Denver ♥ Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros
The pattern repeats itself. In blue districts, the young people who’ve been indoctrinated into leftism want young telegenic socialists rather than the Democrat old guard.
Thus, we have the defeat of the 67-year-old incumbent Diana DeGette, who has served in the US House since 1997. By my calculations, that’s most likely the year the winner, 29-year-old Melat Kiros, was born in Ethiopia.
Kiros is a doctoral student in public policy at the University of Denver, which I think is very fitting since this is a youth movement that is strong in academia. The defeated DeGette was even a member of the Progressive Caucus in the US House, but that wasn’t enough to save her. Not “progressive” enough – that is, not far enough left, not Israel-hating enough, not young enough.
Kiros’s win suggests that Democratic voters are so frustrated with the status quo and their party that they’re even willing to oust some of their most progressive members in Congress.
I believe that’s true of some Democrat voters, but I don’t know what percentage. I think others just want socialists in power, and it’s not so much a rejection of DeGette (although it is that) as it is an attraction to Kiros.
Meanwhile, Kiros said she understood the struggles of Denverites, pointing out she’s 29 years old, renting and a barista.
A barista, much like AOC’s early resume. But she’s got a law degree and spent time in the corporate law world. Interesting:
Melat Kiros, 29, previously worked as a corporate attorney in New York City and was fired from her firm for writing an article supporting students protesting Israel’s occupation of Palestine, according to her campaign website and social media pages.
Perfect!
She was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia weeks before her father was selected by the United States’ Diversity Visa Lottery and moved their family to Colorado …
And she refers to herself this way, saying that Denver, “just voted to send a 29-year-old immigrant, recovering lawyer, barista, Democratic Socialist to Congress.”
I guess I’m being a teeny bit nitpicky by saying she’s not going to Congress quite yet; the November election is some months away. She’s correct, though, in a sense, because winning the Democrat primary virtually guarantees a win in the general, and of course she knows that.
And here is the very clever and soothing way she describes socialism:
In an interview with Next’s Kyle Clark, Kiros elaborated on her socialist platform, saying she would tell voters who might be uncomfortable with it that we already have socialism in the U.S.
“It’s in the roads that we drive on. It’s in our fire stations. It’s in the public schools we send our kids to,” she said. “What I’m calling for is the same security that we have in those institutions to be in our healthcare. To be in our access to nutritional food. To be in making sure that we have universal childcare and universal elder care.”
Kiros went on to say those programs will be necessary to make sure people’s basic needs are protected in the face of artificial intelligence changing “the entirety of our labor economy as we know it.”
“We’re not ready for what it looks like when all those jobs potentially get taken away and wiped out by machinery,” she said.
So socialism is just like the fire department, only better, and we must have it in order to combat AI. Exactly how will this work? Where will the money come from? Who knows; who cares? It will be from other people, and it will be glorious.
Translation: I want the life of a child in Neverland.
Socialism is the idea that the government will magically become competent, thrifty and incorrupt if we just give it a whole lot more power and money, despite centuries of evidence to the contrary.
“We’re not ready for what it looks like when all those jobs potentially get taken away and wiped out by machinery,” she said.
What she says sounds nice, but I will bet you she doesn’t care about working people. Elder Care? You mean like Canada?
Wonder who will be primaried next time here in CO? Jason Crow maybe?
CO is loosing population, because the rent and basic living expenses are too high. Her solutions will make it worse.
I guess I can take comfort in knowing, that for now, state reps are not socialist. YET
A lot of words like: must, security, and necessary.
Is she a Muslim?
Fortunately, if she wins in November, she will be only one vote. And I would suggest that her votes, if that is to happen, will be very close to, if not identical, those of the incumbent had she won.
Her reasoning hits a bump when she says “machines” will take people’s jobs. All she knows is bureaucratic, des-jockey jobs that are very susceptible to the machines… However, it is not the machine that fixes your plumbing or adds that circuit for the Tesla, or repairs the leak roof. (This is not an exhaustive list.) The people who opt for trade school over the “clear path to success” offered by the 4-year degree will continue to prosper. At some point our economy requires that someone get his hands dirty.
The “big 6”; Rancher, Farmer, Fisher, Logger, Miner, Driller. Nothing happens without these.
Ethiopia needs her and her extended family; to make famine great again, or make a great famine again.
Nothing shows socialism at work like mass starvation.
Straight to the Marquis de Condorcet then, anyone?
Or nah?
Yeah, figures.
“However, it is not the machine that fixes your plumbing or adds that circuit for the Tesla, or repairs the leak roof.” Not yet anyway.
“Optimus, download roof repair knowledge and fix the leak. Consult Roof-Leaks-R-Us.”
I read recently, one plumbing instructor doesn’t teach plumbing. He teaches how to use AI to do plumbing.
I don’t think the impulse to elect young radicals is in principle any different from the impulse that resulted in Trump. Lots of people feel like the politicians in place of either party do not represent them well and have been coopted by various sinister forces. They happen to be correct. The people voting for DSA candidates don’t agree with us about the nature of the solution, of course, but they are correct about the problem: their politicians say one thing to them and then do another, not the thing wanted.