- Joined
- Jun 18, 2018
- Messages
- 73,088
- Reaction score
- 75,683
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Progressive
"Abughazaleh, a video journalist known for her takedowns of right-wing media figures, started her campaign for Illinois’s Ninth District with the goal of unseating the long-standing incumbent, Jan Schakowsky, who has served since 1999, the year that 26-year-old Abughazaleh was born. In just one week as a candidate, she raised more money for the race, over $378,000, than Schakowsky did in the entire 90-day quarter. And on Wednesday, reports surfaced that 80-year-old Schakowsky would announce her retirement on May 5. Abughazaleh sent out a press release thanking Schakowsky for her service and encouraging others to jump into the race. The entry of Abughazaleh has coincided with a debate about Washington gerontocracy and whether younger automatically means better in politics.
Now, as she runs for office, the crisis of the moment is the threat of authoritarianism and fascism under Trump’s second term. And Abughazaleh has lost all confidence in traditional Democratic leadership to handle it. “I’ve seen Democratic missteps over and over again in my career, and they’re not good at navigating this modern landscape. It’s always reacting to the far right,” she said.... I asked Abughazaleh what she thinks Democrats should be doing, and her answer was that our leaders need to be louder, angrier, and more difficult, instead of being stuck in old rules and norms of politeness. “They, at the very least, need to be loudly, publicly using their positions of power to resist this. I mean, any legislative or parliamentary procedure they can use to gum up the works is important,” she said. “You need to be holding your colleagues accountable.
"I think that there’s a lot of potential in just, like, talking to people like human beings.” Talking to people like human beings is part of what has made her video explainers so popular online. After the Nazi march in Charlottesville, Abughazaleh made a video breaking down Trump’s comments. She unpacked his response neutrally, minute by minute, with some jokes thrown in. She told viewers they could be mean to her as long as they watched the video all the way through. The comments were telling: “Some of them were like: ‘I still like him, but what he said was screwed up.’ And then some were like: ‘This kind of punctured this view I had. And so I’m gonna do more reading,’” Abughazaleh recounted. “When you talk to people like that, when you recognize their concerns, and when you talk about things on a personal level, it resonates a lot more than just constant demonization.”"
Link
Definitely reading for some younger voices cooing out of the Democratic Party.
Now, as she runs for office, the crisis of the moment is the threat of authoritarianism and fascism under Trump’s second term. And Abughazaleh has lost all confidence in traditional Democratic leadership to handle it. “I’ve seen Democratic missteps over and over again in my career, and they’re not good at navigating this modern landscape. It’s always reacting to the far right,” she said.... I asked Abughazaleh what she thinks Democrats should be doing, and her answer was that our leaders need to be louder, angrier, and more difficult, instead of being stuck in old rules and norms of politeness. “They, at the very least, need to be loudly, publicly using their positions of power to resist this. I mean, any legislative or parliamentary procedure they can use to gum up the works is important,” she said. “You need to be holding your colleagues accountable.
"I think that there’s a lot of potential in just, like, talking to people like human beings.” Talking to people like human beings is part of what has made her video explainers so popular online. After the Nazi march in Charlottesville, Abughazaleh made a video breaking down Trump’s comments. She unpacked his response neutrally, minute by minute, with some jokes thrown in. She told viewers they could be mean to her as long as they watched the video all the way through. The comments were telling: “Some of them were like: ‘I still like him, but what he said was screwed up.’ And then some were like: ‘This kind of punctured this view I had. And so I’m gonna do more reading,’” Abughazaleh recounted. “When you talk to people like that, when you recognize their concerns, and when you talk about things on a personal level, it resonates a lot more than just constant demonization.”"
Link
Definitely reading for some younger voices cooing out of the Democratic Party.
