The Breitbart clones want to take me out. But they're not going to get what they want.
As many of you know, I've been blogging at DailyKos since early 2005, when Bush's re-election compelled me to do more than just vote and volunteer during election times, but dedicate much of my life to fighting the total takeover of this country by an alliance of corporate market fundamentalists and Bible-thumping theocrats. Over 500 diaries later, I've tried to do my very small part to help push forward this sometimes awkward, always awesome movement to re-insert a spine into the Democratic Party, the only political body realistically capable of carrying the progressive torch forward in this country's two-party system.
A couple of years back, after moving from Los Angeles north to city of Ventura on the beach, I decided to also get involved in on-the-ground activism locally, where I re-founded a moribund Ventura County Young Democrats organization, and last year was honored to be elected 1st Vice Chair of the Ventura County Democratic Party on a tough-minded progressive reformist message. I have been Field Operations chair for nearly two years, was campaign manager for a local Assembly race, and was elected to the CDP Executive Board last month. My allies and I on the Central Committee have been very active in moving the local party where it needs to be, kickstarting its field ops, endorsements, resolutions, and other key processes that had languished or been nonexistent. The local GOP, long dominant here in this purple county, is worried and has taken notice, particularly after we won 20 out of 30 non-partisan races in November 2010, despite being heavily outspent.
That sets the stage for recent history. Redistricting in the state of California was removed from the hands of the legislature in 2008 via Proposition 11, a constitutional initiative, and placed into the hands on an independent Citizens' Commission. Despite initial fears and misgivings, it seems that the process has not been entirely unfavorable to us. In fact, the release of the Commission's first draft maps was revelatory: due largely to the same demographic changes that doomed Meg Whitman's candidacy for governor, the process could wind up swinging 5 GOP congressional seats to the Dems in California--which is huge in an election cycle where Dems needs only a net gain of 24 to put the gavel back in Nancy Pelosi's hands where it belongs. The new lines could also result in Democrats finally capturing the 2/3 supermajority in the legislature needed to end the Republican tyranny of the minority and begin to put the state back on track after decades of forced inaction. And in my county? Perennial backbencher and rabid anti-immigrant goon Elton Gallegy (R-CA24) would essentially be forced out of his district and likely retire, and rabidly anti-tax state senator Tony Strickland would have a very difficult time retaining his seat as well.
But the maps are only a first draft. The Commission has been holding hearings across the state to gain input from local communities prior to releasing a 2nd draft. On June 22nd, they came to Oxnard, the largest (and majority Latino) city in Ventura County. Predictably, the usual GOP foils came to the meeting early largely with the goal of making arguments designed to save Gallegly's and Strickland's seats. But a key portion of their messaging had to do with bashing "urban" and "coastal" Los Angeles and Oxnard, and keeping their "safe bedroom communities" intact.
Racism overt and covert has been an issue at the redistricting hearings since they began. And while the transcripts can't quite do it justice, the tone of the Republican participants was tinged with the sort of racist undercurrent that one would expect Republicans in Simi Valley, itself long a punchline for racism at least since the Rodney King beating. Comments like
We separated ourselves from the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles, and we don’t appreciate being tossed back with them for the convenience of Monterey County [protected due to the Voting Rights Act, much to their dismay]. Our sales taxes are cheaper in Ventura County, we are safer in Ventura County, our elementary and middle schools actually have grass in the playground areas rather than asphalt.”
or
We have a very homogeneous group of people in Thousand Oaks, combined with the extended areas in Moorpark, simi Valley and other surrounding areas…By bringing [overwhelmingly white] Simi Valley and Moorpark back into this area, you could combine [much more Latino] Ventura with the Santa Barbara area…so I think you would have a lot more homogeneity bringing in that group and separating that group.
or
People moved to Simi Valley to get out of the [much more minority populated] San Fernando Valley. Fact. [laughter from rightwingers] I don’t get it."
or
The reason I’m here is I wanted to leave L.A. I didn’t like it. It doesn’t represent anything I like, and the people there are not what I want to be in the same district with. We’re not anything in common economically, politically, socially, they have a different viewpoint on everything…Their representatives are going to be completely different from what we want.
You get the picture. This went on all night. More than one Latino activist there to speak left early without speaking because the atmosphere was so intensely uncomfortable. I was at the hearing, and tweeted my outrage at the veiled racism in perhaps too forceful terms, suggesting that they put on white hoods already and get it over with. I even wrote a Calitics post about it, which ended thus:
Republicans might want to be reminded of the fact that "white flight" does not constitute a community of interest, and "get off my lawn" does not constitute a valid political opinion. Like the rest of California, Ventura County is changing and rapidly so. No amount of gerrymandering can keep it safe for a literally dying demographic, no matter how hard the Chamber of Commerce tries to make it so.
And that's when the faux outrage began from the local Breitbart clones. The Ventura County Star's resident wingnut blogger, Laffer curve enthusiast and minimum wage opponent Eric Ingemunson posted his first hit piece against me.
This was followed by a front-page article in the Ventura County Star, in which the local GOP party chairman demanded my resignation:
"If it was one of my officers, I wouldn't tolerate it," he said. "I'd ask for his resignation. How the Democratic Party of Ventura County deals with this is going to say a lot about them."
This has been followed by not one but two more posts by Mr. Ingemunson on June 30th, whose blog is now featured on the frontpage of the Star's website. The latest post attacks me for a recommended diary I wrote here highlighting Freeper comments and the connection they reveal between the rightwing fetish the 2nd Amendment, and the rightwing fetish for eliminating welfare and support for the "urban poor."
What's most funny about this is that a commenter on that Ingemunson blog post referenced the outrageously racist rant by rightwing Atlanta shock jock Neil Boortz advocating using guns to create "dead thugs in this city" to back up the very point I made in that recommended diary. An intelligent wingnut would have responded that Boortz did not represent all conservatives. Tellingly and amazingly, however, Ingemunsen replied thus:
Cynthogenes, you are a perfect example of someone who hallucinates racism, probably because of some issues you haven't dealt with inside your own head.
Nowhere in the excerpt of Boortz's statement your presented did he refer to race. You saw his words and added your own.
He said something against "thugs" in the city in which he is based. Now, Cynthogenes, apparently you think only minorities can be thugs, because as soon as you read the word "thug" you thought "minority".
I don't think it's Boortz that has the race problem here, it's you.
If the Ventura County Star's resident Republican blogger can't even see that Neil Boortz's unconscionable tirade was racist, then it's no wonder he can't see racism in vastly more subtle forms as appeared in the redistricting hearing.
But on a larger note, this incident has become about taking a stand. Not just taking a stand against racism, but taking a stand against trollery and Breitbartism. The usual rabid wingnut commenters at the Star have made intimations about calling my company's client list and otherwise harrassing me in my personal life, and are trying to force me out of the Democratic Central Committee to make an example of me and stop me from doing my work here. Ingemunson and his friends and allies have a gameplan--one that they have seen work in the past with ACORN, Van Jones, and Shirley Sherrod: gin up faux outrage, try to force a firing or resignation, and assume that Democrats and the left will panic and "make the problem go away" rather than stand up to the bullies and fight for what's right.
In this case, we're not going to give them the satisfaction. We're going to continue to defend the rights of those who are not traditionally paid attention to in our County, to have their voices heard without fear of intimidation or discrimination. And, outside of the misguided few Lieberman-loving centrists and Proposition 8 supporters who have opposed and tried to poison the well locally against my and my allies' reform efforts from the beginning, most of us are ready to stand and fight for what we know is right.
If you'd like to drop Mr. Ingemunson a line, you can do so here.
More importantly, if these districts hold up in anything like their current draft form, we're going to have a lot of offense to play in races Republicans have traditionally won, and where our local party is usually outspent by a factor of around 10-1. Even a little bit of financial support can go a long, long way toward putting out the mailers and phone calls we need to drive turnout--as field ops chair, I make damn sure that every dollar is spent in maximally effective fashion.
If you have the ability, please consider a donation to the local Ventura Dem Party--not just for our efforts toward a 2/3 majority in California and delivering the gavel to Pelosi, but to show the little Breitbart clones of the world that not only will they not get the trophy they crave, but they'll get a lot more than they bargained for in the process.
[Disclaimer: this post is my opinion alone, and not the official opinion of any organization with which I am affiliated. That's for all the Breitbart clones out there.]