We have all looked with disgust at how “Enron Ed” Gillespie is playing racial dogwhistles in the Virginia gubernatorial race. In particular, the whole MS-13 Latino gang theme that is now the new Willie Horton. Well, it is has hit a little close to home for me.
Collegeville, PA is a small town in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. it is the home of Ursinus College. There has not been a Democratic there mayor ever. However, Montgomery County, the third largest county in the state, has been swinging blue for the past few cycles and now Democrats control every line office in the county and carry it by good margins every Presidential election.
The Montgomery County Party has been energized since last year like nothing I ever saw from it before. We have excellent new, young, and diverse people who are running for offices like Katie Muth for State Senate. Aidsand “Ace” Wright-Riggins is an African American Democratic candidate for mayor for Collegeville who is running a very energetic campaign, knocking doors like crazy and getting his message out to the students at the liberal arts college.
Well, what does the GOP (Gerrymander or Perish) do? Go to the old Lee Atwater tactic of racial dogwhistles. The above pictured flyer was placed in voters’s doors by a group calling itself “Concerned Citizens of Collegeville.” Read it and take a shower. It is like every dog whistle possible to be used against an African-American candidate. It seems the tactics that are used in Virginia are spreading across the rest of the country.
I, being a naive person, thought the country was moving beyond this in 2008, when I enthusiastically voted for Obama, but I should have realized. Two steps forward, and one step back. We need to stop this NOW. All hands on deck for 2017. Don’t wait until 2018. Get out and volunteer, and for God’s sake vote. What kind of country are we going to live in? Let’s send these racists to the “ash-heap of history.”
Consider donating to Ace’s campaign here:
Aidsand “Ace” Wright-Riggins for Mayor