Former state Rep. Chuck Moss (R-Birmingham), an attorney, served in the Michigan House from 2007-12. During his last term, he was chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Before that, he was a member of the Birmingham city commission and was elected mayor in 2000. Then he served half a dozen years on the Oakland Co. Board of Commissioners before being elected to the state Legislature.
Prior to all that, though, he was a talented freelance writer/columnist for the Detroit News and Oakland Press, and he has hosted a number of podcasts and shows on WXST and WJIM as well as being a co-host of “Back to Back” on WTVS.
Here is Moss’s take on the tumultuous race for the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat being vacated at the end of this year by Democrat Gary Peters:
“The American Democratic Party is a large and sprawling beast. Its chief backbone of support has traditionally been the U.S. working class, with the middle class up for grabs. But in the 21st Century this support model has broken down. The Dems have increasingly become dominated by college graduates, single women, coastal elites, and pinpoint activist groups. This cohort is increasingly leftist and avowedly collectivist, with the Democratic Socialists of America storming out this election cycle to seize power in the Party.
“Here in Michigan, Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El Sayed is, if not actually DSA, as close as makes little difference. He’s radically left wing, averse to Israel, and espouses DSA aims like Medicaid for All. The race was until recently a three-way, with Congresswoman Haley Stevens the Establishment candidate and State Senator Mallory McMorrow the Leftist Lite.
“The DSA blitzkrieg seems to have gotten the attention of the Democrat regulars. Longtime Dem activists like James Carville and moderate outlier Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman are sounding the alarm that the bald-faced Marxism and Israel-hate can imperil the whole Democrat enterprise.
“So has the Empire started striking back? Sure looks like it! Starting in Maine, socialist candidate Graham Platner, ‘the man with the Nazi tattoo,’ suddenly got carpet bombed with negative exposes until he dropped out. This is classic Dem playbook: flood the zone with negative PR, delivered by friendly media. Think Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Russia-Russia-Russia on Trump, with the napalm now being loosed on their own upstart insurgents. Another tried and true tactic is clearing the field. The Empire got Mike Duggan out, and now Mallory McMorrow has also dropped.
“Michigan is now seeing some $40 million dollars in ads from out-of-state SuperPacs trying to rescue Stevens. We’re saturated with unflattering stuff about El Sayed floating about social media, TV, and the USPS. It’s sure not coming from the GOP: Perry Johnson is too busy buzz-sawing John James, and James is mostly sitting on his money and lead. I’d bet Dem Party regulars are horrified at Bernie Sanders-types threatening to seize the wheel and maybe upset the cozy applecart they’ve enjoyed for years.
“But at least the Democrat regulars are finally awake. In history, the Social Democrats (what everyone else in the world calls what we call ‘liberals’) get purged by the Mensheviks, who then get eaten by the Bolsheviks. Our Social Democratic Dem Party establishment evidently has no intention of bowing quietly to the hard left, and in the August 4 Michigan primary we’ll see who has the troops — or votes.
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Accurate, substantive column. Will the Michigan Democratic Party get behind who they elect in the Primary for US SENATE ?
If they don’t, we will truly deserve the mess of a country we have now. Michigan MUST hold its Democratic seat or we are totally screwed.
An interesting article by Mr. Moss, and we are being inundated with political ads. His Russia 1917 analogy is interesting as too many people believe the Bolsheviks overthrew the Czar when, in fact, they overthrew the Kerensky government that formed after the Czar’s abdication.
Mr. Stewart asks an interesting question. From my vantage point, if Stevens wins the primary, a chunk of El-Sayed voters won’t vote for her as she would be to them ideologically impure (not supporting Jew hatred, and if we’re being honest, that’s what this is all about), a heretic or apostate politically speaking. Whether it is as significant drop as Rogers saw in his vote totals vis-a-vis Trump in 2024, I don’t know.
If El-Sayed wins, I suspect the vast majority of Stevens voters will vote for him if only to spite Trump, as Trump hatred seems to be their chief motivating factor. The one exception would be the remaining pro-Israel voters in the Democratic Party who would be left adrift from the party they’ve always voted for. The treatment Stevens got at the Convention and the absolute viciousness directed at Jordan Acker (remember, his HOME and workplace were vandalized by anti-Israeli types long before the Convention-eve article from UK’s The Guardian) is a pretty good indicator of what they can expect in the future. Whether they jump ship like Alan Dershowitz will be known only after election day. And whether Rogers gets their vote or they just skip the US Senate race, I do not know either.
As for the future of the Democratic Party, it is no longer the party that my parents and grandparents grew up with, and I suspect that folks like Frank Murphy would no longer recognize. As for those trying to deal with the socialist types, I am reminded of the limerick that Patricia Neal said in the movie “In Harm’s Way” when one of her younger nurses (she was the officer in charge) was going to a beach party and Ms Neal’s character was singularly unimpressed with the chaperone:
There was a young lady of Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger;
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger.
Film at 11.
Haley Stevens is perceived by most Democrats as being “bought off” by the auto industry and Israel Lobby. That is why she is floundering in the latest polling results.
She is a Protestant but has injudiciously flaunted her rabid support for AIPAC and Israel in uploaded YouTube videos.In Oct. of 2023 as Israel was bombing Gaza she was filmed dancing in a synagogue while waving an Israeli flag and smiling – this video was uploaded to social media by the Niraj Warikoo of the Detroit Free Press.
Her classic response to booing and insults directed at her as she was on stage from 4/19/26 Democratic convention attendees was “I still love you.”
“….But in the 21st Century this support model has broken down. The Dems have increasingly become dominated by college graduates, single women, coastal elites, and pinpoint activist groups…..”
The transformation of the Democratic Party was a direct result of Watergate and began in 1974. Upper middle class opportunists saw the Democratic Party as the best vehicle to get their hands on the levers of power. Ideology meant nothing. The upper middle class opportunists paid lip service to the working classes, but only to secure their control over the Party and, for awhile, America.
The nouvelle gauche opportunists immediately alienated Southerners and eventually alienated most of the American working class, with the single exception of African-Americans. Now they are being challenged in a battle of the lower depths for the levers of power by their idiot spawn, the Democrat Socialists. If we were a EuoTrash parliamentary system, the Democratic Party would fracture. But in America, fracturing is a political death sentence, so the Democrats will patch things up eventually.
The process will be fun to watch.
There is an old saying that you “fake left and move right” in Michigan Democratic politics.
When Gretchen Whitmer and Dana Nessel ran in 2018 and assumed office shortly thereafter they marketed themselves as progressives – but in reality neither was. Whitmer appeared at Hash Bash in Ann Arbor in 2018 and Ann Arbor progressives organized to give Nessel the nomination from Patrick Miles for AG.
Dr. El-Sayed is a true progressive and that is why he will likely prevail for the Dem nomination next Tuesday. Phony progressives are being drummed out of Dem party leadership and from office.
Track AIPAC should be thanked for their valuable services.
Somewhat off topic:
Mike Cox has filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson because her office has failed to produce public records related to her past involvement with the Southern Poverty Law Center despite a Freedom of Information Act request filed nearly three months ago. The Department of State estimated the request would cost $10,309.94 to fulfill, including an upfront deposit of more than $5,000, and said it would take up to 10 weeks to complete the search. Cox’s campaign paid the required deposit but has not received the records more than 11 weeks after the request was submitted.
Benson was served yesterday. The case is:
Michael A. Cox v. Department of State – Secretary of State
Court of Claims 26-000151-MZ
It appears that the SPLC Princess has been using secret eMail accounts to handle her political tinged official correspondence.
Every year the Republican Rht jump for joy as the Democrats Tear each other apart ! After the primary Smoke Clears , One United Democratic Party emerges .Thats because they recognize essential elements in a democracy !
Compromise and Integrity . Somthing the party of Trump has completely Forgotten . Milliken and Ford are ROLLING IN THERE GRAVES here in our Great STATE !
Respected independent polling organizations have published the latest likely voter polling results on the Abdul El-Sayed-Haley Stevens primary U.S. Senate race reported today in Real Clear Politics:
Emerson: 54% El-Sayed – 39% Stevens;
Mitchell Research: 52% El-Sayed – 38% Stevens.
Track AIPAC reports Haley Stevens has been the beneficiary of $36,280,260 in Israel Lobby spending; Abdul El-Sayed has received ZERO Israel Lobby spending.
Track AIPAC has endorsed Dr. El-Sayed.
They are also endorsing the following Democrats in this election cycle for Michigan seats in U.S. Congress – all support an arms embargo on Israel and have expressed an opinion Israel has committed genocide:
(A) Kyle Blomquist – 1st District;
(B) Diop Harris – 4th District;
(C) William Lawrence – 7th District;
(D) Aisha Farooqi – 11th District;
(E) Donavan McKinney – 13th District.
It looks like not too many Democrats are heeding the endorsements of Sen. Gary Peters or Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Our Jewish lesbian Attorney General, Dana Nessel, has announced she no longer feels safe attending the party’s August 29 convention in Lansing after what she described as repeated harassment.
“I feel like my presence isn’t going to be welcome. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying, And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen because it’s been happening to me.”
“I will speak as a member of the Democratic Party here in Michigan, that some things have changed. This cannot continue, and the fact of the matter is, we have to be able to be a society where we can have intelligent discourse and debate about ideas without people being threatened, and certainly without people carrying out those threats.”
Nessel’s presence is not needed.
A key irony here is that my attendance at MIGOP conventions over the years has been has witnessed mostly good behavior among delegates and other attendees.
No one was disrespectful to Rick Snyder during the Flint water crisis. There had been some mild booing on occasion directed at Ron Weiser when he was chairman and mixed boos and cheers directed to John James at the last GOP state convention in Novi.
To me it shows a deep divide within the Michigan Democratic Party that its nominated and elected Attorney General is subjected to such abusive behavior – and it has also occurred to one of its Congress members – Haley Stevens.
The current divisive tactics and bombastic rhetoric of the progressive D.S.A. Activists / opportunists, finds its origin historically in the propaganda and ideology which was initiated by the Communist, Socialist ,Trotsky, Lenin ,etc. and carried to its fruition ,led by Stalin, Mao and others prior and post World Wars. Promotion of Equality ,and financial justice was the disguise which allowed tyranny to ensue . Dictatorships and extreme poverty and death resulted. The Dictators flourished.
Darializa Avila Chevalier was 29 years old when she attended an October 8th, 2023 celebration in Times Square honoring the October 7th attacks on Israel by Hamas.
She is Afro-Latina. She ran in New York this year as a D.S.A. member against an incumbent U.S. Congressman who chaired the Congressional Hispanic Caucus – but who also accepted AIPAC funding.
She won the Democratic primary in an upset and will be seated in U.S. Congress on January 1st, 2027.
The D.S.A. is extremist and is winning over voters.