I saw this on Facebook just now. The “her” is Mikie Sherrill, Democratic candidate for Governor of New Jersey. To my regret, I volunteered for her 2017-2018 campaign for Congress (along with Chelsea Handler and a bunch of other idiots), and avidly promoted her here at PoT.

It reminds me of a scene in Jean-Claude Van Damme’s 1990 film, “Lionheart.” Legionnaire Lyon Gauthier is a lowly private in the French Legion, stationed in North Africa, whose brother has just been put in the hospital by a gang attack in LA. (Naturally, the family doesn’t have health insurance.) On receiving this news, Gauthier tells his Nazi commanding officer that he “needs” to see his brother in LA. The officer responds:

You need what I tell you you need. And right now, I think you need two weeks’ hard labor.

That’s what voting for Mikie Sherrill is like, except that she’d be governor for four years, not two weeks.

Mikie Sherrill is against the Immigrant Trust Act, and in favor of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. That’s all you need to know to know why she’s worthless. If we wanted a slogan for her gubernatorial campaign, it would be: Deportations–and Defamation! With a Navy helicopter thrown on top, of course (she was a Navy helicopter pilot). No better time to emphasize a commitment to militarism than a failed proxy war and a genocide. Yeah, no thanks.

After Gauthier calls his commanding officer an “asshole,” the officer decides against putting Gauthier in hard labor, and puts him in a “sweatbox” instead–a cage-like torture chamber set out in the desert. Gauthier pretends to go into the box, then does a bunch of karate moves on his persecutors, knocks them out, steals a jeep, and goes AWOL for the rest of the movie. Watch it. Highly recommended.

You want political advice? Find an analogue of “Lionheart,” and do it. Because that’s where we are. They’re about to throw us in the sweatbox. Whatever you do, don’t vote for Mikie Sherrill. You might as well vote against Lionheart and for the Legion.

“Lionheart” is one of my favorite films of all time. I’ve seen it 35 times. It’s the lowest low-brow shit ever, but it inspired me to learn karate (where, yes, I learned how to break a cement brick with my bare hands), and the denouement always brings me to tears. It is, at root, a film of vindication for victims of abuse. You may not find that a recommendation, but you should. Because whether you realize it or not, you’re about to join the club.