I hear you, Lauren Johnson-Norris
A pretty fair criticism from the executive vice chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County
A friend told me the executive vice chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County “ripped into” me on Facebook.
“Really?” I replied.
He proceeded to (kindly) forward me the letter, which was a reaction to this post, headlined, KATRINA FOLEY WILL LIVE ON. It was written by Lauren Johnson-Norris, a person I’ve yet to meet [To her credit, she also e-mailed me the note. I’d missed it—my bad].
Here you go …
And, of course, we live in this era fueled by rage and backlash, where I’m supposed to rip into Johnson-Norris and defend everything I wrote and growl and bark and shoot little snot sparks from my nostrils.
But, well, I think it’s a good letter.
I really do. As I’ve written about more than once, women do (factually) get the short end of the political stick. A toad like Trump can bark and slam and insult—and he’s tough and rugged. A supernova like Hillary Clinton can appear cold—and she’s impersonal, rude, offputting. Fuck, all you have to do is look at the California gubernatorial race, where Katie Porter lost the day she was caught behaving in the manner of 100 million male CEOs before her. Those guys receive promotions. She plummets in the polls.
So, yes, it sucks. No diggity, no doubt.
That being said, I will make a strictly political point: Johnson-Norris writes, “The most telling aspect of your piece is that competence alone does not appear to be enough.” And … well … eh … um … yeah. It’s not. It should be, obviously. Like, Foley-Dixon shouldn’t even be close. But the reality is, most voters don’t pay attention to the nitty gritty. Katrina Foley apparently distributed $50,000 in business recovery grants to local restaurants. She pushed to build a new Fire Station 1 on Royal Palm. On and on and on. Her list of accomplishments are long and impressive. But the depressing-as-fuck reality is, the vast majority of voters will never know. They’ll see her mailing, maybe catch a commercial, perhaps meet her once at the OC County Fair. People form incredibly quick impressions, and—like all of us—those impressions are generally banal and vapid. She remembered my name. He talked to be about the Angels. She was eating a candy apple. Do women get this worse than men? 100,000,000 percent. It’s not even close. Again, it sucks.
But I don’t operate this website in a bubble. Katrina Foley does not come off particularly warm. It doesn’t make her (at all) a poor supervisor, but it does (in my opinion) impact a local campaign, where handshakes and nods and small rallies matter. As I noted in the original post, my first time seeing Katrina Foley on the campaign train was pretty … awkward. That doesn’t make her bad at her job. But part of this job (sadly) is exposure to voters. Positive exposure. Warm exposure.
It sucks. It’s not cool. I feel Lauren Johnson-Norris’s frustration, and I share it. I’m gonna think a lot about her letter, and my own biases.
And, of course, I’m gonna vote for Katrina Foley.
Lauren is right. Thank you for acknowledging what she wrote — we’re all working on being better, you perhaps more than most. If Katrina were a man, I doubt you’d be inferring she think about adopting a more grandmotherly vibe. I remember introducing Katrina at a Central OC Dems meeting once as a warrior goddess. Had I been completely genuine and authentic, I would have said what I was really thinking, which is she is a FUCKING WARRIOR GODDESS.
Unfortunately campaigning and governing are different skill sets. (As are getting a job and performing any job). I read the original post as a criticism of Foley’s campaigning so she can continue to govern.