Roe
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, San Diego, 1990 to be precise, I ran a Congressional campaign in the Democratic primary. My candidate, Byron Georgiou, checked all the boxes of a good Democrat of the time, including being Pro-Choice. However, he was an extreme outlier in having the courage to take on a five-term incumbent of his own party, Jim Bates.
Bates was just “censored” by his fellow members of the House for sexual harassment of his staff. No one ever gets censored in the House. Absolutely no one gets censored for sexual harassment. The Congressional Report was lewd and graphic, with the Congressman making obscene phone calls and dry humping the legs of staffers at their desks. Despite my encouragement, no one in San Diego would take on Bates, Byron jumped in last minute for a sprint to election day.
Byron was a known establishment figure, he referred to a lot of people as “friends.” Let me tell you, when you run against an incumbent Congressperson of your own party, you find out who your friends are. One of Byron's friends was Kate Michelson, who ran NARAL (National Association for the Appeal of Abortion Laws), a group formed in the 1960s by people like feminist icon Betty Friedan. It was one of the largest women organizations at that point, still existing in DC today. Just like almost the entire Democratic political establishment, Mickelson told us NARAL would endorse Bates, “He was good on our issue.”
Bates beat us in an extraordinarily low turnout election. Having been an elected official for a couple decades in San Diego, the turnout was low enough Bates could have at one point in his career done something directly for each vote he got. But, in a heavily Democratic gerrymandered district, Bates got stomped in the November general election. The victor was hardcore anti-abortion.
Now, one could say there's a lesson or even a few lessons to be learned here, though the DC Democratic political class is immune to any and all lesson learning. Remember, this was way pre-Me Too, hell, it was a year before one of our current president's previous idiotic forays into the spotlight with the Anita Hill hearings, which gave us none other than Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
At this point, three decade ago, it was becoming apparent, for those caring to look, the cleverness of the DC political class increasingly worked directly against not just the interests of the American people, but amazingly enough their own. Then again, getting anything done in DC long ago became incidental. It's all about sitting at the right tables, being seen with the right people, getting your face in front of a camera, and of course the money. I'm sure NARAL is having a banner fundraising week.
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