Is Julia Salazar the Future of the Democratic Party?

Remember when the Democratic Party had all the smart people. True, many of them were posturing pseudo-intellectuals, but the word around town was that serious and deep thinkers were more likely to be Democrats. Republicans, by this calculus, were empty-headed red necked yahoos.

But, witness two days of Senate hearings about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Democratic senators could have used the occasion to engage in serious intellectual debate over serious constitutional issues. Instead, they went completely histrionic and preened for the media. Most of them seemed to have lost their minds-- if minds there were to lose-- and indulged their talent for turning serious deliberative debate into high drama and moral posturing. It was an embarrassing spectacle… one came away with the impression that these brainless wonders were doing what they knew how to do-- play to the cameras. One also came away with the sense that they were afraid to confront the notably brilliant judge on legal issues… because that would have exposed them as imposters.

Most likely, you have already been disabused of your faith in the capacious intellect of the Democratic Party by observing the antics of one Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A certifiable moron, AOC beat an incumbent Democratic Congressman in a primary election and instantly rose to the ranks of thought leader in the Democratic Party. She was not only a Democrat; she was also a socialist. And what could be more prestigious and sophisticated than being a socialist. On college campuses, that is.

Once AOC hit the television screen and faced some serious questions, she crumbled like a stale cookie. Her supporters still love her. The New York Times still labels her “poised.” But still, AOC is God’s gift to the Republican party. A witless neophyte who knows nothing she was chosen because she fits into the right intersectional categories. In this era of identity politics it doesn’t matter what you say or what you do. What matters is: who you are… that is, which ethnic, racial, gender group you belong to.

Anyway, for those who thought that Alexandria was a gift to the Republican Party, along comes Julia Salazar, an insurgent socialist candidate for the New York State Senate. Apparently, Salazar has embellished her resume. Given that she has no qualifications for office she has been treated as a serious candidate-- the future of the Democratic Party-- by august publications like New York Magazine and The New Yorker.

But now, the Tablet has drawn back the curtain on Salazar… only to discover that she is a fraud. The New York Times has drawn a similar conclusion, declaring that her resume is not merely embellished… it is filled with lies.

The Tablet explains:

She “comes from a unique Jewish background,” as The Forward put it. “She was born in Colombia, and her father was Jewish, descended from the community expelled from medieval Spain. When her family immigrated to the United States, they had little contact with the American Jewish community, struggling to establish themselves financially.” From early 2016 through May of 2017 she was a Grace Paley Organizing Fellow with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ). Her fellowship biography identified her as senior editor of Unruly, the “intersectional blog” of the anti-Zionist and pro-BDS Jewish Voice for Peace’s Jews of Color and Sephardic/Mizrahi Caucus. Her last publicly listed job before running for office was as a staff organizer for JFREJ, which is a New York-based left-wing social and activist organization—Salazar was working with the group when it decided to honor the controversial activist Linda Sarsour with one of their annual Risk-Taker Awards.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but some of these Jewish organizations are notably anti-Israeli, thus, borderline anti-Semitic. But, that’s not the problem. The problem is that Salazar has been lying:

Social media postings, various articles, and the recollections of people who knew her at Columbia University show that in her early 20s Salazar was a right-wing pro-Israel Christian. In 2012 and into 2013, she was the president of Columbia Right to Life, the campus’s leading anti-abortion group. It was a position she took seriously.

The New York Times strips away some of the lies:

A left-wing Democrat? Ms. Salazar, 27, was a registered Republican at one point, and was the leader of a Right to Life group while attending Columbia University. She also did not graduate, though her website implies that she did.

A Jewish woman? Her religious background is complicated: She was born in a Catholic family, and during college she served as president of Christians United for Israel. Ms. Salazar now identifies as Jewish, the result of a conversion she said she underwent in her early 20s.

A Colombian immigrant? Earlier this summer, Ms. Salazar said that she “immigrated to this country with my family when I was very little,” at a campaign event captured on video. Yet she was born in South Florida and lived there, largely raised by her mother, who was born in New Jersey. Her father, Luis, was a Colombian pilot who became an American citizen before Ms. Salazar was born.

Whereas AOC worked as a bartender, Salazar worked as a nanny. She has not graduated from Columbia University.

If that is not sufficient, the story gets weirder. The Tablet, and the Daily Mail, are now reporting that Salazar was arrested in 2011 for attempted to access the bank account of former Mets star, and family friend, Keith Hernandez. She was also accused of having had an affair with him.

Tablet has the story:

Julia Salazar, the Democratic Socialist candidate running for New York state Senate, was arrested in 2011 on allegations of fraudulently attempting to access the bank account of Kai Hernandez, a family friend and then-wife of baseball star Keith Hernandez. The incident is chronicled in police reports, court records, and audio files, all of which have been obtained by Tablet. The key evidence: phone call recordings made by UBS Bank of an individual posing as Ms. Hernandez in an effort to access her account. Despite the arrest, she was ultimately not charged.

On Dec. 14, 2010, after being played the recordings by her banker, Kai Hernandez said she recognized Salazar as the voice on the phone and subsequently filed a police report. Charles Weinblatt, the Tequesta, Florida, Police Department detective assigned to the case, interviewed Salazar on March 23, 2011, and immediately identified her as the speaker on the calls, placing her under arrest. This week, he reaffirmed his conclusion that Salazar was the perpetrator, in an interview with Tablet.

So, Salazar got away with it. No harm done.

But, for former Mrs. Hernandez accused Salazar of being a thief. The Daily Mail has this part of the story:

His ex-wife Kai Hernandez told police in 2010 that Salazar had stolen $11,800 in cash, $1,175 in Pottery Barn vouchers and $950 worth of wine while house-sitting for her in Jupiter, Florida.

We will see whether Democratic voters can resist someone who is such an obvious fraud. The moral of the story is: when you choose candidates according to the principles of identity politics,  you will find yourself with candidates who are ignorant, incompetent posers.