Failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams gets a SOTU response participation trophy

On Tuesday, Senator Chuck Schumer announced that he is pleased that failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams had accepted the invitation to give a televised rebuttal directly following President Trump's State of the Union address on February 5. Given that she's not an elected representative, it's an odd choice but one that she accepted, issuing a statement that said, "I plan to deliver a vision for prosperity and equality, where everyone in our nation has a voice and where each of those voices is heard."

It is likely that Democratic leaders are offering Abrams as a sacrificial lamb, considering the failed rebuttal given by the frothy-mouthed Joe Kennedy last year, which led to thousands of memes and harsh criticisms about his flat and wet delivery. Before he gave his speech, he was considered the "rising star" of the Democratic Party. Afterward, he fell back into obscurity. At least he had won an election, though. There is probably no higher risk with lowest reward opportunity than having to appear to people directly after the charismatic President Trump with all the State of the Union pageantry. So why Stacey Abrams? Probably as a late consolation prize by Democratic leaders after she couldn't achieve the history they had pledged to her as the first female black governor. Or perhaps because she fully represents the current Democratic diversity orgy. She has partaken in the divisive rhetoric used to propel people based on characteristics like skin color rather than personal merit. She defended her questionable actions like burning her state's own flag as a demonstration against racism yet opposes stricter voter ID laws based on unsupported stereotypes that minorities are too poor to obtain identification. She has used fear-mongering speech to propel conspiracy theories about Republicans using voter manipulation to target black communities, and she couldn't even feign support for the Georgian voters' choice when she lost. Abrams once wrote an op-ed for Fortune while her campaign was headed to state primaries where she confessed to be in debt to the effect of $200,000, with $50K of that owed for back taxes. Yet she ran on a platform that called for raising taxes and more spending on Medicaid expansion and public education. The people of Georgia cast their votes and decided they did not want a woman who had accrued massive debt, despite her six-figure salary as an attorney, having a say in the finances of their state. Stacey Abrams lost the governor's election. Her loss was then laminated when she took to news outlets calling her opponent Brian Kemp's win a sign of "systematic erosion of our democracy." Instead of graciously conceding, she refused to acknowledge the governor's victory as legitimate, and when she finally gave her speech ten days later to officially end her candidacy, she said, "This is not a concession." This is who is rewarded by the Democratic Party to speak to the American people in contrast to the president. Remember that when she gives her rebuttal if she spews the Democrat's argument that the wall is "too expensive." She was chosen not for her accolades or contributions to politics, for which there are just many better Democrats. Her purpose in the response will be to sling as much mud onto the president as she can in her allotted time, with emotional arguments that further divide the citizens of this country with identity politics. As the author of numerous romance novels, it can be expected that her word choice will be used to narrate a tension and attempt to romanticize the lack of progress Democrats have made. Image: Barbara Jordan Forum 2012 via Flickr.