Here’s Delegate Mike Pushkin, the only Jewish member of the House of Delegates, explaining the difference between an inconvenience and persecution, and why he voted against the RFRA bigotry bill:
Wait for the mic drop moment at the end.
by John Cole| 70 Comments
This post is in: Gay Rights are Human Rights, Proud to Be A Democrat
Here’s Delegate Mike Pushkin, the only Jewish member of the House of Delegates, explaining the difference between an inconvenience and persecution, and why he voted against the RFRA bigotry bill:
Wait for the mic drop moment at the end.
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[…] Via Balloon Juice: […]
Iowa Old Lady
Powerful closing line.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I want to gay marry this man. Immediately if not sooner. Thank you Cole for posting this.
Capri
Great speech!
Brachiator
Word.
Germy
our side: “I’ll try to be as nice and polite as possible. I don’t mean to offend anybody. I can always understand the opposing side’s view. You have to if you’re going to make policy; it’s about compromise.”
their side: “The president is deliberately weakening our country. We are on the side of god. There will be no compromise.”
Pat B
Very powerful testimony, disrespected by Ms. Smith behind Mr. Pushkin. I understand that work must go on, but lawmakers should probably figure out when to stop working and listen, especially when they are recorded.
? Martin
How many Jesus-fearing patriots has Obama baked in FEMA ovens? Millions. Probably billions. Don’t buy the liberal media’s lies!
Betty Cracker
Boo-yah! Nice closing line!
Germy
@Pat B:
I doubt she was working. More likely surfing the web or checking her OKCupid account.
Linnaeus
It’s interesting how some people define “persecution” as “not being able to dominate other people.”
Svensker
Piffle. Everyone knows white Christians, especially white Christian men, are the most persecuted people ever. My right wing relatives told me so and they should know, what with them collecting SS checks and disability checks and going to church and having their grandkids over for parties and shopping at the mall with their friends, I can’t tell you how horrendous their oppression is. Why, sometimes they get criticized on Facebook!
Technocrat
@Iowa Old Lady:
Yeah, that last line was inspired.
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
hry – anybody – one more time for those of us in the “sieve of a brain” stage of our lives – how to I get back to earlier pages if the arrow and numbers at the bottom of this page doesn’t work for me? i disremember the URL syntax for 2-11-16 – and I’m afraid somebody wrote something priceless while i was away -0
dr. bloor
PUSHKIN SMASH!
Sadly, the whole thing, and particularly the mic drop will be lost on those troglodytes.
DaDorq
WOW! That ending! Powerful and on point. I’m so glad we have good people like Pushkin here in Kanawha Co.
Gravie
Bravo. And legislators like Mr. Pushkin are the reason I get so pissed off when my acquaintances dismiss all politicians as useless and corrupt.
Mike J
Members of the US Republican Party asked officials in Tehran to delay a January prisoner swap until after the 2016 presidential election, an Iranian admiral told FRANCE 24 on Thursday.
dedc79
O/T – Not to often you hear about a machete attack (at least not here in the USA). Awful:
Patricia Kayden
Good for Pushkin. Even if WV still passes the pro-bigotry bill, at least he’s on record in eloquent opposition. He’s on the right side of history.
Renie
wow – wouldn’t want to be the person speaking after that who is for the bill
japa21
That may well have been the greatest and most heart rending closing line I have ever heard. And I am sure some of the other delegates were calling it theatrics.
Ohio Mom
I admit to some cognitive dissonance at the start, simply have never heard any of my co-religionists speak with that sort of accent. But that ending line, that is Jewish humor at its best. Yashir koach, Delegate Pushkin! (Roughly speaking, a combination of “Keep up the good work” and “More power to you!”
JPL
This is the religious liberty law that passed the GA House..
Clergy could not be forced to perform a same-sex wedding ceremony under legislation unanimously approved Thursday in the Georgia House……………………………………………………………………………………………….
House Bill 757, known as the Pastor Protection Act, sponsored by state Rep. Kevin Tanner, R-Dawsonville, passed 161-0 and now goes to the Senate. The bill, supported by House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, passed easily despite several Scripture-tinged speeches by lawmakers hoping it would do more.
By passing a law that’s not needed, the reps can go home and say they passed a religious liberty bill.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: This is the third time the GOP has pulled this trick. The first was via Mrs. Chenault to Henry Kissinger at the Paris Peace Negotiations on behalf of Nixon’s presidential campaign. The second was in 1980 during on behalf of Reagan’s presidential campaign. This is now the third time. The problem is no one on the Democratic side, as in no one with any influence or importance within the party, will call them out, let alone call for an investigation. So they’ll keep doing it. And American citizens will keep suffering.
Adam L Silverman
@dedc79: Actually there have been several sword attacks reported in the news media just this week. One on a convenience store where the attacker was fought off, ran down the street and tried it again. Another at a different convenience store. Defending against a knife or an attack with a weapon with a blade/sharp cutting edge/penetrating edge is worse than defending against almost any other attack. And the damage done is often very, very bad.
Adam L Silverman
I thought the Mike Huckabee hand holding line was a nice touch. Unfortunately he’s from Kanawha County, which has a long documented history of intolerance of other’s view points. He’ll be lucky if all that happens is he’s primaried or voted out of office next time.
Miss Bianca
Wow. Holy crap. I love this man.
Booger
I would be honored to have that man representing me at any level of government. And secondly, I could muster up a modicum of respect for the ignorant god-botherers if they had the balls to discriminate against all sinners as defined in the Old Testament. Adultery? No soup for you. Theft? No soup for you. Shellfish? No soup for you. You get the idea.
But for some reason it’s only when two people who aren’t P+V love each other. Because that makes babby jebus have a sad, or something.
But I’m definitely gonna remember that ‘baking v. being baked’ line. Wow.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Adam L Silverman:
I was surprised that there were synagogues in WV at all. I can’t imagine he’s respectable there.
Ohio Mom, I have a Jewish friend from GA, so that voice was not as big a shock as it could have been. My friend is Reform and his wife is Orthodox. When he was looking for a shul, a rabbi asked ” how Reform is Reform? ” When D replied “just about Southern Baptist,” the polite reply was that another shul might be more appropriate.
D58826
OT but there is a piece on huffington about the SCOTUS decision to at least temporarily block the EPA’s clean air plan. , In a nut shell if COTUS buy’s into the plaintiffs entire argument it could render the presidency powerless in dealing with domestic issues and make the regulatory state unconsititional.
We do live in interesting times.
‘http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/02/12/3748062/inside-the-most-important-supreme-court-case-in-human-history/’
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman:
Wow. “Lucky if all that happens is – ?” That sounds sinister. Are they as bad as all that? I mean, a majority of the residents of Kanawha County did actually elect him…sounds like he wouldn’t have made a secret of being Jewish, so they couldn’t have claimed they didn’t know…or is making even mild fun of WASP evangelicals enough to put him on someone’s hit list?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I can’t edit in mobile. While should be ” shul,” which my inconvenient tablet keyboard does not recognize.
The Lodger
@Ohio Mom: Ever hear Arlen Specter? He may have been a Pennsylvania senator, but his accent was straight out of Kansas.
Emperor Snapper
@Svensker:
I think a lack of perspective is a problem for a lot of people. If you pend your entire life in a situation where your religious beliefs trump everything else, including the beliefs of others, even a small erosion of that status feels like persecution. I was reading an article today about a celebrity couple who described themselves as “dead broke”. They live in a beachfront house free of charge, don’t work, and want for nothing. But they can’t go to every party or travel the world on a whim, so that is “dead broke” to them. It is really easy to develop a warped perspective on things.
D58826
@The Lodger: Kansas? He was from Philadelphia.
? Martin
@Miss Bianca:
Hard to say now, but in 1974 the residents dynamited an elementary school and shot up schoolbuses because their kids might be exposed to the Autobiography of Malcolm X.
That was a long-ass time ago, but that’s a pretty fucking unhinged reaction to a book recommendation list.
Iowa Old Lady
@? Martin: There’s a YA book I like a lot called Deadline by Chris Crutcher. A HS student in a tiny Idaho town decides that for his social studies project, he’s going to circulate a petition to rename the town’s one paved street Malcolm X Blvd. There’s no violence but it does not go well.
prob50
@? Martin: How many Jesus-fearing patriots has Obama baked in FEMA ovens?
mmmm…”Patriot Pie”…yum…but ah heah this baykuh won’t be makin none foh no gay weddings. He sez Jeezus tol’ him not to,
Kylroy
@JPL: Seriously, if it makes them feel better to pass a law that affirms what’s already true (no clergy can ever be compelled by the government to perform any ceremony of any kind), I’m fine with it.
The Lodger
@D58826: He was born in Wichita, graduated from high school in Russell, and transferred to U Penn during his college years. He never managed to sound like someone from the East Coast.
? Martin
@Iowa Old Lady: I’ll never forget the day of my son’s 7th grade open house and our introduction to the middle school. His charming young english teacher, right out of college, was asked about what books the kids would be reading and she rattled off a few titles and pointed to a shelf on the side of the room near where I was sitting. I scanned the titles and smiled. At the end of her presentation I walked up and thanked her for the reading list and mentioned that I couldn’t help but notice that every single book was on a banned book list. She leaned in and said “We just want to make sure they learned something that other people thought was too dangerous for them to learn – that’s important for young people.” I agreed.
Turns out it’s a bit of a tradition in my relatively large school district that throughout middle and high school in english and history and foreign language courses that they read controversial works. There are good things happening out there – we just don’t get Sean Hannity howling at the moon over them on national TV.
Ohio Mom
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): @The Lodger: Yes, intellectually I know there are Jews who have Southern accents but the Bronx girl in me will never get used to it. It’s similar to my continuing disbelief that tons of metal called airplanes can actually fly. I’ve seen them, I’ve ridden in them and yet on one level still think it is absolutely preposterous (this usually strikes me while boarding).
I did know there is at least one synagogue in West Virginia because years ago a friend in rabbinical school here in Cincinnati had a student pulpit there.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
All I can say is, Well done, Mr. Pushkin!
specialed5000
@Adam L Silverman: Actually, the 37th House district (where I live) is an entirely urban district, covering Charleston’s west side, downtown, and east end. Its home to Charleston’s gay bars, synagogues, trendy restaurants, art galleries, etc. It includes most of the city’s low income housing projects, and also very huge old mansions and expensive warehouse-loft condo conversions. Large black and gay populations. Some elections there isn’t even a republican candidate running. Mike essentially won in the primary (strongly) and will likely continue to for as long as he wants the seat. Unless the now-republican legislature redistricts to get rid of him.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Ohio Mom: I knew you knew, and it’s always jarring. Did not know where in OH you were. Did you know there are lots of Christmas lights in Amberley now?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@specialed5000: I read that as home to
and thought that was a really niche kind of place, so I was quite surprised there was more than one.
p.a.
I don’t care if the Dems take $ from whichever Kim is currently Caesar of N Korea, we need to win this Pres election if only for SCOTUS issues. Then we can hope for a Legionnaires outbreak at the next Federalist Convention with the Taney 4 in attendance. THEN we can worry about political infrastructure, reviving state parties etc. It’s triage time people.
KS in MA
@? Martin:
Yay for your school district!!!
Origuy
My sister works in downtown Indianapolis, across from the state capitol. She posted a couple of videos of the military funeral for former Governor Edgar Whitcomb. He was a Republican, but back in the 70s there were still Republicans who tried to make government work. He got a big military funeral, complete with cannons, because he was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines. He escaped from a POW camp, barely missing the Bataan Death March, was recaptured and escaped again, making his way to China. He wrote a book about it, Escape from Corregidor.
raven
@Origuy: My old man was part if the liberation of Corregidor or, The Return to the Rock, if you will.
Miss Bianca
@? Martin:
Oh. OH. Thanks for putting that into perspective for me.
moderateindy
What I love the most about the right wing is that they blab about the constitution constantly, but rarely seem to understand how it works in practice.
They think that they have a right to discriminate against others in matters of public affairs. In your personal life, fine. If you open a business that services the public, then you have to serve the public. You can refuse service to someone for many reasons, they were jerks, they aren’t wearing shoes, or have a regular dog with them. But you can’t normally refuse service because they are a different race, or religion, or handicapped etc.
Likewise they think the 1st ammendment gives them free speech without consequences. That’s only consequences from the gov’t. and even that is limited. If your employer sees you saying something he/she feels is bad they can fire you.
Also my favorite one that has come up in recent years is the no religous test for political candidates. Individuals can have any damn test they please. I personally would never vote for a Presbyterian, they are undoubtedly the most bigotted Xtian sect of all, followed closely by Methodists. Only the government Fed, state, and local are prohibited. Actually I’m pretty sure that even in the not too distant pass there were actually municipalities that completely ignored those rules.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: I’m sure its changed since the 80s, and John Cole would know more and better, but for a number of years issues pertaining to the separation of church and state were raw wounds there. The textbook controversy itself led to several bombings/fire bombings. The family that had first opposed the mandatory prayer in schools, a family that was itself professing Christians, was savaged and, if I’m recalling correctly, ultimately moved out of the area. There’s a documentary about the whole thing and several history and political science books and articles.
Adam L Silverman
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I’m from central Florida and sound like my Dad who was from Colorado. Largely because my from Queens Mother, also a speech pathologist, was not amused when I came home from playing with the Bobo kids (big Southern Jewish family from Macon, has both Jewish and Christian branches on the family tree, they’re Sephardim), and said “I want some piaaaaeye, please?” That neither went over well, nor lasted long as a regional dialect option.
Adam L Silverman
@specialed5000: Glad to read it. All I know of Kanawha County was the violence in the 70s and 80s regarding church/state separation issues.
Ohio Mom
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Yes, Amberley isn’t quite the same Amberley it used to be. Middle-of-the-road Jewish families used to move there, send their younger kids to the Jewish Day School (not the Orthodox one, Yavnah, the “non-denominational”one) and then on to Walnut Hills (for non-Cincinnatians, that is the entrance-examed “honors” city high school).
But now those families are likely to move to the Sycamore or Mason or other suburban districts. Mainly I think because those districts have the money to provide wide varieties of course offerings and tons of extracurricular activities.
But there are a lot of very Orthodox still in Amberley, and it looks to me as if that community is growing. I understand the new (very nondescript and ugly) shul on Section (near the old Gibson campus) has a mikvah.
What is your Cincinnati connection?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Ohio Mom: Live here (currently in Amberley, and have zero interest in any other neighborhood in the area). I vote at Isaac Wise! I hadn’t kept up with the changing community and so was surprised when we moved here. When I was growing up it was the local Boca Raton because when the higher income Jewish folks moved out of Bond Hill and Finneytown, no one would sell to them on the Hill.
My father’s first marriage essentially ended when he refused to join Camargo (where his wife wanted to socialize) because Jews were not permitted membership. She never got over it.
Cincinnati schools are a major drawback; a friend with a tiny tot declined to move to Amberley for that reason only. I think there are more Orthodox folks coming to the neighborhood, but here in the north of Galbraith/east of Ridge corner all the new folks have Xmas decorations.
Hungry Joe
My mother’s side of the family is from Kentucky, and although she hasn’t lived there since about 1940, to this day (she’s 94) I can hear an accent now and then. It makes Hebrew prayers sound … interesting.
What’s unsettling about Pushkin’s plea is that here’s a lawmaker standing up, holding a mic, and making good, solid sense — and it seems odd, unique, almost thrilling, when it should be commonplace.
Steeplejack (phone)
@reality-based (the original, not the troll):
https://balloon-juice.com/2016/02/11/
debbie
Wow! That last line! Wish it had an effect on his audience.
NotoriousJRT
This is why we can’t have nice things.
NotoriousJRT
@NotoriousJRT:
Oops. Wrong thread. That was meant for Mr. aZinger
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
@Steeplejack (phone):
thks, steeplejack
mellowjohn
a mensch.
Linda Featheringill
John, let us know when Mr. Pushkin is up for reelection and I’ll contribute to his campaign fund.
Ohio Mom
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I am just down the road in Blue Ash!
boatboy_srq
“Baking a cake is not persecution; being baked in an oven is persecution.” Effing brilliant. And naturally a) right over the wingnuts heads and/or b) what more than a few would like to do to many of us, but they’re too aware how crazy/hateful that is to say it out loud. I’m waiting for some idjit to propose legislation legalizing the stoning of
slvtsadulteresses.@Germy: That does about sum it up.
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
@Linda Featheringill: @Linda Featheringill:
me, too. Contribute to this guy, that is. John, please let us know.
More like this.
Arclite
HOLY FUCKING SHIT. He did not just go there. Wow. Six minute build up for that gut punchline.