Pressley needs to table divisive talk
Was there any possibility of misinterpretation here?
One would hope so, though Ayanna Pressley, whose command of the English language is prodigious, didn’t leave much room for doubt in declaring, “I don’t want to bring a chair to an old table,” explaining, “This is the time to shake that table!”
She was envisioning a political system in need of fresh blood.
Less than a year ago, while still a member of the Boston City Council, big concerns were filling potholes on Hyde Park Avenue.
At the same time her fellow congressional rookie, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was busy mixing drinks as a bartender in the Bronx.
Doesn’t it make you wonder how they got so smart so fast?
Now, along with Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar and Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib, who collectively prefer to be known as the “squad,” they’re on a meteoric roll, commanding the attention of colleagues and the media, not by meaningful accomplishment, but rather by an implied threat of character assassination.
Criticize them and they will remind you they are “women of color,” which has nothing whatsoever to do with whatever the issue might be.
It is, however, a time-testanyone ed way of discouraging resistance by killing the messenger.
It’s cheap.
Surely they know that. Fairness? Decency? They don’t have a color.
Jerks come in all hues, and so do good guys.
Only a fool would fail to see that and Pressley is nobody’s fool.
It’s just that, after all these years, a charge of “racism” still remains a very effective weapon.
Disagree with the squad? To hear them tell it, you might as well burn a cross.
So there was Pressley, addressing a convention of progressive political activists in Philadelphia last weekend, warning contemplating a run for public office, “We don’t need black faces that don’t want to be a black voice. If you’re not prepared to come to the table and represent that voice, don’t come! Please, don’t even show up!”
In other words, if you’re black and you can’t pass her litmus test of what to say and believe, then you’re not welcome at her “table.”
She issued the same toxic warning to Muslims, to gays, to anyone representing a targeted demographic, advising them to steer clear of politics if they weren’t committed to acting and voting the way she felt they should. What colossal gall. Meanwhile, acolytes and sycophants keep telling her how brilliant she is.
Here’s hoping she’s smart enough not to believe it.
She still could be very special, but she’s off to a very poor start.