I will preface this entire blog post by saying that I am currently undecided in regards to who I will support in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, although I fully intend to vote in the Illinois Democratic primary for a Democratic presidential candidate and his or her slate of Democratic National Convention delegates in my home congressional district.
Now, there is a nasty smear campaign that is being waged against Kamala Harris, one of several Democrats seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, over her past relationship to Willie Brown, a former San Fransisco Mayor and California State Assembly Speaker. While the smear campaign appears to be largely waged by the far-right media, including outlets like Fox News and Breitbart, at least one person on the left has tried to smear Kamala over her past relationship to Brown as well. One of them is Lauren Steiner, who hosts a social media video series called The Robust Opposition, and Steiner went as far as to allege that Kamala slept her way to the top (Steiner deleted her original tweet, although a screenshot of the original tweet is available below):
There are valid reasons where I'm more than willing to criticize Kamala Harris (such as some of her tough-on-crime policies as San Fransisco (CA) District Attorney and as California Attorney General), and there are valid reasons where I'm more than willing to criticize Bernie Sanders (such as his vote in the U.S. Senate against sanctions against Russia), and constructive criticism of a politician's actual track record is perfectly acceptable. However, I'm not going to criticize a political figure for sleeping his or her way to the top, as it plays into a sexist stereotype of female politicians (I don't recall a male political figure being accused of sleeping his way to the top), and I don't think that it's appropriate to criticize a political figure's personal life unless it involves something non-consensual in nature. More importantly, I believe that those kind of political attacks are not valid, not constructive, and amount to gutter politics.
Now, there is a nasty smear campaign that is being waged against Kamala Harris, one of several Democrats seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, over her past relationship to Willie Brown, a former San Fransisco Mayor and California State Assembly Speaker. While the smear campaign appears to be largely waged by the far-right media, including outlets like Fox News and Breitbart, at least one person on the left has tried to smear Kamala over her past relationship to Brown as well. One of them is Lauren Steiner, who hosts a social media video series called The Robust Opposition, and Steiner went as far as to allege that Kamala slept her way to the top (Steiner deleted her original tweet, although a screenshot of the original tweet is available below):
Since deleting her original tweet, Steiner issued a non-apology apology in which, in a total CYA move that only drew more attention to her disgusting smear campaign against Kamala, she basically repeated her original attack against Kamala by using the same line of attack against "people of every color and gender" instead of Kamala specifically, and Steiner also tried to blame Neera Tanden, the president of the center-left think tank Center for American Progress, for her smear attack against Kamala:This ain't it. I keep telling you Lauren Steiner is seriously disturbed. IF you are going to stump for Bernie this ain't it. She is more damaging to the movements and causes she claims to support. Local folks have been sounding the alarm on her for a while. Stick to the issues. pic.twitter.com/AKEfwCK2CP— Anoa J. Changa 🖤 (@TheWayWithAnoa) January 27, 2019
I apologize to @KamalaHarris for assuming her relationship with Willie Brown had to do with naked ambition. I have no direct knowledge of why they dated. But I don't agree the tweet was racist or misogynistic, as people of every color and gender use sex to advance their careers.— Lauren Steiner (@Lauren_Steiner) January 27, 2019
Some political allies of Bernie Sanders, including Bernie senior adviser Josh Orton and Melissa Byrne, who worked for Bernie's 2016 presidential bid, have strongly condemned Steiner's smearing of Kamala:I am deleting my tweet about @KamalaHarris and Willie Brown because anti Bernie people like @neeratanden are retweeting that instead of the program I did 3 weeks ago with @BMarchetich discussing her policies. I don't want to hurt Bernie. https://t.co/Ci98JJfjFy— Lauren Steiner (@Lauren_Steiner) January 27, 2019
No no no. This smear is disgusting, sexist, and has no place in politics. https://t.co/xqLzEua4r2— Josh Orton (@joshorton) January 27, 2019
Apologize to @KamalaHarris and think carefully for a long time on how your actions reflect on a whole movement. This isn’t @neeratanden fault—you tweeted something horrific so of course folks will call it out. Pls learn how to be a better a human. https://t.co/TadAwbstOb— melissa byrne (@mcbyrne) January 27, 2019
There are valid reasons where I'm more than willing to criticize Kamala Harris (such as some of her tough-on-crime policies as San Fransisco (CA) District Attorney and as California Attorney General), and there are valid reasons where I'm more than willing to criticize Bernie Sanders (such as his vote in the U.S. Senate against sanctions against Russia), and constructive criticism of a politician's actual track record is perfectly acceptable. However, I'm not going to criticize a political figure for sleeping his or her way to the top, as it plays into a sexist stereotype of female politicians (I don't recall a male political figure being accused of sleeping his way to the top), and I don't think that it's appropriate to criticize a political figure's personal life unless it involves something non-consensual in nature. More importantly, I believe that those kind of political attacks are not valid, not constructive, and amount to gutter politics.
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