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Larry Elder’s Political Rise Is a Mess Gavin Newsom Needs to Clean Up
California Democrats have only themselves for blame for a tightening gubernatorial race they could lose to a terrible successor
Larry Elder is the kind of person I try to forget even exists despite his being a menace for as long as I’ve been alive.
Some are only recently learning Elder’s name in light of the growing national attention he’s garnering as the leading Republican to serve as the alternative to California Gov. Gavin Newsom in his looming recall election in September, but for decades now, the Black conservative commentator has made a name for himself in select circles for more or less being a Black parrot of white supremacy. I imagine Elder would vehemently object to that description of his schtick, but it’s better to be blunt and succinct when describing a horrible human being.
First, there are his thoughts on women.
In a book published in 2001, Elder argued that “smart” women would ignore being harassed at work. “Smart women simply overlook some boorish behavior by men,” he reportedly wrote. “Off-color jokes and stupid remarks may be irritating, but a smart woman deals with this. She makes it clear to the speaker that she finds the remark unfunny and inappropriate.”
Elder also believes that employers have the right to discriminate against working mothers, describing it as “protecting an investment.”
“Are there legitimate business reasons for a venture capitalist to ask a female entrepreneur whether and when she intends to have children?” Elder asked in a separate book titled Showdown: Confronting Bias, Lies and the Special Interests that Divide America, published in 2012. “Hell, yes.”
In that same book, Elder disparages a high school girl for suggesting that a glass ceiling still exists for women, adding that pregnancy and motherhood are “incompatible with the demands of running a state” government. “To tell women they can run a state, have family and children, and be equally attentive to all — is a lie.”
Elder once called the Roe vs. Wade ruling “one of the worst decisions that the Supreme Court ever handed down,” describing abortion…
