Dear Cindy,
I write as a strong supporter of your candidacy and someone who has
profound admiration for the work you have done. That said, I want to
attempt something uncomfortable which is to make a constructive
criticism of your campaign for Congress. I’m doing so based on the
firm conviction that you can move beyond being a strong protest
candidate-you are already that-to become a legitimate contender for
Pelosi’s seat. I am optimistic on this score because I know the facts-
among them, that Matt Gonzalez almost won a majority of votes in your
district against Pelosi’s handpicked candidate in his mayoral
campaign. As you know, there is also widespread disaffection with
Pelosi, not just limited to the left fringe, but among what should be
her core constituency.
For you to take advantage of these openings you must be perceived not
as a fringe candidate but as a serious candidate. This does not mean
that you need to dilute your message or alter your positions or
beliefs in any way. Rather, it means that you need to find ways of
expressing them so that the mainstream voters in San Francisco will
not be able to write them off on superficial grounds which the media
has, that is, as the rantings of a grieving mother and the band of
malcontents supporting her.
Make no mistake, your office should be producing a constant stream of
press releases, op eds, and open letters, as you are doing. When
these are picked up, even by small local media outlets and websites,
they provide your campaign with the exposure required for your
campaign to become competitive. However, when these give any
indication of amateurishness, they significantly undermine your
campaign and this is particularly the case in San Francisco where
voters tend to be extremely literate and well, indeed overly, educated.
To give an idea of what I’m talking about I’ll focus on today’s
Dissident Voice article “Accountability Now”. The first sentence
reads as follows: “The U.S. House of Representatives under the so-
called leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-SF) is failing We the
People at an alarming rate.” In addition to it sounding a bit
contrived in this context, “We” functions as the subject, not the
object pronoun, so the sentence is technically ungrammatical. Also,
“at an alarming rate” is an awkward adverbial complement to “fail”;
(as an indication, one can’t “fail quickly”). Finally, while it is
clear what you have in mind by “so-called leadership” the expression
comes across as flippant coming from the new congresswoman from the
eighth district. Correcting these problems you could try something
like “The U.S. House of Representatives under the weak leadership of
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-SF) is undermining the trust of the nation,
the State of California and Pelosi’s constituents in the City of San
Francisco.”
I hope you understand that I do not bring up these faults because
they are at all important to me, but rather because many people,
among them your potential constituents, consider them important.
They have, moreover, a rational basis in that they expect their
representatives to have the ability to represent them with real
authority. Part of this authority is derived from the ability to
deploy written language which commands respect. When one is
preaching to the converted on fringe websites like Dissident Voice,
this doesn’t matter. When one is attempting to operate in the public
sphere it very much does matter.
I should make clear that in no way is it required for you to develop
the skills necessary to produce the kind of copy which should be
consistently coming out of your office. I have no doubt that few
members of congress are, in fact, able to do so. Rather they leave
this to their staff people, who, having benefitted from long and
expensive educations have the ability to polish the turds produced by
their bosses to a blindingly metallic sheen.
What this means is that you need to hire staffers who are capable of
doing precisely that-except that your positions don’t require
exercises in rhetorical slight-of-hand to make them compelling. All
that is required are clear statements of common sense. While these
sorts of folks do not grow on trees, and there are fewer on the left
than one might hope, they are around. In fact, you could do worse
than make an offer to the editors of this site, Josh and Sunil, both
of whom are superbly clear and eloquent writers. Of course, their
positions will need to be financed but I can assure you they will
quickly pay for themselves.
That’s because there are more than a few progressives who are waiting
to see whether your campaign is serious in the same way as Matt
Gonzalez’s campaign was-serious as the proverbial heart attack.
When you show that it has the potential to become legitimate, that
will be Pelosi’s worst nightmare, and the support, which I’m sure is
already there will come rolling in, not just from me, but from the
huge numbers of us who are desperate for a real viable alternative to
the perpetual war, lies and indecency which define the Democratic
Party as personified by Pelosi.
Love,
John Halle