Tlaib

For all the left media’s hyping of Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan primary, he never had a shot against Gretchen Whitmer. Whitmer herself is completely fine and a close ally of the United Auto Workers. It’s entirely possible I would have voted for El-Sayed if I lived in Michigan, but any progressive should be fine with Whitmer. Moreover, I thought some of the coverage of El-Sayed went too far into cheerleading against a perfectly acceptable alternative, creating a national narrative that Michigan Democratic voters were angry at the establishment, when in fact, they saw Whitmer as fine. I do hope El-Sayed will be back. He seems very promising and now has much higher name recognition.

Meanwhile, also in Michigan, Rashida Tlaib, who is replacing John Conyers in Congress, will be the first Muslim-American woman to serve in Congress, has a great platform, and is endorsed by DSA. I don’t get too into these first achievements, because I don’t think it’s any great shakes for Tim Scott to be the first black senator from South Carolina when he votes 99 percent of the time to make life worse for his black constituents. But when it is someone like Tlaib, it’s a very good thing worth celebrating. Given that she is Palestinian, I also hope she will be a voice in Congress pushing back against Democrats supporting Israel’s immoral ghettoization of the Palestinians. I am more surprised though that the left media didn’t pay more attention to her during the last couple of weeks when they were focusing so heavily on El-Sayed.