On that racist and otherwise idiotic conversation involving members of the LA City Council
How stupid can you be?
Just to catch folks up to speed, here’s an account from the Los Angeles Times about the leaked recording of a 2021 conversation involving three members of the Los Angeles City Council, Nury Martinez, Kevin DeLeon and Gil Cedillo, as well as a union leader, Ron Herrera:
Behind closed doors, Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez made openly racist remarks, derided some of her council colleagues and spoke in unusually crass terms about how the city should be carved up politically.
The conversation remained private for nearly a year, until a leaked recording reverberated explosively Sunday and turned the focus of a sprawling metropolis toward Los Angeles City Hall.
Martinez and the other Latino leaders present during the taped conversation were seemingly unaware they were being recorded as Martinez said a white council member handled his young Black son as though he were an “accessory” and described Councilman Mike Bonin’s son as “Parece changuito,” or “like a monkey.”
Herrera, the union leader, has already resigned, and President Biden, among many others, has called for the three council members to step down. So far Martinez, the now former Council President has said she’ll take a leave, but no one has yet given up their seat.
Two banal comments and then (hopefully) a more substantial one:
Obviously, Martinez’ remarks were patently offensive. But also, what kind of a moron do you have to be, in this day and age, to have a conversation like that and not imagine it might get recorded/leaked?
Furthermore, who talks like this nowadays? This is like a really bad scene out of the cartoonishly over-the-top political thriller, House of Cards. Again, I ask, what kind of a moron do you have to be?
Ok, the more substantive comment. The reason stuff like this really pisses me off is that the damage it does goes well beyond its offensive and hurtful nature. In general, Americans are cynical about politics and politicians. Many believe that “they” are all corrupt, that politicians on both sides are just in it for themselves, that they just say what people want to hear, etc, etc. That’s not true of every public official, of course. But when episodes like this emerge, it reinforces that basic sense of distrust. That’s great for Republicans, since it serves them well for such notions to be as pervasive as possible, the better to convince people that the very idea of constructive government overseen by committed and sincere public servants is just a punchline to a joke.
It sucks that this is the way it is, but the fact is that Democrats have to play by a different set of rules than Republicans. Herschel Walker may lose his Senate race, but the reason his abject venality and idiocy aren’t automatic deal breakers is partly due to the fact that so many people already assume politicians are, in some basic sense, phony. So, the leaked tape of these jokers on the LA City Council just adds to the sense that it’s all one big swamp, with a bunch of power-hungry pols who don’t really care about people.
That kind of ethical leveling is sweet music to the party whose political project is nihilism. Democrats don’t need to give that project a boost.