{"id":8073,"date":"2017-06-07T07:00:05","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=8073"},"modified":"2017-06-07T09:57:35","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T13:57:35","slug":"is-jealous-claiming-credit-for-the-achievements-of-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=8073","title":{"rendered":"Is Jealous Claiming Credit for the Achievements of Others?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n

Former NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous is running for Governor on a progressive message.\u00a0 That\u2019s a good thing for both the Democratic Party and the state.\u00a0 But part of his message appears to be a claim that he was a big player in progressive achievements that were actually accomplished by others.\u00a0 That\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n

In a blast email dated May 31 and titled \u201cUnlocking the American Dream,\u201d Jealous recites his history as a community organizer, his ties to the City of Baltimore and his parents\u2019 efforts to desegregate the city\u2019s schools and downtown business district. \u00a0Jealous has a compelling story that deserves respect and consideration, especially by progressives.<\/p>\n

After discussing his parents\u2019 civil rights activism, he wrote this.<\/p>\n

It was that tradition of fighting for a better life for your neighbors and yourself that motivated this campaign.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2012, Maryland had a bounty of civil rights ambitions; we were going to pass the DREAM Act, abolish the death penalty, pass marriage equality, expand voting rights and pass sensible gun safety reform. It was quite the undertaking, but that didn\u2019t stop Maryland.<\/em><\/p>\n

We went for it, and we won all of them. Because we know our individual movements are stronger together.<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the spirit this state needs. A spirit to make our existing movements stronger by combining efforts, to defend our communities, our healthcare, our environment, our working families, students, and seniors.<\/em><\/p>\n

The operative pronoun here is \u201cwe.\u201d\u00a0 Readers of this email might think that Jealous was a key player in passing the DREAM Act, marriage equality, death penalty repeal, voting reform and gun safety.\u00a0 But he wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 Jealous was head of the national NAACP at the time.\u00a0 He was not a leader in state politics.\u00a0 In fact, other than residency and family history, Jealous has few ties to politics and government in Maryland.<\/p>\n

Many, many people worked together to accomplish the progressive victories listed in this email.\u00a0 Most of these wins took years to get done.\u00a0 Elected leaders who worked hard on these issues include former Senator and now Congressman Jamie Raskin (marriage equality and the death penalty), former Senator and now Attorney General Brian Frosh (guns), Senators Victor Ramirez and Paul Pinsky (the DREAM Act), Senator Joan Carter Conway (voting rights), Delegate Kathleen Dumais (guns and the death penalty), Delegate Luke Clippinger (marriage equality and guns), Delegates Maggie McIntosh, Anne Kaiser, Kumar Barve and former Delegate Keiffer Mitchell (marriage equality), Delegate Sheila Hixson (the DREAM Act and voting rights), former Senator Lisa Gladden and Delegate Sandy Rosenberg (the death penalty) and former Governor Martin O\u2019Malley, Speaker Mike Busch and Senate President Mike Miller (all of the above).\u00a0 Lots of others in elected office and in progressive advocacy groups played critical roles.\u00a0 One key leader on many of these issues, Senator Rich Madaleno (D-18), is planning on running for Governor.\u00a0 (Disclosure: if Madaleno declares, your author will support him.)<\/em>\u00a0 None of these people did it alone.\u00a0 Politics is a team sport, as everyone who did the nuts-and-bolts work on all of these issues knows.<\/p>\n

Jealous could have written, \u201cProgressives in Maryland passed the DREAM ACT, marriage equality and gun safety.\u00a0 They did the right thing and I applaud them.\u00a0 Our campaign is about returning our state to a progressive path.\u00a0 Join us.\u201d\u00a0 But he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a question for the veterans of all these progressive wins: how do you feel about that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. Former NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous is running for Governor on a progressive message.\u00a0 That\u2019s a good thing for both the Democratic Party and the state.\u00a0 But part of his message appears to be a claim that he was a big player in progressive achievements that were actually accomplished by others.\u00a0 … Continue reading Is Jealous Claiming Credit for the Achievements of Others?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[1545,1977],"class_list":["post-8073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-ben-jealous"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-26d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8073"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8120,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8073\/revisions\/8120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}