Jamel Brown was not a serious candidate for office.
Pretty much everyone at this point has made fun of the Montgomery preacher/activist who made a run for governor on the Democratic ticket this year. I poked fun at him. Other media outlets made fun of him. His fellow Dem candidates made fun of him. The Republicans surely made fun of him.
To be fair, he made himself an easy target, with the unspeakable pickle video and the multiple videos that he posted of himself in various states of intoxication or dancing with women. This was not a serious campaign.
Brown lost badly, as everyone expected last Tuesday, but he still garnered some 15,000 votes from people around the state.
And that, too, was a joke. The state’s largest media outlet, al(.)com, had a headline calling him the “pot-smoking pastor” and noting the number of people who voted for him. Republicans fell all over themselves to poke fun at Democrats for voting for him. Even a solid number of Democrats were on social media asking how so many could vote for the man.
But, um, could I ask you a question?
Did Jamel Brown try to deny anyone healthcare? Did he cut a single veteran’s benefits in order to give a tax break to a billionaire? Did he slash the Alabama public school budget by $250 million annually to pay the tuition for rich private school kids? Has he used religion to demean and vilify minority groups? Has he locked a single immigrant child in a cage or chased a single immigrant worker through a field?
You get where I’m going here, right?
We seem to have a very warped sense of what’s acceptable in America these days, and what causes us outrage.
A candidate for governor dancing and drinking—both legal behaviors—is a laugh-out-loud joke who is offending our delicate sensibilities. But a candidate for governor who apparently can’t meet the residency requirements and who has spent his days vilifying Muslims and immigrants is considered the frontrunner for the gig.
There’s something very wrong with that.
Look, I’m not trying to make a case for Jamel Brown here. I’m truly not, because he was not a serious candidate. But he’s the sort of unserious candidate who is harmless and humorous, not the kind that will spend his days gutting your Social Security check and slashing your Medicare benefits.
And that’s a difference we really need to start recognizing again.
Too many people in this country, and especially in this state, have lost their common sense when it comes to politics. They’ve been ensnared by the scare tactics and emotional fear mongering of the Republican Party, and they’re now actively voting against their own interests and arguing for you to do the same.
That’s how we’ve ended up with an economy-killing, self-serving imbecile in the White House for the second time, despite 34 felony convictions, a sexual assault verdict, a scam university and more self-enrichment in office than every other previous president combined. We got here because the immigrants were “eating the dogs!” and there would be “no more wars!” and grocery prices were going to be “lower on Day One!” and energy costs were going to be “so low you won’t believe it!”
All of it stupid, stupid, stupid rhetoric that shouldn’t have fooled even small children.
Instead, it fooled half the country. And most of that was the half that couldn’t afford to be fooled.
What we ended up with was higher prices for groceries, energy costs that are crippling, two wars instead of stopping the one in Ukraine as only he could do, hidden Epstein files, pardoned cop beaters and child molesters, a slush fund for those cop beaters and child molesters, fewer jobs, a cratering economy and millions of people booted off their health insurance plans.
And still, most of those people who have been harmed by the doofus president and his willing band of carnival barkers and white supremacists would tell you that he’s a more desirable candidate than a pot-smoking pastor who wanted to raise the minimum wage, provide affordable child care, give working people a tax cut and bailout, expanding welfare programs and increasing veterans benefits.
Again, I’m not here telling you that Brown was a good candidate or that he should be your choice for governor or even dog catcher. I’m simply pointing out that on a scale of ridiculous candidates, the ones blocking access to healthcare and constantly trying to cut programs that feed needy people should be considered far more ridiculous than someone wanting to legalize weed and strip clubs.
If that’s not the case for you, maybe you should ask yourself why.
