Today’s paragraphs come to us from Scott Johnson, who writes for powerlineblog.com, and also, in this case, for weeklystandard.com.
Mr. Johnson, a Minnesotan, is deeply opposed to Keith Ellison (D-MN) being made Chairperson of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
I have written about Ellison in previous blogs, but I would like to show you Mr. Johnson’s take on this possible elevation of his status within the Democrat Party:
Ellison embodies the identity politics on which the Democrats have staked so much of their success. As a black Muslim in a one-party town with a left-wing newspaper (Minneapolis’s Star Tribune), it has served him well. Ellison has been insulated from the kind of media scrutiny that his checkered past would have received elsewhere.
When I speak about Ellison in the Twin Cities, I give a talk titled “The Secret History of Keith Ellison.” The title is facetious. Ellison’s history only became “secret” when he ran for Congress in 2006 and bet his campaign on three lies about his involvement with the Nation of Islam. I recounted and recalled Ellison’s “secret history” in the WEEKLY STANDARD articles “Louis Farrakhan’s First Congressman” and “The Ellison Elision.”
Yet Ellison’s history as an active member and local leader of the Nation of Islam remains a deep secret to Ellison’s constituents in his district. He blatantly lied about it when he was running in the 2006 DFL primary. He suppressed it in his 2014 memoir, My Country, ‘Tis of Thee. Indeed, in his memoir he presented himself as a critic of Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.
Can Democrats possibly be this obtuse? This tone-deaf? This willing to move a “man” with this history of involvement with an overtly racist, anti-Semitic group into a position of leadership in the party?
The answer is yes, because he is being seriously considered. This is a disgrace in and of itself, but one which will be compounded exponentially if he winds up being named the DNC Chair.
Scott Johnson wins Paragraphs Of The Day honors for showing us chapter and verse of why he should not.
