Rep Seth Moulton (D-MA), inspiration for this thread, engages in a bit of anonymous validation in the pages of WaPo, following his announcement of unease at the thought of his daughters competing against trans-women in sports:
The blowback, which was swift, included the chair of a local Democratic committee calling me a Nazi “cooperator” and about 200 people gathering in front of my office to protest a sentence. My unimpeachable record of standing up for the civil rights of all Americans, including the trans community, was irrelevant.
What has amazed me, though, is what’s happening behind the scenes. Countless Democrats have reached out, from across the party — to thank me. I’ve heard it again and again, from union leaders to colleagues in the House and Senate; from top people from the Obama, Biden and Harris teams to local Democrats stopping me on the street; from fellow dads to many in the LGBTQ+ community: “Thank you for saying that!”
The question of whether to have reasonable restrictions on transgender women’s participation in women’s sports wasn’t their point — though most agree — just as it wasn’t mine. They were simply glad that a fellow Democrat would violate the moratorium on speaking our minds. Voters want elected officials to give voice to their concerns, not tell them what they should think.
Anonymous validation was a favored tactic of President Trump’s during his first term in office as a way to justify basically implausible positions on various issues, as he would claim senior Democratic officials were calling him to congratulate him on various species of foolishness. Naturally, in both the Trump and Moulton cases, it’s understandable why these validators, if they exist, would prefer not to be identified.
And it’s hard to take this farther, or justify Rep Moulton’s use of them over the former and future President’s use.
But, that said, if they are true for the Representative, Moulton would be wise to make lists and get permissions to identify them, and one day release them. The Democratic Party needs, with a capital ‘N’, to be reformed. Not only does it hold policy positions of questionable worth, but, and more importantly, its public methods, or lack thereof, to reach those positions invalidates them in the eyes of many voters.
I do hope to add other high level Democratic officials to this thread as they recognize the Democrats have a far more basic problem than inferior campaign tactics: they need to recommit to liberal democracy, review themselves in that light, and begin reforming themselves.
Otherwise they’ll continue to look bad in comparison to the third-, fourth-, and fifth-raters that make up Republican elected officials.
