Love and elected office

Right now it seems the entire world is against Christina Corpus who is about to lose her job as sheriff of San Mateo County. Because she allegedly abused her power in promoting her boyfriend and retaliated against those who accused her.

No one talks about love. It’s not an excuse, not a legitimate one. It’s not a Romeo and Juliet tragedy.  Or an Abelard and Eloise tragedy. Or even a Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky soap opera. It’s worse. It’s unforgivable. She can’t use love as an excuse. She did something stupid and will have to give up her job as a result. She has disappointed the many women who backed her election over the male incumbent.  She did what a woman is not supposed to do. Fall in love with the wrong guy.

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I was an elected official for more than 35 years. Did any of my colleagues fall in love? Yes, two members of the San Mateo-Foster City School District fell in love. They lived in Foster City and she didn’t drive. It was during carpooling to meetings that they fell in love. I believe they married and live happily after.

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In the mail was a big envelope from the Disabled Veterans of America asking for contributions. Inside was a tote bag and a large T-shirt. The T-shirt says “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.” But inside it says “Made in China.”

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Everyone or almost everyone is glad the election is over. Many were surprised at the results. But so far, no woman has successfully won a presidential election.

Maybe the Democrats didn’t pick a candidate who could defeat Donald Trump. This time or the time before. Now that Republicans have swept the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Democrats are doing a lot of handwringing.

Some are saying that working-class and moderate voters felt neglected by the party’s progressive agenda. Trump “played to the irritation of many Americans disgusted at being regarded as insensitive for talking the way they always talked.”

But several prominent commentators have urged them to fight back. 

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd argued that working-class and moderate voters felt neglected by the party’s progressive agenda and campus-style activism. She quoted James Carville who told her the party had “become enamored of ‘identitarianism’ — a word he uses because he won’t say ‘woke’ — radiating the repellent idea that ‘identity is more important than humanity.'”

The party should instead focus on reconnecting with rural and working-class Americans to regain their traditional base. The Democrats have a strong field for the fight four years from now.

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Trump’s recent Cabinet appointments are in many cases strange if not unusual. There is the appointment for head of Health and Human Services, vaccine hater Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who supposedly had a dead worm in his brain. And the attorney general appointee

Matt Gaetz who left Congress before a congressional report detailing his bad behavior became public. He wants to abolish the FBI. And so it goes.

Meanwhile they are still counting ballots for Bob Casey, a Democrat, in Pennsylvania. I have been obsessed with this particular election. I don’t know Bob Casey, but he seems like such a nice guy. He is a conservative in a fairly liberal state.

If you are a Democrat, it’s comfortable living in San Mateo County. You are sure your candidate will win. But it won’t always be this way. The Republicans will have their turn as they did several decades ago. 

Sue Lempert is the former mayor of San Mateo. Her column runs Mondays. She can be reached at sue@smdailyjournal.com.