New PAC Has Message for Mediocre White Men — Don’t Run for Office
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By Helen Chernikoff May 16, 2016
“People ask me sometimes, ‘When do you think it will be enough? When will there be enough women on the court?’ And my answer is when there are nine,” Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said. Yup, nine. Just all of them, that will be enough, thanks.
That’s the chutzpah that makes RBG the spirit animal of a new political acton committee, Can You Not, founded in Denver by Jack Teter and Kyle Huelsman. (Does anyone ever ask this question about men? How long did it take before even one woman scored a seat on the court?) Can You Not encourages underrepresented populations — people of color, women, LGBTQ folks — to run for office, but that’s not all they do.
It also actively discourages under-qualified white male progressives from doing the same, lest pure privilege win them the race and the disproportionate representation of white men, which is the same thing as the under-representation of everyone else, continue apace.
True, this problem of proportional representation isn’t as bad as it used to be. Also true, it’s still a problem. How come? Because the privileged compete in an artificially thin field. Their rightful competitors – people of color, women, LGBTQ folks — are not there, either because they do not have the education, money or connections necessary to run for office, or because they do not “see” themselves as office holders, or some toxic combination of these factors.
That’s the hiddush, or insight, of Can You Not: that you can’t just encourage the right candidates, you need to discourage the wrong ones.
“We are raising money with the intent of defeating mediocre white dudes and elevating some of the best underrepresented candidates of 2016,” states the Can You Not website.
The committee plans to endorse and, as it puts it, “(dis)endorse” a selection of Democratic candidates before the June primaries and November election, according to the website.
Minority legislators are more likely — even more than white male legislators who call themselves progressive — to introduce progressive policies, Teter and Huelsman write on the website.
“If as progressives we support those policies, is it not our obligation to elect the candidates who are most likely to bring those policies?” they ask.
Of course this raises lots of ire of the “You’re discriminating against white men” kind.
Please to note: Can You Not doesn’t discourage every white man from running for office, only the ones whose candidacies are so obviously underwhelming.
“We’re not prejudiced against incompetent men!” cheer Jack and Kyle. “We just believe they should know their place.”
Amen, brothers.
Contact Helen Chernikoff at chernikoff@forward.com. Follow her @thesimplechild on Twitter.
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