Joe Sestak, a liberal Democrat with a commitment to social and
economic justice, is a slow learner.
It’s isn’t because he’s dumb—he graduated second in his class of
900 midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, one of the most rigorous colleges in
the country; a decade later, he earned a Ph.D. in political economics from
Harvard.
It isn’t because he doesn’t have reasoning ability—as a Naval captain,
he was director of defense on the National Security Council under President Bill
Clinton; as a rear admiral, he commanded a carrier battle group; as
vice-admiral, he was the deputy chief of naval operations, with a specialty in
warfare strategy.
No, Joe Sestak certainly isn’t a slow learner when it comes to
knowledge, reasoning ability, fighting for social justice, and helping people.
The reason Joe Sestak is a slow learner is because he hasn’t
learned to accept the floating rules of the political machine. He believes
people in power should be able to justify their decisions, and he has a healthy
attitude that dictates he should question authority when necessary. As a
three-star flag officer, he listened to his staff and supported the thousands
of enlisted personnel under his command, but he challenged those entombed within
their own tunnel vision. Adm. Mike Mullen, the new chief of naval operations
(CNO), with deep allegiance to defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President
George W. Bush, didn’t like his deputy chief suggesting that it was possible to
tighten the budget without affecting naval efficiency and preparedness. Adm.
Vern Clark, the previous CNO, explained why Sestak was quickly reassigned:
“[He] challenged people
who did not want to be challenged. The guy is courageous, a patriot’s patriot.”
When Sestak’s daughter developed a brain tumor, he retired from the Navy to
help care for her—and to fight for better health care for all people, not just
those privileged to have as good a health plan as he did.
When Sestak
first decided to run for Congress in 2006, hoping to give better representation
than the 10-term incumbent Republican to a Philadelphia suburban district, the Democratic
party establishment said he needed the approval of the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee (DCCC), a group he didn’t even know existed. Rahn Emmanuel,
the head of the DCCC, who would become Barack Obama’s chief of staff, explained
that the retired vice-admiral with a Ph.D. wasn’t ready for such a run, and
that he had no chance to win in a heavily conservative suburban district.
Sestak didn’t listen, infuriated the establishment, and won the election with a
56 percent majority against an incumbent. Two years later, he won re-election
with 59.6 percent of the vote.
In the first of his two terms as a congressman from a
Philadelphia suburb, Sestak sponsored more significant legislation than any
other member. Unlike many members of Congress, Sestak read and responded to all
communications from his constituents, dealing with more than 10,000 items,
about four times more than the average member of Congress.
While in Congress, he burnished his concern for social justice
and liberal issues. He was a strong supporter of health care reform, the
environment, and labor. He pushed for a better tax code that would help the
middle class and close holes that benefitted corporations and the wealthy. He
spoke out for improvements in public education, preservation of the
environment, and reasonable gun control. A Catholic, Sestak spoke against
evangelical and Catholic dogma by defending a woman’s right to choose, and for
the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders. He opposed the
Defense of Marriage Act, and had previously upset many in the military by
opposing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that modified but still extended
the ban on gays and lesbians from openly acknowledging and practicing their
sexual preferences. He was also at the forefront of an investigation of
anti-gay hazing within the military. He had a higher-than-average staff
turnover because he pushed them hard and gave them little free time. But, he pushed
himself even harder, not because of political ambition but because he wanted to
help his constituents.
Near the end of his first term in Congress, Sestak appeared on
“The Colbert Report,” infuriating the party’s leaders who had decreed that no freshmen
Democrats in Congress should appear on the late-night satire.
In 2009, Arlen Specter, a moderate Republican who had served 30
years in the Senate, frustrated at the takeover of the party by right-wing extremists,
and the probability he would lose to the far-right conservative Pat Toomey in
the Republican primary, became a Democrat. The Democratic establishment
embraced the popular senator. Joe Sestak didn’t listen to the party elders and
entered the primary. The establishment, represented by Gov. Ed Rendell,
President Obama, and the Democratic National Committee, raised money for
Specter and tried to lure Sestak from running by extending alternative
possibilities. Sestak didn’t listen, won the primary, and alienated the party’s
political leaders, many of whom did little to help him in the general election.
Corporations and PACs gave Toomey a 3-to-1 spending edge over Sestak, who lost
by only 80,000 votes out of about four million cast.
Less than six years later, the slow-learning Sestak thought he
had a chance to take the Democratic nomination and defeat Toomey in the general
election. For more than a year, Sestak maintained an all-out campaign for the nomination. As in his previous
Senatorial race, he went to every one of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, spoke to Democratic
clubs, visited political gatherings, and filled most of his days listening to
the people and discussing the critical issues that affected them. When it
appeared that Sestak could again become the party’s nominee, the establishment
panicked, and desperately tried to find someone—anyone—who could defeat the man
who wouldn’t play the game by the rules the “good ole boys” wanted.
The machine selected Katie McGinty, who had run for—and lost—the
election for governor in 2014, and then became the new governor’s chief of
staff. Her beliefs and views were not as liberal as Sestak’s but, more
important, she was loyal to the party’s functionaries, especially Ed Rendell,
for whom she had been secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. Unlike
Sestak who opposed fracking, McGinty, who was now working with energy
companies, didn’t want a moratorium on a practice that had been proven to cause
health and environmental problems.
McGinty, who had trailed Sestak most of the campaign, won the
primary, defeating not just Sestak but also Braddock, Pa., Mayor
John Fetterman, a liberal and community activist who, like Sestak, was unafraid
to speak out for social justice and protection of the environment.
McGinty, who will receive massive financial and staff
support from the Democratic National Committee, may not be able to defeat
Toomey in the general election. However, one reality emerged from this primary
race: Joe Sestak, the retired admiral with a Ph.D. and a strong social
conscience, is a slow learner. Once again, he didn’t do what the political
machine said he should do and, once again, he lost.
Maybe, it’s time for more politicians to be “slow learners” and
not bow to the dictates of a machine greased by money from special interests.
[Dr. Brasch is an
award-winning journalist, multi-media writer-producer, and professor emeritus
of mass communications from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.
His latest book is Fracking America: Sacrificing Health and the Environment for
Short-Term Economic Benefit.]
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