When millionaire Republicans run…
Terri Lynn Land has emerged from her self-imposed exile where she isn’t required to answer any questions to speak with the voters of Michigan through a YouTube video where she isn’t required to answer any questions. The last thing Land wants is to have to answer hard questions or take firm positions. If you want to see a case study in avoiding taking a meaningful position on the big issues of the day, read this Politico piece which has a very rare interview with Land. She manages to evade nearly every question she’s asked.
The Michigan Democratic Party has been hounding Land for months now for not holding any public events. Referring to a Detroit News piece today describing Land as “keeping a low profile”, MDP’s Communications Director Joshua Pugh said, “Let’s just call former RNC Committeewoman Land’s ‘low profile’ what it is – a complete and utter failure to answer the tough questions about her abysmal record as Secretary of State or about her bizarre U.S. Senate campaign that thinks her millions and dark money can do all the talking. The only thing former RNC Committeewoman Land has succeeded in doing over the past 8 months is set a record low point for what merits running for U.S. Senate in Michigan, and it’s unacceptable.”
The new video’s tagline is “One of Us”. I suppose Terri Lynn Land is “one of us” if by “us” you mean super wealthy people. She and her husband are millionaires, notwithstanding the pictures of her washing dishes as a child like the one used on her website and in the video. She’s put nearly $2 million of her own money into her Senate race already and we still have seven months to go.
Here’s the video:
The irony is that she’s portraying herself as being some sort of centrist who will “listen” and “be a voice” for Michiganders, cutting through the divisive politics of Washington, D.C. at the same time she supports some of the most ideologically extreme positions and people you’ll ever find (though never with any specifics, of course.) For example, in the video she talks about “Obamacare”, saying we need to “repeal it” and “defund it”. In typical nebulous Land fashion, she doesn’t go so far as to tell us what that she’s going to replace it with, however, once she has thrown kids off their parents’ insurance and denied all the millions of people health insurance who have it for the first time thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
Now that she’s running for Senate, if she’s not parroting the Ted Cruz mantra of “defund and repeal Obamacare”, Land is standing by Dave Agema until the 11th hour and 59th minute. Even when she finally suggested he step down from the RNC, it was because he was hurting the Republicans’ chances, not because he’s an odious and reprehensible bigot.
If there’s an extremist tea party position to take or tea partier to defend, expect to find Terri Lynn Land there taking it and defending them.
Do not be fooled by Terri Lynn Land’s latest video. She’s not a centrist and she will only continue to do what she’s been doing since entering the Senate race: widening the political divide and adding to the divisive rhetoric.
When you can actually get her to say anything at all in public, that is.
