David Bruce Collins for US Senate—the Official Site
  • Index
  • Blog
  • Biography
  • Writing
    • Novels in Print
    • Eastern Daylight (1997) >
      • Eastern Daylight: April
      • Eastern Daylight: May
      • Eastern Daylight: June
      • Eastern Daylight: July
      • Eastern Daylight: August
      • Eastern Daylight: September
      • Eastern Daylight: October
    • Bite-Size Hungarian
  • Politics
    • Life As a Green
    • Ten Key Values of GPUS (English)
    • Issues for 2020
    • Issues (2014)
  • County Gov't
  • Activist Events
  • Web Links

Lori Bartley: Frederick Douglass Republican

18/10/2016

 
"I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress" — Frederick Douglass 
Kayleen and I live in the 18th Congressional District of Texas, where I have resided for the past five years. I will be voting for Tom Kleven, the Green candidate, a professor of law at Texas Southern University, the same school that produced Representatives Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland.

I have no major complaints about the representation that Sheila Jackson Lee has provided in her 22 years in Congress. Nobody has represented TX-18 longer in its 44 years of existence, and voters in her district keep sending her back with huge majorities. After all, the district that Rep. Jordan created in 1971 to assure black representation in Congress has now been gerrymandered to assure a Democratic supermajority.
My minor complaint is that Jackson Lee has become part of the Washington establishment. She doesn't rock any boats in DC. As the heir of Jordan and Leland, she could be a shining light in the Black Caucus or the Progressive Caucus, but she's not a shining-light kind of representative. I care less about her occasional flubs, her tendency to show up briefly, just in time for the group photo, at any event with a camera in the room, or even her accepting corporate campaign contributions. I just want a true Progressive reppin' my 'hood.

And Then There's Bartley​
But this post is not about Kleven or Jackson Lee. It's about their Republican opponent Lori Bartley. I didn't bother to look up any information about Bartley until yesterday, after seeing her campaign sign that touts her as a "Frederick Douglass Republican." Ye godz, if only the Republican Party of today acted, wrote, and spoke more like Frederick Douglass!

Bartley's great-great-grandfather Matthew Gaines, a contemporary of Douglass, was a state senator in Texas during Reconstruction. Seriously, click his name and read about him. This is an inspiring bit of history.

It's also inspiring to note that the few thousand Republican primary voters in TX-18 have finally chosen an African American woman to run against Jackson Lee. Seriously, there were fewer than 17,000 votes cast on the Republican side for that seat. Bartley received 104 more votes than runner-up Reggie Gonzales, then defeated him in a runoff 1,491 to 1,096. So 0.75% of the registered voters in TX-18 voted in the Republican Primary Runoff.

One of these years, the Harris County Green Party will find an African American man or woman willing to run as a Green in Barbara Jordan's district. So far we've had 2014 nominee Remington Alessi, a white Occupier who has unofficially abrogated his whiteness, and Kleven, a white civil rights and anti-war activist of Jewish lineage.

Because the terms Republican and Democrat don't really mean much to begin with, as applied to our political factions, and because of the ways in which both parties have evolved, the term Frederick Douglass Republican means even less. Bartley apparently believes that Douglass's dream of Black liberation and empowerment will come through "school choice," no reproductive choice, gun rights, and what she calls "a free-market system of government."

I can't wrap my head around that last one. True, even educated Americans often conflate political and economic systems, but no nominee from any party should have that phrase on his or her website or printed material.

Bartley's screed on the 10th Amendment is the highlight of the issues page on her website, IMHO. She misinterprets the 10th in much the same way Ted Cruz does, believing that most of what Congress has done in its existence, especially since the New Deal, has been unconstitutional. An excerpt:
Our Founding Fathers created the Federal Government for two purposes and two purposes only; (1) to protect our liberty, and (2) to serve the people.

​No more and no less. The power to decide what is best for individuals and individual States should be left to individuals and individual States. If you don’t like the rules of a particular State then move to one more suited to your liking.
The Federal Government's mission is a bit more extensive than that, as I've recently noted. Plus there's that whole "all laws necessary and proper" clause in Article I, Section 8. What the private sector, the churches, and the state governments won't do to serve the People, the Federal Government must do. This is especially true when the People demand that something be done. Frederick Douglass had something to say about demands, as Jill Stein and David Cobb are fond of pointing out.

Just two examples: First, what would Bartley have said about the Feds enforcing desegregation of public schools in the South in the 1950s and '60s? Second, despite the 13th Amendment, without federal workplace safety regulations and the Fair Labor Standards Act, states could allow employers to create working conditions that resemble slavery in many ways—or that discriminate against workers based on ethnicity, sex, age, religion, or other factors. Is the Federal Government out of place in preventing such practices?

That whirring sound you're hearing is Mr. Douglass spinning in his grave.

Comments are closed.

    DBC Sez...

    Here you will find political campaign-related entries, as well as some about my literature, Houston underground arts, peace & justice, urban cycling, soccer, alt-religion, and other topics.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    2018
    Abby Martin
    Abortion Laws
    ACORN
    Affordable Care Act
    Ahmad Hassan
    Air Alliance Houston
    Ajamu Baraka
    Alabama
    Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
    Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
    Al Gore
    Amazon
    Annual Meeting
    Approval Voting
    Art Car Parade
    Ballot Access
    Bernie Sanders
    Beto O'Rourke
    BikeHouston
    Black Agenda Report
    #BlackLivesMatter
    B&N
    Book Review
    Borders
    Brains And Eggs
    Breast Cancer
    Burning Man
    Caitlin Johnstone
    Caleb Alexander
    Campaign
    Campaign 2018
    Candidates' Forum
    Candidate Workshop
    Captcha
    Catastrophic Theatre
    Cenk Uygur
    Censorship
    Chelsea Manning
    Cheri Honkala
    Chicago
    Choir
    Chris Hedges
    Chris Tomlinson
    Chuck Kuffner
    City Council
    Climate Change
    Climate March
    Climate Strike
    CODEPINK
    Colin Kaepernick
    Convention
    Corporatocracy
    County Clerk
    County Judge
    Cover Design
    Cycling
    Dan Monahan
    Darryl Cherney
    David Cobb
    David Rovics
    Death By Cop
    Death Penalty
    Debates
    Deep State
    #DemEnter
    Demexit
    #DemExit
    Democrat Primary
    Depression
    Dichotomism
    Donald Trump
    #DownticketGreens
    DSA
    Duopoly
    Dwight Boykins
    Early Voting
    Earth Day
    Earthworm
    Eastern Daylight
    Ecological Wisdom
    Economic Justice
    Ed Emmett
    Edie
    Egberto WIllies
    Eleanor Goldfield
    Election 2015
    Election 2016
    Election 2017
    Election 2018
    Election 2019
    Election 2020
    Electoral College
    Elvis Costello
    Emancipation Park
    Emily Sanchez
    Emily Sanchez
    Endorsements
    Energy
    Environment
    Erika Martinez
    Extinction Rebellion
    Fascism
    Fauxcialism
    Fiction
    Film Review
    Fourth Turning
    Francesca Fiorentini
    Fremont Solstice Parade
    Full Frontal
    Fundraising
    Gary Johnson
    Gary Stuard
    George HW Bush
    George Lakoff
    George Reiter
    Gerrymandering
    Glenn Greenwald
    Gray Matters
    Green Convention
    #GreenEnter
    Green New Deal
    Green Party
    Green Party Houston
    Greenwatch TV
    Gun Violence
    Hallucinogens
    Hal Ridley Jr.
    Harris County
    Harry Hamid
    HAUS
    HAUS Project
    HB 2504
    HCGP
    Higher Education
    Hillary Clinton
    HMS
    Homelessness
    Houston
    Houston Area Progressives
    Houston Astros
    Houston Chronicle
    Houston Dash
    Houston Dynamo
    Houston Fringe Festival
    Howie Hawkins
    Hurricane Harvey
    Immigration
    Instant Runoff Voting
    International Affairs
    Inverted Totalitarianism
    Iran
    IRV
    IUniverse
    Janis RIchards
    Jesse Ventura
    Jill Stein
    Jimmy Dore
    Jonathan Franzen
    Jordan Chariton
    JosH Darr
    Julian Assange
    Juneteenth
    Justice
    Kenneth Kendrick
    Kenneth Mejia
    Kent Mesplay
    Keystone XL
    Key Values
    KPFT
    Laredo
    Last Week Tonight
    Late Stage Capitalism
    Late-Stage Capitalism
    League Of Women Voters
    Lee Camp
    Libertarian Party
    Lina Hidalgo
    Local Democracy
    Maine
    #MarchForOurLives
    March For Science
    March On The Pentagon
    Marc Lamont Hill
    Margaret Flowers
    Marijuana
    Martina Salinas
    Mass Shootings
    Mayor
    MD Anderson Cancer Center
    Media
    Medicare For All
    Mental Health
    Metro
    Michael Pollan
    Movement For A People's Party
    Mudslinging
    Music
    Naomi Klein
    NationBuilder
    Net Neutrality
    New Orleans
    New Zealand
    Nick Cooper
    NORML
    North Carolina
    Our Revolution
    Outlander
    Outreach
    Overdevelopment
    Pacifica
    Parkland FL
    Paul Ingmundson
    PDiddie
    Peace
    Pennsylvania
    Platform
    Plutocracy
    PNC
    Police
    Police Brutality
    Politics Done Right
    Polls
    Progressivism
    Proofreading
    ProPublica
    Puerto Rico
    Radicalism
    Ranked Choice Voting
    Ray Hill
    Recount 2016
    Remington Alessi
    #Resistance
    Revolution
    Right-wing Terrorism
    Rosa Clemente
    Russiagate
    Samantha Bee
    San Antonio
    School Shootings
    Scotland
    Scottish National Party
    Scott McLarty
    Sema Hernandez
    Sheila Jackson Lee
    Single Payer
    SKCM Curry
    Smart Growth
    Socialism
    Socialist Alternative
    Spoiler Effect
    Straight Party Voting
    Strauss & Howe
    Sunrise Movement
    Sylvester Turner
    Syria
    Tax Policy
    Ted Cruz
    Texas House
    Texas Leftist
    Texas Legislature
    Texas Progressive
    Texoblogosphere
    Texpatriate
    The Intercept
    The North Star
    Third Parties
    Thom Hartmann
    Traffic
    Transit
    Transportation
    Travel
    Treason
    Trump Derangement Syndrome
    Tulsi Gabbard
    Turnout
    Unitarian Universalism
    Urbanism
    US Senate
    UU
    Van Cliburn
    Vanessa Edwards Foster
    Venezuela
    Vish
    War On Drugs
    Website
    Women's March On Pentagon
    World Beyond War
    World Cup
    World Naked Bike Ride

    Archives

    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

Proudly powered by Weebly