Hall of Shame – May 15, 2020

This was quite a week at Howard County Progress Report, as my piece published Monday that exposed BOE D3 candidate Gian Alfeo’s hateful Facebook postings reached over 7.1k views, caught the attention of the Howard County Muslim Council and The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and resulted in Mr. Alfeo withdrawing from the race, as reported by the Baltimore Sun yesterday.

As I read the Baltimore Sun article, I became confused toward the end, when they quoted the Howard County Republican Club (HCRC) on Thursday as saying Mr. Alfeo’s actions were “indefensible” and that the club does not “condone what Gian Alfeo has done or said.” My confusion stemmed from the fact that the first statement I saw from the HCRC, on Wednesday, was quite different, attacking progressives for “pulverizing” Mr. Alfeo and for promoting equity for African-American, Hispanic, and other under-served student populations.

Well. That’s nice.

My takeaway from this is that the Howard County Republican Club is far more concerned with their own victimhood at having one of their preferred candidates exposed for xenophobic and misogynistic posts than they are about the xenophobia and misogyny itself. The HCRC’s “indefensible,” “does not condone” statement quoted by the Sun, after all, was buried in their indignant complaint that the Howard County Democratic Party had criticized the HCRC for its defense of Mr. Alfeo after the exposé was published.

The Howard County Republican Club’s “this is not an endorsement” endorsement of Gian Alfeo and other right-leaning candidates in the BOE race who “share their conservative values.”

While we’re on the subject of statements, I noticed a pattern that took shape once my post went live. Of the candidates the HCRC “this is not an endorsement” endorsed (see infographic above), only one made any kind of statement condemning the hate speech posted by Mr. Alfeo. The one that did, Sezin Palmer, made a statement that came with such a heaping dose of both-sides-ism and “Be Best” platitudes that by the end, I’d forgotten what she was condemning.

Given the crickets coming from the rest of the Republican-backed candidates, it sure makes me wonder what “conservative values” the HCRC thinks their preferred candidates espouse.