Adam Pagnucco’s website, Montgomery Perspective, has been a terrific addition to Montgomery County. It adds an additional news source in a county starved by years of one-sided perspectives. Adam’s articles are detailed, well sourced, and really touch upon issues that would otherwise be ignored or swept under the rug. So, thank you Adam.
That being said, his recent article “A War for MCPS? Part Three” needs a counter. In the article, Adam lays out his recommendations for how a non-establishment candidate could win a seat on the MCPS Board of Education.
Here are the major recommendations summarized:
- Don’t say anything controversial
- Not speak to the media or engage in candidate forums
- Don’t use just white people in your campaign material
- Don’t take “right-wing” money
- Change your voter affiliation
- Don’t donate to republicans or right-wing groups
What is most disheartening about the strategy that is laid out is it represents an absolute callousness to what it means to be a political minority in the current MoCo culture. It makes me wonder, would “avoid candidate forums or media interviews” be the advice he had given to women wanting to vote? Or would “don’t make contributions to groups that might be opposite of the majority” be advice he gave to someone looking to achieve civil rights? Did individuals who lead or championed change for these movements win support because they stood like a wall flower at their senior high prom? How often were any words said by these people fabricated into being controversial statements by the establishment they were trying to uproot?
The advice he provides also contains a great degree of bias: what exactly is “right-wing” money, and what makes a candidate “right-wing”? And why would someone who opposes the current direction of MCPS be right-wing? In MoCo anyone that does not tow the D party line is quickly labeled as right-wing. It is a label that gets used as a campaigning weapon (popularized by divisive people such as Jaime Raskin) to capitalize on the political power one party has established in the county. I can think of at least one candidate during the last board of education contest that definitely is not “right-wing” and yet was quickly summarized as such because they simply disagreed with the status quo. Speaking of past candidates, lets address the “include people that aren’t white in photos”. HOLD UP. People who oppose the current direction of MCPS must be white? Did Adam not observe as a black woman ran for school board during the last election cycle and it was white people attacking her?
In short, his summary is a perfect outline for how a candidate can provide voters more of what we have had: individuals that seek political acceptance, willing to take whatever measures are necessary to gain acceptance. What this county needs in a candidate, whether it be school board or the county council, is an individual that is willing to present their authentic selves, have conversations on differences, realize they don’t have the answers, and know that differences (and being different) is a good thing.
We will follow up this article with a strategy we feel would be better for Montgomery County.
