Remembering the Slights, the Doubters, and the Haters

It was four or five years ago, on a cool (but not freezing) day, and I was standing outside, talking to a Mayor who I wanted to work on his campaign. He was in the process of telling me I would not be the Manager, or now the Field Director, and he sought to explain why:

"There are some people around here who don't get the impression you care enough, or put in the effort. Perhaps you just can't be a prophet in your own land."

That stung- a lot. I would later find out the "people" referenced above were a current legislative chief-of-staff, and an activist-turned-Wolf Administration member. This was where I was from, and here I was getting slapped down by these people. I had worked on Presidential, Senate, and Congressional campaigns. I had been the Field Director for the PA HDCC on a statewide level, the last one who won a majority (by the way), at the ripe old age of 25. I had this amazing resume, I had achievements, I had wins- but my political reputation in early 2013 was being defined by these people.

I'm glad it happened though. In 2014, I was elected to the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee from my native Northampton County. In 2017, I played a leading role in orchestrating a blowout in the Lehigh Valley, winning both County Executives and wiping out the Northampton County Republican Party just a year after they had carried the county for Trump. Compare that to four years ago, when they won the Executive race (with less votes) and ALL FIVE council seats. Oh, and the Judges I was doing work for? They won here.

Challenge answered.
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Six years ago, I moved to Washington, DC to work for SEIU on the "Our DC" campaign. I was very excited when I went there, but quickly found myself hating it. It was October of 2011, and I got a call that I needed to come have lunch with my supervisor. I knew this was a bad thing, and kind of expected it. Many of us who were hired into the campaign were hired on six month contracts, and as the contracts drug on, things would get increasingly worse for us. I was less than a month from my sixth month, and my boss had been absolutely torturing me for at least two or three weeks. I had seen him bring others into have lunch for "reviews," and if they didn't get fired, they often times left in tears, completely beaten down from the abuse. I vowed to myself that this would not happen to me, ever. So I prepared myself.

About five minutes into the lunch, he started airing his grievances to me. Then he cut to the chase- I was not getting a permanent contract. In fact, I was being terminated. My response?

"Good."

It shocked him. He stuttered, and then he had me escorted to clean out my desk, and then escorted out of the building. I had lunch with an aligned co-worker next door, and then I left DC within hours. It was awful and embarrassing, and really did a number on my career for a little bit, but I was glad that I had at least stood up to the bully, in his Armani Exchange belts, who belittled his employees at a union for God's sake. There was a group of six of us who worked under this individual that went out a couple times a week together to commiserate, drink, and forget about our sorrows, and we had all discussed how we wanted to show up this jerk of a boss. He got the better of me by firing me, but I was proud that I didn't give this piece of human excrement any pleasure.

About a week ago, one of my former co-workers tagged me in a Facebook status, an article that was on the internet. That former boss, who had moved on to lead the "Fight for $15" campaign nationally, was forced to resign amidst allegations of harassment. His career at the union, and hopefully in the movement, is over. Meanwhile, SEIU was a top donor to my Lehigh County Executive candidate, who won.

Karma.
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I could go on. Politics is a rough sport- people will try to put you down to build themselves up. These are just two recent examples in which I feel vindicated by the end result. More so than many others, I probably do remember past slights and wrongs. Whether it was the examples above, or being run out in a power struggle on some other campaign, I tip my cap and wait for life to give me a chance to prove someone else wrong. I wanted to take a chance to spike the football on these two, because frankly it's too damn easy, and I do like doing a touchdown dance.

On to 2018...