FACT: Republican Congresswoman Young Kim (who now represents California’s 39th district) is a useless hack who stands for nothing. The Ed Royce protégé was unable to conceive or utter any criticisms of Trump back when he was President, and since being elected she’s been just one more obedient vote for Leader McCarthy (who is in turn obedient to Trump.) The GOP points to her as a “moderate” because she looks and sounds like one, but she’s not. Her first act was to block the COVID relief bill, she voted against a Jan 6 Commission, she voted against the DREAM Act which has been a vital lifeline to her fellow Korean-Americans, one can go on and on. She’s a Stepford Republican.
FACT: It’s mystifying how this hack could have won in 2020, while at the same time District 39 chose Biden over Trump by 10 points. The Cook Political Report has just identified Young Kim’s seat as one of the “most at risk.” which explains why the GOP is pouring millions into it. District 39 is just waiting for the right Democrat to step up and claim it in 2022.
FACT: Jay Chen, a Taiwanese-American Democrat with experience on the local school boards and a stellar military record, is the guy who can take this district back from Young Kim. We’ve been fans and friends of his since 2012 when he ran against Ed Royce; Jay was originally one of many Democrats lined up in 2018 to take Royce’s place, but he backed out when it looked like Gil Cisneros had the better chance. And then what did Jay do? He went back to the Middle East to fight ISIS, as you’ll hear in the video below. To call Jay Chen “impressive” is an understatement; he can speak at length and in detail on (it seems) any topic you bring up.
I got to catch up with Jay yesterday in Fullerton, in the back yard of Faisal and Ameena Qazi, and here he is introducing himself. WATCH. It’s 13 minutes:
“What committees would you like to be on, once you get into Congress next year?” one attendee asked. Jay has two or three committees in mind – most especially Foreign Affairs, on which note he launched into a learned catalogue of all the problems raging on every continent, so many of them worsened by four years of Trump.
He’d also like to be on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, because District 39 could really use so much Federal resources in that area, and if he could be on a third committee it would be the Select Committee on Intelligence (no problem, he says, as he already “holds a top secret SCI.”)
On healthcare, he understands and explains better than I can, how much our lives and economy would be improved, and how many billions of dollars saved, with a single-payer system. (He doesn’t like the term “Medicare For All” which has been successfully demonized by the right, and I was always good myself with saying “single payer,” but then THAT always needs explanation.) If he were in the Congress now (and would that he were) he’d be down with the $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” Act and the crucial Voting Rights bills that are being attempted, and he would raise the alarm tirelessly on climate change, which he agrees is the biggest most existential problem facing us.
Well, it sounds like Jay Chen would fit right in in the Progressive Caucus, and he agrees, but he says he would ALSO join the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, because that’s what he’s going there to do, to solve problems.
I may not yet have gotten across how urgent this is. You must have noticed that the Republican Party has become a nihilistic death cult loyal to and modeled on Donald Trump. And the razor-thin majority good Americans (i.e. Democrats) have in Congress makes it nearly impossible to get anything done. AND the things we need to get done are life-and-death matters. Here in Orange County the least we can do is replace the useless, destructive Young Kim and Michelle Steel with Jay Chen and Harley Rouda, while we send all the money we can afford to the most promising Senate races around the country so we never have to look at Manchin’s and Sinema’s ugly mugs again. Just my two cents’ worth…
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