Primary Wins in Michigan Make This an Exciting Year



One of the most exciting and interesting political events are those where a candidate comes out of nowhere with are less money than the competition and wins. In the sports metaphor, it's the skinny kid at the end of the bench who comes in and wins the game. In Michigan yesterday, a Muslim with a tiny amount of money upset a more traditional Democrat to run for the U.S. House.

The winner in one of the Michigan House districts is Abdul El-Sayed. He is a former state health official and talked of universal health care and several other liberal positions. My own instinct, like many others, is to be pessimistic about strong liberal positions and think more moderate candidates and ideas will appeal to independent voters.

I'm no longer so certain that is correct, however. We have to remember there is always a set of voters who go to the polls to vote against someone or something. Not all of those voters care about the views of the one they cast for, they just want to cast against the other person. We may see some, or a lot, of this in the upcoming general election. 

It seems apparent the entire period of prejudice against people of Middle East heritage and of Islam may be further in the rear view mirror than what we see around us. The new Mayor of NYC is an example. 

We can all be amateur pundits and think we know who is more likely to win elections and who less likely. I did not think it possible Bush II could win re election after he based an invasion on "weapons of mass destruction" that never existed. I did not think Trump could win in 2024. None of us know how elections will turn out so why pretend we know?

I can predict Abul El-Sayed will make such names less strange in future elections.   

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