Avenue U

On the Q Line. Jason Middlebrook, “Brooklyn Seeds,” 2011.

Did you catch the results of Kansas’s special election on Tuesday? In a heavily Republican district, the Democratic candidate did quite well. Not enough to win, but damn close. In dozens of GOP-held Congressional districts, a similar swing would simply drown the rats. And this guy did it with minimal support from his state party and virtually no support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, whose job it is is to support Democratic candidates for Congress. And you wonder why I despair of this party apparatus? The Democratic National Committee also refused its support; they’ve made plain that actual (as opposed to toothless rhetoric) resistance to Trumpism not a priority for the DNC’s funders. Yet democracy wins in the streets, not in any party’s offices.