linus-falck-ytter-20b612122/.
Meanwhile, in Boston's suburbs, nothing unexpected happened at all. The white men there are not quaking in their boots. Two more years of Joe Kennedy III for me.
“The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.”
An argument for abolishing the two party system?
Or does she think that only Democrats feel pain in life?
“The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.”
The people in power should feel pain. Kudos to her for kicking out an incumbent.
(Now he can cash in on K Street.)
Taylor said...
"Suffering, in and of itself, does not connote goodness. Suffering is what it is, painful and hard."
You kind of remind me of scars on my arms that I made when I was a kid,
With a disassembled disposable razor I stole from my dad,
When I thought that suffering was something profound,
That weighed down on wise heads,
And not just something to be avoided,
Something normal people dread.
Frank Turner- Tell Tale Signs
>>“The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.”
Well put???
This is complete nonsense. Political power comes from the consent of the governed. It is not charity given for having a sad life story.
There used to be a game show for this: "Queen for a Day". Women would tell their hard luck stories, and the winner would get a new refrigerator or washing machine.
Now, they get a seat in Congress. Madness.
The knee-jerk reactions to Ms. Pressley's primary win in this thread are parochial, to say the least. Cambridge is going to elect a liberal and Ms. Pressley is a well-established Boston politician. She's on the Boston City Council, has worked for the Kennedy and Kerry blocs, and had multiple endorsements in the race.
The guy she defeated, Capuano, has spent most of his time in Congress running unsuccessfully for higher offices.
https://ayannapressley.com/issues/equity-agenda/
I will add to the Bay State perspective here. Seems like more is being made of this nationally than locally. Exchanging one old white ultra-lib for a younger more attractive black ultra-lib. My white lady rep, Katherine Clark, whose district is in the burbs, ran unopposed. I will admit it is a bit odd that Mass not previously elected a black member of Congress, but then again, Mass remains a pretty white state overall. Also, the Boston burbs rule Mass statewide politics, which tends to put a damper on liberal ambitions.
Hey, iowan2, yes "Young Pioneers" is perfect--Lenin would be so proud of them.
Sounds like jumping out of the frying pan but it sells newspapers, which is all that counts here.
Mark Penn, democrat strategist/pollster, said last night the country has nothing to fear if you put democrats back in power.
The radical leftist will never gain power if elected, and will be crushed by the old guard.
I'm not so certain--I don't think this batch of radicals can be controlled the same was Boehner/McConnell controlled then crushed the tea party members of Congress.
But, but, but, we weren't finished with Ocasio-Cortez!
Henry:
Shrug your shoulders if you want but what will they try to enact if they have the majority power?
$15 minimum wage
Guaranteed govt jobs
Free college
Mandated diversity hiring for all employers
Wealth re-distribution or property seizures
All elected Dems should be minority women. Kamela Harris is going to be the Dem nominee in 2020. She checks the most boxes. Booker will come out as gay to compete, but gay black guy is less a victim than multi-racial woman.
I wonder if her staff will keep tabs on her by saying, "Ayanna has left the building"?
Parties out of power tend to go insane these days.
As it looks like the Ds will at least regain the House, let's hope having some power moderates their present insanity.
A feeble hope to be sure.
"Linus Falck-Ytter. I'm just going to guess that's a white male."
I'm just going to guess that he squats to piss.
Ayanna Pressley is older then Ocasio-Cortez. She has legislative experience. Hopefully she is not at all like Ocasio-Cortez. Hopefully she is a practical person that cares deeply about her constituents and will represent them well. Not some accredited but uneducated twit.
My district. Very fab, natch.
@A.J. Lynch -- Proposes vs. disposes.
I'm quite happy to have some extremists in Congress -- on both sides. I'd rather see ideas being proposed and debated than the glacial slide of moribund conformity.
Huge swings in policy come after disasters, in which case everything is unpredictable anyway.
“The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.”
So vote (several times) for ambulance drivers and slaughterhouse workers.
“With our rights under assault, with our freedoms under siege,
Smoley hokes, I did not know that!
How is Ms. Pressley's first name pronounced? Too many choices - is the first syllable "eye" or a long a? Is the second syllable "yawn" or like "yam" with an n. Is the third syllable "uh" or "ah"?
Also, ever try to say Ms. Ocasio-Cortez's name out loud? It takes forever (10-11 syllables, depending on if you treat the "io" in "Ocasio" as a dipthong) and by the end you can't remember if the accent is on the first or second syllable in Cortez.
You know, a lot of socialists changed their names when they went into politics: Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Pol Pot, Tito, Kim Il Sung, etc. Just throwing that out....
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”
― H.L. Mencken, A Little Book in C Major
About to be proven again.
One of the most liberal districts in the country replaces 10-term Congressman with woman of color. Blue wave!
"Although shrikes have sharply hooked, falcon-like beaks which they jab into the head or neck of their prey, causing partial paralysis, they don't have the large talons possessed by other birds of prey to help them finish the job."
The other day I was surprised to hear one of the NPR hosts discussing this race actually question if Democrats will only be able to win if they run black/brown candidates in order to keep the Obama coalition together.The guest quickly shot that down - it was too honest of a question. But don't forget there was also the black versus white contest of the Staceys in Georgia - black Stacey won.
How many House seats will Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley add?
Zero.
"Tax the rich, feed the poor
'Til there are no rich no more"
Ten Years After, I'd Love To Change the World - Alvin Lee!
Venezuela, here we come!
The song starts about a minute into the video.
Tomorrow Belongs to Me
When did the Times start capitalizing "Black"? Do they capitalize "White"?
Two things.
1) She won't be the new Cortez. She isn't as pretty.
2) The Democrat party is no place for men or, more specifically, white men. I wonder how long it will take these liberal Democrat white men to figure it out.
Just to correct the record the first African American in Congress from Massachusetts was Republican Senator Edward Brooke, who served from 1967 to 1979. Some of you must remember him?
"As it looks like the Ds will at least regain the House, let's hope having some power moderates their present insanity."
The only thing they will accomplish is Trump's re-election.
This is the democrat party. Obama's America. Straight from Moscow ca. 1935.
Some dumb cunt lefty is replaced by another even more lefty dumb cunt in a shithole area of a parochial third class metropolitan area. The only people who need to pay attention to this are the white male lefty cunts who now are the enemy.
The slave owners of Virginia were instrumental in devising and establishing a representative democracy that has proven to be durable and successful. The ex slaves of Haiti had less success with their government. Go figure.
I'm the son of an alcoholic. In a lot of areas, I don't think I'll ever get my head on straight. I can't recommend a childhood of chaos and pain to anyone seeking wisdom or virtue.
Ho hum. How quickly 1992 is forgotten. But the young always seem to think they’re breaking new ground.
With our rights under assault, with our freedoms under siege, it’s not just good enough to see the Democrats back in power"
Which rights and freedoms would those be?
“The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.”
Are often near-sighted and react impulsively. Thus the limit imposed on self-defense (e.g. war), but, curiously, not social justice adventures, including: redistributive change, retributive change.
Yes, the U.S. will do just fine when all of our pols are negroes, jewws, beaners, yellows, and illegal aliens.
I forgot to add 'women' to the above-- crazed, libtard/feminazi women.
Capuano was himself a big liberal so she had to "win by out-liberaling a liberal" —as one Democratic politico put it.
Well, that's true, if you define "out-liberallying" as "being better at pushing racism and sexism"
When the Tea Party went after GOP politicians, we went after ones because of their ideology
When the Progressives successfully go after a politician, it's by pushing racism and sexism.
If a man can't represent female constituents, then a female can't represent male constituents, and no male should vote for a 9non-Thatcher) female candidate.
If a white can't represent "minority" constituents, then "minority" candidates can't represent white constituents, and no white should ever vote for a "minority" candidate.
Pick your principle. But then stick to it. If racism is wrong, then it's always wrong, even when it helps the Left, or people whose skin color you like.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
If that's all bullshit, fine. But then the entirety of the Civil Rights movement is bullshit, and should be undone
I welcome the left's latest attempt to out-left each other.
Please continue.
Why do so many people see Yugoslavia as a roadmap rather than a cautionary tale?
Greg P. said...
When the Progressives successfully go after a politician, it's by pushing racism and sexism.
Except that's not at all how Ms. Pressley won her primary. She won by proposing leftwing policy to a leftwing voting block that is mostly white.
All that you've established is that when conservatives go after a progressive politician, it's by pushing racism and sexism.
Oh? Is that not accurate?
Blogger Henry said...
Greg P. said...
When the Progressives successfully go after a politician, it's by pushing racism and sexism.
Except that's not at all how Ms. Pressley won her primary. She won by proposing leftwing policy to a leftwing voting block that is mostly white.
Wrong:
https://www.vox.com/2018/9/4/17820720/ayanna-pressley-massachusetts-seventh-congressional-district-primary-michael-capuano
But Pressley wasn’t just running on a progressive message, she was arguing that her own experience as a person of color made her more qualified to represent the district than an older white man — no matter how liberal. People of color make up the majority of the Seventh Congressional District’s residents, but as local public radio station WBUR noted, white people make up the majority of the voters there.
Pressley spoke on the importance of representing voters of color recently.
Racism
From the NYT article:
"But Trump may have opened the door for all these young candidates, women, people of color, because voters want the antithesis of him.”
It was also a rallying cry for the state’s only minority-majority district — that it should have a representative who mirrors the community’s diversity.
“It felt like a good time to give someone who’s not a white male a shot,” ... “And I liked that she’s more outspoken about helping underrepresented communities.”
But perhaps one of Ms. Pressley’s biggest obstacles was Mr. Capuano’s liberal voting record, which denied her the chance to paint a stark ideological contrast with him.
Mary MacDonald, 49, a biotech researcher who voted for Ms. Pressley in Cambridge, said Ms. Pressley “represents a perspective that Congress is lacking and that resonates with me. As a woman of color, she understands my concerns, as a lesbian. Capuano has done a great job for the district, but he doesn’t get it.”
Racism and sexism, not political differences, drove the vote for her
>>Just to correct the record the first African American in Congress from Massachusetts was Republican Senator Edward Brooke, who served from 1967 to 1979. Some of you must remember him?
We seem to be distinguishing here between "Congress" (i.e., the House) and the Senate. So, we don't need to deal with the laughable question of whether Senator Warren (running unopposed, of course) is a "woman of color." I voted for Brooke in one of my first Mass. elections back in the late 70s.
Turning back to the post, this is my district. Don't remember why, but apparently I'm registered as a D, though I think I could have switched ballots. Pretty pointless, because there was nothing much going on in the R ballot and, literally, nothing in the Libertarian ballot, the only other option (one guy running unopposed for, I think, auditor). Didn't give enough of a fuck to walk half a mile through the heat to the polls to choose between Capuano and Pressley.
The only other contested election was between the dark prince/long-time Secretary of State Bill Galvin (I think I voted for him long ago in a congressional primary in opposition to young Joe, the braindead Kennedy, now representing another Congressional district) and another political scion trading on his father's reputation to get himself off the city council and into higher things. Again, didn't care that much, but probably prefer that the old fart pulled it out here.
--gpm
gpm said...
>>Just to correct the record the first African American in Congress from Massachusetts was Republican Senator Edward Brooke, who served from 1967 to 1979. Some of you must remember him?
We seem to be distinguishing here between "Congress" (i.e., the House) and the Senate.
Not valid. The Senate is part of Congress.
You want to specify the House, you say "the House". They're saying "Congress", because they're trying to memory hole the black Republican Senator.
Oh, and an addendum to my previous post: "white" leftists who vote for a "non-white" candidate because that candidate is "non-white" are still racists.
It's the "judging people by the color of their skin" part that makes you a racist, not your skin color, or theirs.
This is what I get for googling myself 😂
~Linus
Post a Comment