Years ago, I had a Palestinian-American student at Wayne State University who was a brilliant young woman, but who wasn’t really cut out for journalism. I didn’t tell her so; she concluded that herself, after a couple classes. She went on to do very well in political science.
She married, had a couple of kids, and earned a law degree. Next thing I knew, she was a very impressive member of the state house of representatives, and then lost a heartbreaking race for the state senate against a less qualified character who later went to jail.
But she rebounded. Last year, Tlaib became one of the first two Muslim women in history to be elected to Congress. She genuinely cares about people, and I would have voted for her if I had lived in her district.
However, on her very first day in Congress she did something that got her headlines. Headlines that many thought were the wrong kind of headlines. She announced to a crowd the day she took office that she had told her young sons that bullies don’t win, and said “we’re going to go in there, and we are going to impeach the …
Well, you probably know what she said. Now, I have no problems with her calling for Donald Trump’s impeachment, although the Democratic leadership is nervous and thinks it is “too soon” for that kind of talk.
Tlaib told me almost a year ago that she wanted to be in Congress most of all because she felt that would be equivalent to a seat on the impeachment jury.
Greater scholars than she have said they believe Trump has committed impeachable offenses. But by calling the President a famous vile epithet, Tlaib hurt herself and her cause in a number of ways, one of which I suspect no one may have yet realized.
Yes, she did first of all, bring herself, and by implication, the Democrats down to the gutter level where President Trump has dragged our politics.
She managed to normalize his vulgar name calling and personal assaults, and to suggest that her party is exactly the same.
That, to the extent that voters believe it, will have an incredibly corrosive effect on our politics. But she hurt herself much more than she may know.
Hurt herself politically, that is. And here’s how. Most people may not know this, but Rashida Tlaib is in a sense an accidental congresswoman.
Here’s what I mean by that. Her district is the second poorest in the nation, and is mainly Christian and two-thirds African American.
Tlaib won the Democratic primary in August by only 900 votes over Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones. And she won it because there were two other big African-American names on the ballot: Ian Conyers, whose great-uncle represented this district for more than half a century was one.
The other, State Senator Coleman Young. Had any of those three dropped out, the winner likely would have defeated Tlaib.
Instead, she won. However, there are a lot of voters, especially religious people, who don’t like politicians with potty mouths. Some were even offended by Governor Whitmer saying “just fix the damn roads.”
Those folks are not likely to be impressed that their congresswoman said that word to her little boys. It could be that this will all be forgotten when Tlaib again has to face a primary election next year. But maybe not.
And if Rashida Tlaib ends up facing a single strong candidate who happens to be black … politically, she may well be toast.
If you don’t believe that, you might want to talk with State Senator David Knezek sometime soon. Make that … former Senator Knezek.
Guess what happened to him. Life in politics isn’t always fair.
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