Dem
52
Ties
3
GOP
45
It has undoubtedly been a difficult week for Amy Acton. Not only does she get to deal with the stresses of being in the home stretch of a major political campaign, but she also gets to re-live the trauma inflicted upon her by a predator half a century ago. Oh, and she also gets to do lots of interviews in which she has to defend her integrity. Not so fun.
We hope it makes things at least a little better that Acton has abundant evidence that some sizable segment of the American people has her back. To explain, let us share a letter we got from reader D.E. in Lancaster, PA:
Regarding the Vivek Ramaswamy ad, which he has now claimed as his own, I have never seen a more repulsive ad in my life. As someone who experienced a physically abusive father (as a 9-year-old, he repeatedly slammed my head against the oven door while thrashing me with the wire end of a fly swatter), my heart goes out to Amy Acton. This was completely unnecessary and we need to reinstate decency and norms back into public discourse.
I have a political philosophy that while I might find candidates in other states interesting, I don't contribute money to their campaigns because I think candidates should get campaign donations from the people they hope they will represent. Even though I have been very interested in the campaigns of Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), James Talarico (D) and Abdul El-Sayed (D), and despite being drowned in requests for a donation, and even though one could make the compelling argument that running for Federal office will affect every state, I still refrained from donating.
Similarly, I knew that Acton was running for governor of Ohio against Vivek Ramaswamy, who even before this, I thought of as a loathsome individual. I not only know next to nothing about the issues Acton is running on, I really have no place donating as someone who doesn't live in Ohio. Then came this vile attack ad and I broke my own "rule" and made a donation to Acton's campaign. I did so not to influence politics in another state, but to, in my own small way, let Acton know that there are decent people in America who find this kind of garbage so very repellent.
I hope this backfires spectacularly on Ramaswamy, who definitely needs another "r" in his name. I know that Americans value winning highly, but if you have to sink to levels so depraved of human decency to win, maybe you don't deserve that victory. Let us not forget when Ramaswamy was running for President, during a GOP debate, he tried to smear Nikki Haley's daughter to make what he thought was a valid point. Haley replied by calling him "scum." Seems like a pattern to me. Republicans, instead of trying to govern the House, you might want to clean yours first. Just say no to all the neo-Nazis and white supremacist hangers-on. Stop defending rapists and pedophiles. Stop with the corruption and appeals to the very worst in our society. Being a decent human being should be the first qualification for wanting to govern.
It would seem that others think as D.E. does. For example, First Lady of Illinois MK Pritzker immediately announced a $500,000 donation to Acton's campaign, for the exact same reason D.E. in Lancaster donated. And in the days since the ad was released, Acton's fundraising has surged, such that her ActBlue page has risen to be the #2 ranked page on the site, attracting more money than any candidate other than the poverty-stricken Talarico.
Similarly, Rep. Ilhan Omar (DFL-MN) has had a rough week. Her house was raided by the feds, under circumstances that look to be more and more dubious. She says, quite understandably, that she does not feel safe at either her Minnesota residence or her Washington, DC, residence. She is always subject to plenty of misogynist and Islamophobic invective, but the fact that she's back in Trump's crosshairs means it's increased dramatically in the last week. Read some of the comments on her social media and you begin to lose faith in humanity.
The good news is that, as with Acton, some of the Americans who are not, you know, misogynist Islamophobes, have gotten out their wallets to say, in some small way, that they are with her at this tough time. On the day the news broke, her donations jumped by more than 10,000%. And, in total, she's pulled in just shy of $2 million since her house was raided. That's an enormous amount for a House race, especially one that, let's be honest, was not in doubt (Omar's district is D+32). The money's still useful to her, though, as she can use it to support other candidates.
Anyhow, good on D.E. in Lancaster, MK Pritzker, and all the others who took a stand for basic decency. And have a good weekend, all! (Z)