The anti-immigrant nonsense of Amanda Edinger, the Brandman-Kring appointee to Anaheim’s districting commission.

.

Councilmembers Lucille Kring (left) and Jordan Brandman (right), with their choice for Districting Commission, the tireless immigrant basher Amanda Edinger.

Save Anaheim‘s Jason had the bombshell scoop this morning, the morning of this evening’s final Citizens’ Advisory Committee (CAC) meeting, where the Council’s appointees will vote on whether to recommend switching to district elections or not:

What Jason has come across is a large number of Facebook postings from the page of Amanda Edinger, who was Councilmember Jordan Brandman‘s and Lucille Kring’s joint appointee to the commission – postings which show her to have an unhealthy obsession with – that is, against – our immigrant brothers and sisters.

I generally don’t give much credence to “journalism” which rags on one or two stupid or insensitive Facebook posts from somebody – but illegal immigration appears to be a real overriding obsession with Amanda.  All the time.  It’s been a pattern with her.  As far back as we can see.

My first thought was “Are these posts from 2010 or thereabouts?”  Not that it would make them any less ignorant or objectionable, but back in 2010 they WOULD put her in the mainstream of Orange County Republican “thinking” – that was the year of Allan Mansoor‘s and Tim Donnelly‘s ascension to Assembly, the proud but failed anti-Latino congressional campaign of Tan Nguyen, and Sheriff-hopeful Bill Hunt‘s bringing brutal, corrupt Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio out here TWICE to raise funds for him.  (Sez Edinger, “I support Sheriff Joe!”)  At that time, locally, the Tea Party developed a noxious nativist strain, and made inroads into the county’s Republican Party.  But since then, seeing the writing on the wall, local and national Republicans have MOSTLY moved away from immigrant-bashing, and have been making (somewhat half-assed) attempts to appeal to Latinos.

¡PERO, NO!  These Facebook rantings of Amanda Edinger are from THE PAST FEW MONTHS.  She has REMAINED in Minuteman world, it’s where she’s comfortable.   And Lucille Kring and Jordan Brandman chose HER to be their representative on the districting commission.  Hmmmm…

Yeah, well, what did she say?  Did it make any sense?

Most notablty, Amanda Edinger is obsessed with the idea of ending “birthright citizenship” – so that no longer does a person acquire US citizenship by being born in this country.  This radical vision, popular with the nativist fringe of the Tea Party, would entail amending our Constitution to gut the 14th Amendment, which states

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

A big fuckin’ deal, amending the Constitution.  But to people who find certain of our immigrants as objectionable as Amanda Edinger and her ilk do, this is a project WELL WORTH that effort.  Just to keep certain people OUT of America.  Living in and writing from 51% Latino Anaheim, we have a very good idea whom Amanda Edinger finds undesirable.

Another gem from Amanda Edinger’s Facebook page:  The supremely ignorant “Where is the border security promised us in 1986?”  (The year of Reagan’s amnesty.)  Anyone who reads the news knows that President Obama has made the border as secure as humanly possible, with record numbers of Border Patrol agents down there as well as record numbers of deportations, and that thanks to these efforts (as well as economic factors) immigration from Mexico has dropped to NET ZERO.

The only folks who are ignorant of this, and react with incredulity when confronted with these facts, are folks who surround themselves with like-minded anti-immigrant zealots, and wallpaper their lives with anti-immigrant propaganda so nothing contradictory can enter their bubble.  The facts are just counter-intuitive to people like Amanda Edinger;  all they know is they look out their front door and still see people who look or sound Mexican.  And that is not good, not the America they know or want.

Jason’s got plenty more of her rantings, let’s move on…

How Bad IS this, for a Districting CAC Commissioner?

Pretty bad, I think.  The mission the Council gave to the CAC was not just to determine whether dividing the huge city into districts is the right solution for the presumed problem of voter disfranchisement (in a 51% Latino town) but also:

…to promote the full participation of all residents, neighborhoods, community groups and ethnic groups in studying the City’s electoral system. The Committee will provide advice to the City Council on promoting the full participation of all voters in city elections, including recommendations on:

  • Potential changes in the City’s election systems, including election by district;
  • How to encourage voter registration;
  • How to identify and engage community groups in elections and in local government decision making;
  • Language assistance programs; and
  • Other techniques to promote full participation in the electoral process.

How can someone with such an animus against half the city’s residents be seriously expected to do anything but SABOTAGE the above noble goals?  (I assume it goes without saying that Amanda Edinger has voted to recommend AGAINST district elections.)

AND WHAT WERE BRANDMAN AND KRING THINKING?  I’ve got a call into Lucille Kring, who used to speak to me regularly, until in late February she shapeshifted like a werewolf.  Has she received orders from above, not to speak with Vern any more?  I’ll keep trying, or she can call me.  I’d like to ask her, what was it about Amanda that won her over?  How many applicants did she and Jordan choose from, and did Jordan have much of a say?  Does Lucille agree with Amanda’s ravings?  (Actually she probably does.)

What I probably won’t receive confirmation of is my suspicion that Amanda Edinger was neither the choice of Kring NOR Brandman, but of the puppetmaster who commands them both (and commands them both not to speak to me) – the ubiquitous Curt Pringle, who will forever be remembered for placing poll guards at Anaheim polling places to intimidate Latinos from casting their votes.

Matt Cunningham, the anti-reformers’ paid shill on the blogosphere, has flown into a comical panic over these revelations.  His first instinct has been to insist that everything Amanda Edinger has written is completely mainstream and the opinions of the majority of Anaheim citizens (although he’s not entirely sure he personally agrees with her, and look at this bad thing someone on the other side put on their Facebook once!)  I highly doubt most Anaheimers want to amend the Constitution to strip citizenship from people born in the great United States.  And I highly doubt that most Anaheimers of ANY race spend MOST of their time fretting about how best to keep Mexicans from coming over here, assimiliating, and joining this wonderful city and nation.

But Matt’s main tactic in preventing district elections has been to link it to the liberal goals of many of districting’s advocates – OCCORD, some unions – who would also like to have a living wage in Anaheim, a $1 gate tax at Disneyland for the communities’ needs, and an end to corporate welfare.  So naturally, by Matt’s logic, conservatives should line up AGAINST district elections, just to oppose these dangerous liberal ideas!

It’s bullshit spin of course, MANY Anaheim conservatives endorse the heightened democracy of district elections.  But seeing Amanda Edinger’s Facebook posts, we could flip Matt’s logic – maybe many if not most of districting’s opponents just fear and loathe Latinos and increased Latino power, like Amanda does.  Maybe keeping the status quo and just saying NO to district elections is the best way to KEEP THE BROWN MAN DOWN.

Ya think?


About Vern Nelson

Greatest pianist/composer in Orange County, and official political troubadour of Anaheim and most other OC towns. Regularly makes solo performances, sometimes with his savage-jazz band The Vern Nelson Problem. Reach at vernpnelson@gmail.com, or 714-235-VERN.