I want you to take a moment and imagine something with me. I want you to imagine a lawmaker repeatedly investigated and fined by their state’s election commission, year in and year out.
I want you to imagine the kind of person who helped pass a law that forbids minors from getting an abortion without parental consent...despite the fact she herself had such a procedure while a minor, without parental consent, and despite the fact a previous Supreme Court case struck down a law just like this one before.
I want you to imagine the kind of person who would say slavery is a blessing, because it means African Americans know Christianity instead of living “somewhere in Africa, worshiping a tree”. I want you to imagine a person who wants the bible taught in school, “objectively”, but refuses to support teaching the Koran for the same reasons.
I want you to imagine the kind of person who dismisses the Holocaust out of hand, trivializing it by proclaiming “The Jews own everything”.
I don’t know what kind of person you’re picturing (but I can guess), but the person you are hearing about is a Democratic woman of color. She’s Representative Kim Daniels, and she needs to go.
There’s been a lot of buzz on Daily Kos recently about replacing Ruben Diaz Sr., one of the most shameful “Republicans in Democratic Clothing” in the country. This situation is no different: Florida HD 14 is a blue stronghold in one of the toughest swing states in the country, a seat that can be and SHOULD be electing a strong, progressive Democrat who truly exemplifies what we stand for as a party.
Instead, it’s currently held by a squatter that opposes abortion rights (and is a hypocrite about it to boot), who wants to put God back in schools (her God only, of course), who flouts campaign finance laws, who says things so shockingly bigoted and ignorant they would be considered over the top in a Mel Brooks satire of a bigoted politician:
I recently wrote about my journey to discover more about my Jewish heritage after being attacked by an anti-Semite. Representative Daniels thinks the Holocaust is no big deal, because my people “own everything”. There’s literally hundreds of people who share my name, countless relatives known and unknown who were snuffed out as part of it. No big deal, Daniels seems to think, because I have my Jew gold and control of the worldwide finance and media industries to comfort me. It’s anti-Semitic propaganda like that, that we “own everything”, that led to the Holocaust in the first place. Such rhetoric has no place in America, and it especially has no place coming from the mouth of a Democrat.
Kim Daniels is a perfect example of a Republican politician: she’s a hypocrite who wants to restrict others from enjoying the same rights over their own bodies she had; she lies about her assets and debts and spends campaign funds on herself; she’s happy to play the victim, conflating disagreement with her opinions with being “bullied”.; she is funded and supported by prominent Republicans. The only problem is she claims to be a Democrat. She claims specifically to be a Blue Dog Democrat, but not even the Blue Dogs are willing to count her as one of their own.
This seat certainly belongs to Democrats: it’s such a reliably blue seat that Republicans don’t even bother running for it. Of course, with enemies like this, who needs friends?
Wouldn’t it be nice if the people of Florida could have a true Democrat in their corner? Wouldn’t it be great to replace this fraud with a REAL Democrat? Wouldn’t it be the best if she could be replaced with a woman of color to boot, ensuring that not only does a real Democrat take this seat but we reward our hardest working, most faithful, and direly under-represented demographic with it?
We can: her opponent is Angie Nixon, and she’s everything Daniels isn’t. People, this seat is so blue that the election is over after the primary. We have until August 18th, just over two short months, to put her over the top. She needs our help, and she needs it now. Florida may be a battleground, but this is one of our bastions, a predominately African-American district that deserves someone who will fight for THEM, not for bigotry, oppression of women, and breaking down the barrier between church and state.
Daily Kos’ mission is to elect more and better Democrats. I’m not the first to write about this contest, but with your help I can be the last. Here’s our chance to get the “better” part done, let’s do it together.