I want to offer a different take on the "fails to qualify" headlines at Axios and elsewhere today. Julián Castro didn’t fail to do a damn thing. It’s true that he will not be on that stage. I’m not here to deny nor bemoan that fact. This is not sour grapes. The DNC set the rules and the benchmarks were not met. I get that.
My problem is with the concept that this campaign has “failed” to do anything because I strongly believe in the things that is has succeeded in doing. Julián Castro has succeeded in bringing issues that should be part of this party’s core mantra to wider attention.
- Things like eliminating the law that allows this administration to separate families and place kids in cages where they are subjected to malnutrition, disease, and abuse at the hands of their “guards”.
- Things like the epidemic of police violence in our communities and the murder of our fellow citizens by police bullets. People like Atatiana Jefferson, Tamir Rice, Eric Logan, Willie McCoy, Jimmy Atchison, Botham Jean, Jordan Baker, Dontre Hamilton, Eric Garner, and too many more to name.
- Things like Reproductive Justice not only for cis women but for trans men as well.
- Things like lead contamination in our water systems and our homes.
- Things like highlighting the intersectionality of poverty and climate change by addressing both.
- Things like mental illness, homelessness, disability rights, and the rise of White Nationalism
Things that other campaigns gave lip service to, adopted as their own, or ignored altogether.
Audre Lorde once said “there is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”
Julián Castro toured the tunnels beneath Las Vegas where homeless are congregating. Julián Castro visited the DC jail to meet with inmates. Julián Castro traveled to Matamoros Mexico to meet with asylum seekers. Julián Castro walked with a Honduran refugee to an ICE office in Iowa for an appointment that might have resulted in his deportation.
Julián Castro has not failed to do anything, except be heard lifting up the voices of the marginalized.