Michigan Mayhem and the Political Fallout
Here in Michigan, we had one of the most contentious Senate elections, between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers, to replace the retiring Gary Peters.
On October 15, I wrote the following on my facebook page:
Both candidates have previously lost statewide elections -- El-Sayed in 2018 and Rogers in 2024. I haven't marked my ballot yet. But I'm seeing a lot of posts from my friends, especially my Jewish friends, in some cases friends who don't live here or know this state. So, here are my thoughts:
- El-Sayed is stridently anti-Zionist, or at minimum against continuing US weapons support for Israel.
- El-Sayed accepted support from Hasan Piker, an outspoken anti-Israel and arguably anti-Semitic podcaster with a huge following. While El-Sayed appears to have cut off Piker, the whole trajectory has been unappealing, to be mild.
- El-Sayed has no government experience.
On the other side:
- Rogers is a former Congressman who narrowly lost a Senate race in 2024.
- Rogers is an election denier; not really from 2020 but from his own election campaign in 2024, which moreover used racist dogwhistles to attack Detroit voters.
- Rogers has threatened to use intimidation tactics against black voters THIS year, as well.
- Rogers is stridently anti-LGBTQ, including opposing gay marriage and restricting trans rights. His positions on trans rights are among the centerpieces of his campaign.
- Rogers is lock step with Donald Trump on whatever Trump says, pretty much.
- Rogers campaign ads always show his advocates wearing crosses -- even the one with the Persian (not Iranian, per the ad) immigrant. They're also always white -- except the Persian, anyway -- even the one featuring a half dozen "police officers." I have no particular evidence that Rogers himself is much of a Christian Nationalist, but his ads are hinting at something uglier.
I have not decided yet on El-Sayed. I've seen people accuse him of being anti-Semitic, but those accusations have routinely wilted under even modest scrutiny, wherein "anti-Semitic" is being used as a word substitute for "anti-Zionist" (I thought we opposed confusing "Jews" with "Israel"?), or is just another way of saying, "but Hasan Piker."But, before I get to my own vote, I want to say something to my Jewish friends (or, possibly in some cases, ex-friends): Some of you, a few, not all, by any means, have used some fairly obvious Islamophobic tropes to attack El-Sayed. For example, that he plans to run for President in 2040 and impose Sharia Law. Or, that he can't support LGBTQ because he grew up in an Egyptian Muslim home. Or, that a vote for him as akin to a vote for Hitler. I find these tropes to be... disappointing? horrifying? You find his views on Israel unacceptable? Ok, I get it, don't vote for him. I'm not about to try to dissuade you. But, for the love of your values, don't go there. I am deeply, deeply ashamed every time I read one of those posts.As for me: I view a vote for "the lesser of two evils" to still be a vote for evil. I find Mike Rogers to be evil. There are zero circumstances in this world that would cause me to vote for him. It's not happening. But I'm not obliged to vote for El-Sayed, either. I won't vote for him on the idea of him being "the lesser of two evils." That determination is yet to be made. I'll decide in a couple of weeks.
The post generated substantial discussion; some chastised me for not taking a more progressive or more pro-El-Sayed take, while others said things like, "Glad I don’t have to make this choice." Frankly, the choice was all that difficult, and I've faced far worse choices. Some people stressed over it, and I'll get to that, but I wasn't one of them.
I voted, early, on October 28th. I posted the following to my facebook:
The voting process is, in its way, truly exhilarating. Voting is a big deal to many people. At the precinct, we always cheer first time voters -- that is, if we know they're first time voters. In Michigan, drivers licenses and state IDs for people under age 21 are in portrait orientation, as opposed to landscape for older residents; this makes it very easy to identify younger voters. But I had a 59-year old first time voter yesterday; she volunteered that information when I was about to explain the ballot to her, as a way to say that she felt she needed things explained really well.Many of the people showing up are voting for candidates that are different from my personal choices, and that's ok. They don't tell us and of course we don't ask. At the grass roots level, that is at our level, we find common cause in participating. I'd say, to anyone who doubts our processes, work the polls sometime. You won't regret it.As for my votes... I pretty much said what I have to say a couple weeks ago. I didn't quite vote straight party ticket on the partisan section, but I'll keep quiet with respect to where I crossed over.Turnout at early voting has been brisk so far, though it hasn't yet picked up like I expected and hoped it would. Maybe that's a good thing, at least for today; my throat is raw and painful now as it is.
That might have been it, until the results came in. Early voting finally did pick up the final 3 days, and on the final day of early voting we processed nearly as many voters as during the busiest hours of the Presidential election in 2024.
But then Haley Stevens, the incumbent congresswoman -- my congresswoman whom El-Sayed had defeated in the primary -- went and endorsed Rogers just 48 hours before the election. It didn't take much insight to understand that Stevens's potential impact had long since passed; nonetheless, it was an instant national headline. This time, I didn't hold back:
It's not only that Haley Stevens just committed political suicide. She completely betrayed her base and much more here.
How can she possibly sit with Mike Rogers?
I'm actually disgusted, and I don't get disgusted easily
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| Haley Stevens May 5, 2024, Farmington Hills, MI |
I'm Jewish, I have lived in West Bloomfield since 1994. I was married at Temple Israel; I have connections there going back 85 years, to its founding. I belong to a synagogue just down the same street from Temple Israel.
At some level, I appreciate those who would deign to protect me, or, heck, to do so out of totally pure motives, but it's not something I ever requested, at least not in this way.
I never doubted for one second whether the switch by Stevens would impact a significant number of voters: She was way too late, and even though she had carried the black vote during the primary, she didn't have nearly enough sway to persuade anyone to vote for Mike Rogers. To the extent that El-Sayed's positions on Israel mattered, it was mostly to the far smaller Jewish community, and even then the impact of El-Sayed being the candidate was already baked it: that is, her pull would be minimal (exit polls seemed to show that Abdul El-Sayed carried about 60% of the Jewish vote, including here in West Bloomfield).
Some of my peers took Stevens's switch as a show of moral courage, but there was a perfect correspondence there to people already voting for Rogers. There will be time, I'm sure, to understand more in full what happened, but it won't matter for her political career, which effectively ended last Sunday.
On Monday morning, things got just a little nuttier. Bruce Springsteen put out a statement:
I've seen Bruce make many political statements going back many years. Some of them, I thought, were pretty effective. For example, his stand against the so-called "Bathroom bill" in North Carolina in 2016, which arguably changed the course of that year's governor's race. But why this race, and why now, just one day before the election? Surely Bruce didn't think he was going to change any votes, and he might just piss off some of his own fans. To put it mildly, I'd have just as soon Bruce skip this one.
It took me a few reads of the statement to understand his statement. There are only two words used as many as three times in the statement: "fighter" and "American." That's when I got it. It's a through-line, going back at least to "Born in the USA." What is American? Who is a fighter for American values? Is it in a name such as "Mike" or "Abdul," or is it in the content of one's character? We can disagree with respect to whether El-Sayed needed or merited this particular defense, or whether the defense might have been superfluous in the first place. But I understand why Bruce made it here, for this candidate, and not, say, for James Talarico in Texas.
There was one significant casualty of the political activity: The facebook group "Spring-nuts," possibly the largest Springsteen on-line fan community at nearly 20,000 members, is shutting down. Although the group's owners steadfastly refused to blame Springsteen's endorsement of El-Sayed for them shutting down the list, they also spent 4 paragraphs discussing it, and noting that they "vehemently" disagreed with it.
I see the election and its results as a massive opportunity. I pray that Democrats and Republicans, and that people of all faiths, find new ways to work together. To me, it's unfortunate that some in my own community have not seen this parh, and that some others, out of a (to me) misguided need to "protect" me have taken a path that I oppose. There will be time to make course corrections. But, as Bruce himself once sang: "isten up, my sonny boy, be ready for when they come, For they'll be returning sure as the rising sun." Time is limited, and there's a lot of work to do.
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