A Call for Leadership

Over the past week we heard from many great Americans at the Republican National Convention. The personal stories of success and rising up above the odds have been remarkable.

During the convention we heard speeches from the first African American woman to become Secretary of State, the nation’s first Latina governor, and the two gentlemen who seek to lead our country through a difficult economic time.

Conventions are a time to take a look at the qualities candidates and elected officials are offering the country. The opposition party is usually content to lay low while the other side has their week in the spotlight with little or no interference. Pundits and campaign staffs for both sides are usually pretty generous. 

After the closing of the convention last evening, Keith Ellison’s staff took to Twitter to attack convention supporters using Ellison’s Twitter account. This is the story we are being told by Keith Ellison.  

The Tweet—“Nothing like an 80’s coke addicted James Brown to close out the GOP convention”—shocked no one. It shocked no one because earlier this year the Congressman also Re-Tweeted that Mitt Romney was a “heartless D-Bag who hates animals and small children.” 

These types of comments stun no one because people have become so used to Keith Ellison tossing rhetorical grenades and using toxic language that is unbecoming of an elected official. They are also used to Ellison saying one thing and doing another. On multiple occasions Congressman Ellison has called for civility in politics. He has failed to live up to his own call. Here are a couple more examples of Ellison’s special brand of “civility”:

“This is an era of extremism. These same people that want to shrink government so that you can drown in the bathtub also want mom to get back into the kitchen and take her shoes off and get pregnant. You understand? And here’s the sad part some of them are women themselves: Michele Bachman is a good example.”
- Speech to Campus Progressives

"It looks like the Republican caucus somehow thinks that going after Muslims is a good thing."
- MSNBC, The Martin Bashir Show

“[The Supreme Court] is a wholly owned subsidiary of the right.”
– Washington Examiner

The people Ellison supports have also adopted his “civil tone.” Keith Ellison appeared in a video in support of Former Congressman Alan Grayson’s effort to return to the Congress. Grayson is most famous for his view of the Republican plan for healthcare. Grayson said on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives that the Republican plan for health was for Americans to “drop dead”. Keith Ellison wants that guy back in office? It should be noted that Grayson wants to be in office so bad that while speeding on his way to a fundraiser he hit a pedestrian. No word yet on whether Ellison wants him back in Washington after that. 

When it comes to Keith Ellison he always says one thing and does another.  He sets a bad example and continually adds toxic rhetoric to the political discourse.  It’s always “us versus them” and “win at all costs.”  That is the political culture he promotes and why he will never be part of solutions that move us forward. 

No one in his office will be fired over this because he doesn’t believe in accountability. He has set such a bad example no one is outraged this incident occurred. 

Our economy is in crisis. We have record unemployment. We are experiencing the worst recovery since the depression. 

We need leaders who can step up to answer history’s call. One political party didn’t cause our problems and one political party will not solve them. 

We need to come together as Democrats, Republicans and Independents to find solutions for the important issues we face.

Small minds produce malicious tweets. Leaders work together to produce big solutions.

*Editor's note: Two of the bulleted quotes were differently worded and attributed to different sources in the original published version of this blog post. The MSNBC quote was simply attributed to an MSNBC interview, with no link, and the quote itself was substantially different in wording if not in meaning. The Washington Examiner quote carried a different linked citation to a Huffington Post column by Rep. Ellison that did not include the quote, and the quote itself was slightly different than the one that now appears here.