Caitlyn Jenner for Governor
It’s Not About Winning. It’s About Exposing Hypocrisy and Partisanship
Those of a certain age will remember the legendary 1976 US Olympic exploits of decathlete Bruce Jenner. I was reminded of them on a recent trip to the new US Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs, a must-visit for anyone visiting that terrific city. Both the US Olympic Committee and training center are located there.
Bruce - now Caitlyn, perhaps the world’s best known transgender person, and clearly a trailblazer - mesmerized the world with his Gold Medal in perhaps its toughest competition at that year’s summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec. He went from being featured on a box of Wheaties cereal to the cover of Vanity Fair magazine several years later, from his athleticism to his transgenderism. His-now-her ‘76 performance and accomplishment is an obvious feature at the new museum. Deservedly so.
Now Caitlyn Jenner, some 45 years later, aspires to reprise that famous athletic performance for a political one - a candidacy in the upcoming recall election as the next Governor of California, hoping to succeed another Democratic failure, Gavin Newsom. I think she would be an improvement. So would anyone in the Bakersfield phone book.
California elections, especially recall elections, are always entertaining. The last one, in 2003, gave us actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. I recall visiting San Francisco with my family that year and picking up a couple of “terminator” t-shirts for my young boys, ages 9 and 13 at the time. Schwarzenegger would of course win that election, replacing Democrat Grey Davis. Schwarzenegger’s administration was entertaining but largely forgettable now under the shadow of California’s rapidly accelerating decline and a more memorable post-gubernatorial scandal.
This one may even be more entertaining, but for very different reasons. Yes, another celebrity is entering the race (with Kardashian connections). Not quite with the macho persona of “Ahnold,” but we’re so out of that era. The entertainment value will be watching woke progressives squirm at the conflict of embracing a transgender legend, a Republican. Jenner not only spoke at the 2016 GOP convention but endorsed Donald Trump for President (since regretted), and is now running for Governor.
After all, Democratic activists love to smear Republicans who run against or oppose transgendered candidates, or nominees to high-level federal positions, as guilty of intolerant, bigoted, and “transphobic.” And it’s obviously not limited to - or perhaps not really about - transgender candidates and officials. It’s about court decisions, legislation, and other cultural activities - even if it means undermining women’s sports and invasions of privacy, even assault.
Sometimes Republicans fall into the cultural trap of making transgenderism of candidates and nominees an issue in a disrespectful, mocking, and even dehumanizing way. We saw it in a 2017 state legislative race in Virginia when transgender Democrat Danica Roem impressively unseated 26-year incumbent Republican Bob Marshall in the state House of Delegates. Roem was reelected two years later, and is favored to win a third term this fall against Christopher Jones, 40, a US Space Force guardsman.
We saw it again in Pennsylvania when the Governor Tom Wolf and his transgender Secretary of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine, rolled out one of the most incompetent and even corrupt COVID responses in the nation. Some politically insensitive clowns in Pennsylvania mocked Levine after an obscure rural fair put a Levine impersonator on a dunk tank. Sure enough, the lefty Governor and the obsequious Pennsylvania media dutifully pounced and turned Dr. Levine into a victim.
Now, Dr. Levine has been confirmed by the US Senate Assistant Secretary of Health for Policy, the nation’s highest ranking transgender public official. So we’re told. Repeatedly. Repeat it. Word for word. Again.
So, if the LGBTQ+ community fails to support Caitlyn Jenner - and they’re not, it seems - what are we make of that? Did you think this was about normalizing trans people in society and knocking down barriers to their advancement? After all, Jenner says she is very supportive of her “community.” Why is this not being reciprocated?
We already know the answer. Transgender candidates are often being promoted and used to advance another agenda, and it’s partisan. It would be one thing if this were about obtaining legal rights (without denying constitutional rights to others) or even social acceptance in a genuinely respectful and tolerant multicultural environment. That would be fine, especially among Americans who see our culture as “live and let live.” That was certainly true in William Pitt’s Pennsylvania of the 18th Century, when Puritans and other religious sects (including Amish, who still grace much of the Commonwealth) lived peacefully along side Quakers and even Royalist Anglicans, some of whom opposed separating from George III and cheered invading British Armies on the streets of Philadelphia after the Battle of Brandywine in 1777. They all (well, many, at least the Quaker Penn) came to America for religious and political freedom. I guess we’ve now “progressed” to sexual “freedom.” I wonder what our framers would think.
But it increasingly seems much more about marginalizing if not destroying traditional religious views of sexual behavior and biology, and especially those who hold them. Especially Republicans. There appears to be no room for disagreement or debate. Your personal and religious practices, even your right of association, do not matter to many. Just ask Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cake shop. And others. It’s partisan.
Of course, not all ascribe to that. I think a great many in the LGBTQ+ community ultimately do not. I know of those who don’t. But the noisy and most active ones certainly do, and they’re not taking prisoners. Take Pennsylvania St. Rep. Brian Sims (D-Philadelphia), a leading gay advocate in the legislature, for example.
City of Brotherly Love, indeed. Now, Rep. Sims is seeking the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor in 2022. Meanwhile, about Philadelphia’s ‘soaring diversity,’ Christine Flowers has some observations about their progressive governance. Seems they have bigger issues than diversity and inclusion. Seems the only thing Philadelphia’s mayor, city council, and prosecutor tolerate is crime. Lots of it. Woke!
When they tell you who they are, believe them. And remember, you’re the one being “intolerant” or “bigoted.” You’re the oppressor and exploiter. Not them. They are victims, and they are out for revenge, or as they call it, “justice.” It doesn’t matter if you view and treat transgender people with respect, even sympathy and friendship; agree to use their preferred gender pronoun (perhaps limited to he or she, since many of us are Matthew 19:3-5 and 1 Peter 3:15 Christians); and recognize gender dysphoria as a genuine psychological challenge for a small percentage of the population. It’s about a bigger agenda. At any cost. Even exploiting children.
Oh, and here’s Vice President Mike Pence swearing in then-Ambassador Ric Grinnell - who would later serve as Director of National Intelligence and the nation’s first openly gay Cabinet member - as Ambassador to Germany, with his partner holding a Bible. Grinnell is also a potential candidate for Governor of California. As a Republican. Back at you, Rep. Sims. Finger for finger.
Yes, I get it. For decades, people with same-sex attractions were shamed and shunned, even considered national security risks, and much worse. Those days are behind us. At least in the United States. In Iran or Saudi Arabia, and about 5 dozen other countries, not so much. Maybe aspiring Lt. Gov. Sims could redirect his finger at Iran. Perhaps he could visit there and enlighten them on the errors of their ways. I’ll pay for the flight, at least one way. Meanwhile, here’s a photo of what happens to people who are caught being gay in Iran (viewer advisory). The view of transgenderism in Iran is also quite different than the US.
Matt Purple from Spectator USA has the correct take on Jenner’s political outlook and candidacy:
Ultimately the odds of Newsom being recalled from office are very slim. A majority of voters say they want him to stay, and there are far fewer registered Republicans in California now than there were in 2003. Therein a second reason to support Jenner. If the GOP is going to lose, they may as well make the woke squirm as much as possible on the way down. And no one is better positioned to inflame the space between left-wing identity politics and reality than is Jenner.
Jenner, after all, isn’t just trans, but the most recognizable trans woman on earth. Yet she’s also a longtime Republican. For normal people, that’s hardly difficult to comprehend: sometimes those whose causes you support disagree with you on other matters. But for the hateful fanatics currently at the helm of the political left, dissent is not to be tolerated. Trans lives matter — so long as they don’t go questioning the Green New Deal or abortion on demand or stimulus spending or mask mandates or the bingeworthiness of Bridgerton. The California recall is threatening to pit Caitlyn Jenner, a trans Republican, against the whitest liberal this side of a Carnegie Hill Black Lives Matter meeting. That’s going to set off coast-to-coast woke aneurysms to the tune of the 1812 Overture. And I am so here for it.
The ability of any of the candidates, Democrat or Republican, to break through the media clutter will require some major funding and great messaging in America’s most populous state. I have no idea whether Jenner has money or not. There are other candidates, like former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and other Republicans with a head start. We’ll see.
But for me, while not a Californian, I applaud Jenner’s entry into the race. Don’t count on me making a financial contribution, but I’ll look forward to her removing the mask off the left and the most extreme elements of the LGBTQ+ community and letting us know why they really are.
Actually, I think we already know.