Meet Wisconsin Progressive Mark Neumann
Conservative Democrat Ron Kind is retiring. That's a good thing. His western Wisconsin seat has an R+9 partisan lean. Trump beat Biden there 51.5% to 46.8%, quite the turnaround from 2012, when Obama beat Romney by 11 points! Last cycle, Kind barely survived a challenge by Trumpist, Derrick Van Orden— 199,870 (51.3%) to 189,542 (48.6%). And Van Orden is running again. There are 4 Dems competing for their party’s nomination: 3 establishment candidates Rebecca Cooke, Deb McGrath, state Sen. Brad Pfaff (the Kind-endorsed conservative) and one non-establishment candidate, La Crosse City Councilman Mark Neumann, the progressive in the race who is primarily running on Medicare-for-All (he’s also a pediatrician).
If one of the 3 establishment candidates wins the nomination, Van Orden will be the next congressman from this swing district. Why? Because this is a cycle where a real Republican will beat a Republican-lite Democrat in a walk. The only candidate offering a real alternative to what Van Orden is offering in Neumann. I’d like to ask you to consider contributing to his campaign here. Why Mark? Take a look at this e-mail he sent to his supporters today; it’s not exactly the kind of e-mail the DCCC or any of the Beltway consultants suggest candidates send out— but it helps you understand the kind of person you’d be supporting, far more so than the purveyors of the standard e-mail programs want anyone to understand!
Personal Identity Is Only Ours To Own
-by Mark Neumann
From first breath to last, we discover our personal identity throughout life. We learn more about who we are as individuals every day. We discover our physical selves, our spiritual selves, our sexual selves and our gender selves.
This is engaging work throughout life. Never fixed, our identities grow and evolve but always remain our own.
This work can be scary. We might discover that our true self is not the person that we think others expect us to be. This is why we need safe places to make discoveries about who we really are. We do this within trusted and loving relationships. But we also need the public protection of our individual privacy.
When SCOTUS says that there is no right to privacy being protected within our nation's Constitution, then I say there can be no right to the pursuit of happiness and wellbeing. SCOTUS fails us again when it doesn't protect our personal sovereignty over our individual identity and our right to privacy.
Denying A Person’s Privacy Is An Abuse Of Power
Let's be clear, our personal identities are something that we discover. They are not things that we choose.
We are born with physical characteristics that are outwardly obvious to others. We have internal characteristics as well. These are emotional, sexual and spiritual characteristics that are not as easily seen to the outside.
Internal characteristics relating to gender identity and sexual orientation are no less real than the color of our eyes or the curl of our hair.
Whenever we use power to inflict physical injury on another, we are guilty of assault. We are no less guilty when we misuse power to inflict shame or disrespect on another's non-physical identity.
LGBTQ rights may not be explicit for our current Supreme Court Justices, but in the real world where we all live, our right to privacy and our right to protection of our identities are very real.
We have a right to pursue happiness and to be treated fairly. The abuse of gender identity and sexual orientation can never be tolerated by people who believe in freedom and fairness.
Justice and respect for our individual dignity protects are right to privacy that the state can never deprive us of.
you can censor my writing of the truth. but you cannot censor the truth... that there exists no more RIGHT to privacy. Some are afforded the privilege because it amuses the money's government... or they just haven't gotten around to abrogating it yet.
but there is no RIGHT. and 2022 won't change that at all.
full stop.