Dave Reichert hasn’t become some kind of moderate

[solarbird]

It may be a little difficult to believe now, but once upon a time Dave Reichert, Republican candidate for Washington State governor, was semi-popular here. He got the nickname “Batman” when he jumped out of a car to stop some sort of assault – a mugging, I think? – in progress when he was sheriff, and it was caught on camera.

To be clear, this was a cop actually doing the sort of thing cops are generally supposed to do, as opposed to what they actually do. People were like “dang, he’s Batman!” and for a little while, it stuck.

Anyway, he’s running for Governor, and in February, he got recorded saying marriage is “between a man and a woman” at a Republican event. That’s the headline in the Seattle Times today.

He’s saying that he wouldn’t take any action to restrict same-sex marriage and there’s the usual trotting out of a couple of supporters spouting “he’s not a homophobe,” like y’do.

But he’s also saying “transgender men” shouldn’t compete in “women’s sports.”

Well, that’s true – they shouldn’t.

But that’s not what he’s actually saying.

He’s not talking about men, trans or otherwise. He’s talking about trans women.

It’s a TERF/fundamentalist requirement – an absolute dictum – never to call trans women women. The further into that belief system you are, the stronger the requirement. So what they do is call trans women “transgender men.”

This came over from TERFism. It’s specifically meant to be demeaning and denying, despite the communications confusion that results. (The confusion is also a desired effect, of course; they want trans women to be seen as men.)

By using this language, Reichert is demonstrating how fully he is into reactionary fundamentalist and TERF politics. No matter how hard he might be trying right now to present himself as some sort of “moderate” Republican – something that I find less likely to exist at this point than a unicorn or honest Trump supporter – he’s not. His language proves his lie.

The fundamentalists, the authoritarians, the fascists – they’ll all hear him, and know.

So should you.

Make sure your friends know, too.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Comments

[wrog]

I'm just waiting for the Seattle Times to start rerunning their whole He Caught the Greek River Killer portfolio and then come up with some lame reason to endorse him. Because you know they will.

(as they did all of the times he ran for CD8 even though he was, like, the 420th most effective member of the House -- which is really kind of hard to do, but he managed it somehow...)

[wrog]

At least it's going to be a statewide election (i.e., that portion of Pierce County that was something like 1/3 to 1/2 of the 8thCD where it just Absolutely Did Not Matter what we said about his stated positions or his record or lack there of, they are just Always Going to Vote For Him Because He Caught the Green River Killer End of Story Now Get The Fuck Off My Property... ... is a much smaller share of the state)

[solarbird]

That's assuming he gets the nomination. Which I don't think is an assured thing at all. There's a real MAGAt running against him and the state GOP are mostly completely batshit now.

(Tho' that might be a reason for them to endorse him in the primary. I could see that and not even be mad. Bird is a nut but that doesn't stop the MAGAts.)

[wrog]

you're forgetting that, in this state, what matters is not what the parties do at their conventions, but rather what happens in the August election, and it's a fair bet that Reichert will have a following amongst the conservative independents and dipshit centrists that will easily scrape together enough votes to beat the nutjobs. Also worried about how the passage of the state capital gains tax is going to play out (when NJ passed its state income tax, they had a whole string of GOP governors after that; granted, that was 1980s, which was a whole different world, but still...) -- .

What'll really suck is if we get another 2016 (?) state Treasurer situation: 5 viable candidates; 3 Ds, 2 Rs, and the Ds split the vote sufficiently evenly that it was the 2 Rs that made it to the November ballot (... we really need to get rid of this system; it's the "Louisiana-style" primary and even Louisiana has abandoned it ...). Last I checked, Hilary Franz had dropped out and we're down to Bob Ferguson and Mark Mullet, so maybe we don't have to worry about that. But we're still pretty far out.

[solarbird]

I'm not talking about the convention. I see Ferguson taking one spot easily enough but I can absolutely see the MAGAts 100% lining up beyond Bird and leaving Batman without a constituency.

I mean, I'd prefer that not happen. But the crazy is running so deep and so hot that I don't know and I wouldn't make that assumption.

[wrog]

I'd prefer that not happen

I don't know. I'd like to think we're better off with BobF running against someone obviously crazy than someone with sufficient plausible deniability that centrists who are tiring of the One Party State can feel good about voting for.

(read: If BobF can't send Ellen Craswell 2.0 down in flames, something was already seriously wrong with this picture... and it won't be improved by Batman getting the nomination instead.)

[solarbird]

Tactically, yes. Health-of-democracy here, not as sure.

I mean, what I'd like to see more at this point is the GOP just burn itself to the ground and we get a new left opposition. I'd also like to see ranked-choice instant-runoff voting. But that's after 2024.