Opinion | Brace Yourself for the Man Who Could Become California s Governor – The New York Times
If Elder s victory is a liberal nightmare, though, it is just the nightmare Newsom needs us to be thinking about. Elder s record is so far beyond the California mainstream that he functions as a one-man cattle prod for energizing the Democratic base. No wonder Newsom has made Elder the star of his recent ads. Some say he s the most Trump of the candidates, Newsom said of Elder recently. I say he s even more extreme than Trump in many respects.
He could be. Elder opposes the minimum wage, abortion rights, and vaccine and mask mandates, and in 2008 called climate change a crock. (He now says climate change is real but he s not sure if it s playing a role in California s wildfires given the scientific evidence, that s little different from denying climate change altogether.) He has a long history of breathtaking misogyny. In 2000, he argued that women tend to vote for Democrats over Republicans because, bless their hearts, they re just not as well informed as men.
Women know less than men about political issues, economics and current events, he wrote. Good news for Democrats, bad news for Republicans. For the less one knows, the easier the manipulation.
In the 1990s, Elder, who is Black and grew up in South Central Los Angeles, rose to national prominence largely for his paternalistic attitudes on race. He has called Black people victicrats for painting themselves as victims of racism. In the year 2001, racism is not our major problem, he once said. Personal responsibility is.
via www.nytimes.com
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