Never Vote For Or Support A Republican ... For Any Office
Who would you vote for as your Member of Congress?
Candidate G grew up and lived in your state (although not in your district), studied computer science at Stanford University, worked as a software engineer for Symantec, Palm and Apple, and then left California for Japan to serve as an evangelical Christian missionary for seven years. He then got a master's in public administration from Harvard, became a political commentator and contributor to political websites and publications, and was then appointed to a position in the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development.
Candidate M, grew up and went to school in your district and still lives there. He was admitted to West Point but transferred after one year to Columbia, where he volunteered as an EMT and earned a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve for 8 years, including a deployment to Iraq as an intelligence advisor and then got an MBA from NYU and worked on various veterans projects.
How about if I elaborate a bit. Candidate G and Candidate M were opponents in the 2022 Republican primary election for the U.S. House of Representatives in Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District.
Candidate M, was elected to Congress in 2020 and is the current incumbent. He announced publicly that he accepted the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and recognized Joe Biden as president-elect. After experiencing the January 6 attack on the Capitol, he called on Republicans to take responsibility for their lies about election fraud. He voted to impeach Trump and was one of 17 newly elected House Republicans to sign a letter congratulating Joe Biden on his election and expressing hope of working across the partisan divide.
Candidate M also was the first Republican to condemn Marjorie Taylor Greene's comparison between having to wear face masks in the House and the Holocaust, and said that "such comparisons demean the Holocaust and contaminate American political speech." He voted to approve the Jan 6 Committee as well as to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress.
Candidate G, on the other hand, ran in the primary as a Trump-approved ultra-conservative replacement for Candidate M. Candidate G has a history of making false, inflammatory, and conspiratorial remarks on his Twitter feed, including numerous tweets promoting fringe concepts and figures. On four occasions, he spread the false conspiracy theory that John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, took part in a "Satanic ritual." He has also attacked Democrats as the party of "Islam, gender-bending, anti-police." In a July 2020 interview, in response to criticism of his past remarks, he said, "I don't really see anything to apologize for."
Candidate G’s appointment to HUD (as advisor to know-nothing Ben Carson) was in spite of his lack of any experience in housing. He was later nominated to be the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, but never confirmed, with senators in both parties expressing concerns about his fitness to hold office. Candidate G says it was "mathematically impossible" for Joe Biden to have won the 2020 election and defends claims of election fraud that have been dismissed by courts, legislative investigations, and audits for a lack of evidence. And immediately before the vote in the primary, when asked if he would accept the results of the election, Candidate G responded, “We’ll see.”
Both Candidate G (John Gibbs) and Candidate M (Peter Meijer) ran in the just-completed 2022 Republican primary election for U.S. Representative Michigan’s 3rd District. The Democratic candidate for 3rd District Representative was unopposed in the primary. So who did the DCCC support in the primary?
Not the Democratic candidate.
Not the Republican candidate who voted to impeach Trump and supported at least some Democratic programs.
Instead, the DCCC poured almost a half-million dollars into an ad campaign supporting Gibbs, the election-denying Trump supporter. MSNBC opinion columnist Zeeshan Aleem put it this way (https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/democrats-boosting-john-gibbs-over-peter-meijer-part-reckless-ad-n1297558)
Gibbs is not just an old-school Republican dipping his toes in Trumpy rhetoric to garner extra votes. He’s a Trump die-hard with the exact kinds of background Democrats consider dangerous: He worked in the Trump administration, won Trump’s endorsement, backs Trump’s 2020 disinformation, and has in the past promoted, according to CNN, “an unfounded conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign chairman John Podesta took part in a Satanic ritual.” He’s defended his hardline anti-abortion position, which opposes exceptions for incest and rape, by saying, “There are many great Americans all around the country who were actually conceived from rape."
The DCCC’s theory apparently is that recent redistricting has made Michigan’s 3rd significantly more Democratic, and thus in the general election Gibbs should be easier for the Democratic candidate to beat than Meijer.
Yeah, right.
I remember Democrats rooting for Trump to win in the 2016 Republican primaries, saying nobody would vote for him in the general. Look where that ended up.
Don’t get me wrong. I support getting more (and, hopefully, better) Democrats elected.
I contribute to individual Democratic candidates, including those in states far from where I live.
And I’ll never vote for a Republican for any office, no matter how much of a “good guy” or “decent person” they purport to be.
But give money to a national Democratic organization? Nope, not me.
And in case you missed it, Gibbs won the primary. He’ll compete in the general election against Hillary Scholten.
