Why Democrats Should be Willing to Crawl Over Broken Glass to Vote for Abdul El-Sayed

 

Abdul El-Sayed

I will begin by setting forth my position, which I hope to repeat many times throughout the election season.  I believe, as I think many others do, that Donald Trump is an existential threat to our democracy and everything we hold dear, who must be stopped at all costs.  I think that many others agree.

And if you truly believe this, it logically follows that "all costs" should include voting for a candidate who is not your first choice, or who you did not vote for in the primary, or who does not check all your ideological boxes.  It even means voting for a candidate who may be troubling in some ways.

And, in fact, Democrats seem to have taken this lesson to heart.  After long, hard-fought primaries, they have promptly closed ranks behind the winner.  When Graham Platner was forced out in Maine, Democrats quickly coalesced around at candidate who shared is policy outlook and had a real working class background but lacked his unsavory baggage.  When the leftwing insurgent in Wisconsin lost the gubernatorial primary to an establishment candidate, she lined up behind the winner.  And so, too, in Michigan, when Abdul El-Sayed, the leftwing insurgent, beat the establishment candidate, Michigan Democrats promptly closed ranks behind him.

El-Sayed, so far as I can tell, stands well to the left of your median voter or even your median Democrat, but is not insane and seems mostly free of alarming baggage.  The most alarming things about him are (1) his hostility to Israel sometimes seems to bleed over into alarming territory and (2) he is closely associated with leftwing shock jock Hasan Piker.  On the strong side, he has a strong background in public health -- probably better than any current sitting Democrat in either house of Congress, and certainly better than any current Democratic Senator.  He has also, to all appearances, shown first rate administrative competence in managing the Detroit and Wayne County public health departments.

Assuming El-Sayed wins, the best strategy for Senate party leaders is obvious.  Put El-Sayed in charge of public health policy and, secondarily, have him work on administrative oversight.  These are his strong points and areas where Democrats would certainly have use for his talents.  Keep him out of foreign policy and national security, where he is most controversial and has no particular credentials.  In terms of committee assignments, put him on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and perhaps the Veterans Affairs Committee.  Healthcare is the Democrats' strongest policy area and El-Sayed no doubt has unique contributions to offer in that field (including veterans' benefits).  If that is not enough to keep him busy, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee apparently has the sort of general administrative supervision role as the House Oversight Committee and handles general administrative competence -- another of El-Sayed's strong points.  But the leadership would probably want to keep him off the Foreign Relations Committee, the Armed Services Committee, or the Intelligence Committee.  These are the places where El-Sayed's views are most controversial, and where he has no particular expertise.*

And consider the implications of putting El-Sayed on the health committee.  If Democrats want to enact Medicare For All, El-Sayed is particularly well qualified to work out the practical details of making that a reality.  For anyone who is skeptical of the plan's feasibility, El-Sayed is particularly well-positioned to figure out if it is practical, and to extend Medicare to all if it is practical, or to convince Bernie Sanders et al if it is not.

But even that is not El-Sayed's biggest attraction.  His biggest attraction is that if he serves on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he will have oversight over RFK, Jr.  And that means that El-Sayed will be able to ask RFK, Jr. questions and make him squirm like we have never seen him squirm before.  Now, that's worth crawling over barbed wire and broken glass to see!

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*Interestingly, his opponent, Mike Rogers, does have a strong background in these areas and probably would get these committee assignments, but not any healthcare assignment, if elected.  But, after all, there is nothing wrong with two rival candidates for Congress having different areas of expertise.