Crossposted...

 Wrote my first personal essay that wasn't an op-ed in a long time...put a sample up in DW.

sample from my essay

Thoughts on Cori Bush's "The Frontrunner"

Cori Bush has seen a lot of life.  Especially, the tough side, which makes her recent primary loss kind of a tough blow for working-class people that don't get much representation in Congress as it currently stands(and I'd think that even if her giving a shoutout at the end of her book to "people with disabilities, denied access" wasn't so novel as to be practically revolutionary in political memoir. Ordinary people need to be able to run for office so that we have a chance at a government not slanted toward the interests of the wealthy and powerful.

Most political memoirs are cleaner(Always showing the candidate as born making the right decisions, although she did stand up for Palestinians before a lot of people would, and if I had bought this book when it came out instead of this year, I might have found the connection of Gaza and police violence in places like Ferguson to be a bold claim indeed). Sad that it took further atrocities to "make it make sense"

Most memoirs of successful women do not share them struggling to break away from controlling and abusive partners. Given how much Americans like happy talk, I bet someone asked her to cut some of those things but I'm glad she didn't, although it did sometimes make for a harrowing read, especially compared to housing policy or The Green New Deal and the like. Even though the things she survived aren't the same as what I have survived, maybe it's still good to keep in mind that not every effective person is following some path she laid down at 22.