Let’s Endorse Sonia

Wilkerson benefits from a powerful institutional support surrounding her candidacy, despite the fact that the insider support doesn’t translate into popularity within the district. While the vast majority of BMG (including me) realize that the Democratic Party is the party we need to get where we want, we’ve also realized – from time to time – that we’ve got to give the party insiders a good swift kick in the arse on occasion to get there. This is definitely one of those occasions.

Why is this one of those occasions? Because it’s important that we make sure our party stands for a party that inspires public trust. If we ask the people to trust us on fixing health care or restoring the environment, we’ve got to give them reason to hold that trust. Having Wilkerson around is, quite frankly, damaging to our party, damaging to our government – and damaging to the very issues Wilkerson claims to want to fix. How can the public trust her on working to balance a budget when she can’t even balance her checkbook or pay her bills? How can the voters trust the Democratic Party or all the liberal organizations that have endorsed Wilkerson, when these organizations willingly ignore the importance of good government in Wilkerson’s case? Seeking good government isn’t just a switch we can turn on and off – we can’t just talk the talk. We’ve got to do better and walk the walk.

Here’s another reason why we must loudly call for Sonia’s success: we’ve got to send a message to our party and the organizations that claim to represent our interests. They need to know that it’s not okay to support people like Wilkerson, just because she’ll vote our way. They need to know, as Charley said, that we can have progressive leadership that is otherwise honorable. They need to know, as Mike and I wrote in Bay Windows, we don’t have to choose between good positions or good leadership.

We can have both in Sonia Chang-Diaz.

Damn straight.

So we, as the BMG community, should walk the walk. We should send a clear message to our allies that we take honor and trust seriously – and so should they. We should make sure the trust voters give to our elected candidates is rewarded by elected officials who are deserving of that trust. We should make sure that we do everything we can to ensure Sonia Chang-Diaz is victorious. I don’t know a better and easier way to do all this than endorsing the next State Senator of the Second Suffolk District, Sonia Chang-Diaz.

Please share widely!

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