Howdy web surfers, I learned that Jennifer Tod is running for the first time for congress, against a morally-challenged red hat republican. So I wrote an e-mail to her election site:
Hello Tod and friends:
Canadian here.
I found your name by accident.
Good Luck with your election race!
I presume you have organized party backing.
My point:
I can’t believe you democrats don’t pull a Steve Bannon and “flood the zone” the way his buddy Trump does.
I mean, you could go for weeks doing just weekly (or more frequent) press conferences just exposing, say, ten types of research that Trump and doge have cut, such as, say, X for children.
Maybe a props person in a white lab coat could hand you notices.
Oh, and expose one sort of sane-washing by the media each time. It could be funny if you wanted.
The blog Orange Crate Art, by a retired US professor, has a page with links of four occasions, comparing and contrasting media, (sane-washing, versus ethical) to get you started. (Link)
My daydream, (to spark your own creativity):
Another props person: to get red persons to watch, have a lady with a red ball cap wearing a dress that gets shorter each time. Then switch her to an old fashioned (pre WWII) black and white bathing suit like my dear mother used to wear.
Vocabulary:
If you don’t know what sane washing is, then you should STOP until you do. (I suspect most US citizens don’t know, I only learned from watching a sane-washing episode from Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC)
I’m sorry I can’t legally vote for you.
(But even if I could, my peers would warn me against crossing the border into the US—something I suspect many Americans don’t know about, despite the loss of tourist dollars, because on a blog I read of someone not knowing that many Europeans were avoiding “the home of the brave” too)
Regards,
Sean Crawford
Calgary
June
2025
Note for my fans: Yes, I realize I was writing a bit silly, but a politician’s idealistic supporters are party member volunteers: They deserve something to brighten their day.
I wish Jennifer Todd well, and will do what I can to support her. But there are big problems: the district was created (by the Illinois legislature, with a Democratic majority) to silo a huge number of Republican votes, and the Democrats do virtually nothing to support a possible opponent. (I am told that the last Democrat to run was given $500 for his campaign.) Another problem is that many voters still know Mary Miller only as a happy face associated with faith, family, and farming (a campaign mantra some years ago). She’s unavailable to all but hard-right media, which means that no one ever hears her having to answer a tough question. A third problem is with Todd’s campaign itself: as far as I can see, she’s done little or nothing to call attention to what Mary Miller is all about. I hope that changes.
Sean,
Thank you so much for reaching out even though you can’t vote!!
Jen