The leader of the nation’s largest organization dedicated to electing women, Butler will make history as California’s first openly LGBTQ United States Senator and the first Black lesbian to openly serve in Congress in American history.
  • GodlessCommie@lemmy.worldEnglish
    497·
    9 months ago

    Black and lesbian pales in comparison to her lobbying on behalf of Uber and AirBNB. Lobbyists are never pro labor, pro union, or pro working class. She’s a token that the DNC will weaponize her sexual orientation and gender as deflection from her history: When someone points out she helped deny Uber/Lyft independent contractors employee status, some mindless drone will come along and claim we dont like her because she’s black, or we are homophobic.

    Democrats ran an entire campaign against Dr Oz (despite him being a shitty person) on the fact he lived in New Jersey and not Pennsylvania when he was running against Fetterman. But now it’s ok that Butler will represent California despite her primary residence being in Maryland.

  • purahna
    2415·
    9 months ago

    absolutely despicable. He promised a black woman, Barbara Lee was right there, but instead of taking a progressive he had to look all over the damn country to find a black woman who was more of a corporate sellout and had to import one from literally the other side of the nation, because picking the popular one who’s literally from the same district would have been too untenable to corporate interests.

    Democrats really take so many liberties with their lesser evil positioning, it’s sickening.

    • surfrock66@lemmy.worldEnglish
      18·
      9 months ago

      But he also said he wouldn’t appoint someone running for the seat in the upcoming election, so Lee was not a possible candidate for appointment.

      • purahna
        166·
        9 months ago

        You’re right, the only remaining option was to appoint an AirBNB director from Maryland

        • surfrock66@lemmy.worldEnglish
          102·
          9 months ago

          False, former CA labor leader with a huge pro labor track record who was hired in an unspecified advisory role to consult on labor relations. No one has provided any evidence about what that role meant, and it’s possible she went in and said “be better to your employees” and they said “no” and that was it…the CA voters handed them what they wanted anyway in the last round of props. She moved to MD recently as part of her work generally promoting women in politics. So being from CA but with a perspective on national politics…sounds like a solid fit, meeting Newsom’s 2 self imposed criteria (black woman not running in 2024). She also has a strong pro-choice background, and represents LGBT rights as an open lesbian. I think the haters are looking for any reason to hate what Newsom does, I think she is a totally reasonable choice, and to be blunt, Lee will be 78/79 at the time she takes office should she win the election, that is not who I want representing me.

            • surfrock66@lemmy.worldEnglish
              44·
              9 months ago

              I’m just not seeing a smoking gun here for some nefarious evil. Seems she did a lot of work on real areas of concern, seeking to help consult with the company on issues that they need to address.
              https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-influence/2023/10/02/feinsteins-successor-consulted-for-uber-airbnb-00119555

              Butler joined Airbnb as head of public policy for North America after the company’s initial racial discrimination scandal had largely abated, but during her tenure the company sought to address concerns about parties at Airbnb rentals and the company’s effects on housing affordability, the pandemic’s effect on tourism and local governments’ efforts to collect taxes from the business.

              — In 2021, Butler praised the Biden administration’s opening offer for what became the bipartisan infrastructure bill and Inflation Reduction Act on Airbnb’s behalf, urging congressional leadership to enact a “robust” package to expand rural broadband access. Airbnb also had to weather calls to drop its sponsorship of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, and disclosures show the company lobbied on antitrust, small business, and Section 230 while Butler was there.

              • purahna
                22·
                9 months ago

                If you don’t think going to bat for AirBNB in any capacity whatsoever is a smoking gun for nefarious evil, we’re just not going to see eye to eye here.

          • GodlessCommie@lemmy.world
            22·
            9 months ago

            If her views are anti labor this queer doesn’t give a fuck if she’s lesbian, she’s another corporate tool to fuck us over.