Financial Deplatforming Hits the Left
Chris Roberts, American Renaissance, August 26, 2020
Up until this week, no leftist had ever been “deplatformed” by a financial service as race realists, identitarians, and immigration skeptics are.
A new precedent was set yesterday, when ActBlue (the main online fundraising service for Democrats) refused to continue working with Aaron Coleman, a Democrat nominee for the Kansas state legislature. As is often the case, Mr. Coleman got no warning. He posted an ActBlue link for his campaign to Twitter last night:
https://t.co/9QiTJv0wtg pic.twitter.com/1kvN3HfrpK
— Aaron Coleman 🌹 (@Aaron4KS37) August 25, 2020
Then he realized the link was not working. Assuming this was an error, he wrote to ActBlue:
What’s going on over at @actblue HQ? ❣️ pic.twitter.com/eRHFSJkja4
— Aaron Coleman 🌹 (@Aaron4KS37) August 25, 2020
He then received an email from ActBlue saying he was “out of alignment with ActBlue’s mission.” He wrote:
Remember this. Corporate democrats decide who gets to run or not. The elites have no care in the world for the people of my district who live at the poverty line.
They don’t care if voters nominated me, regardless of my sins I apologized for in June (months before the election). https://t.co/eN3rYnog69 pic.twitter.com/R5Y7vXbSY5
— Aaron Coleman 🌹 (@Aaron4KS37) August 25, 2020
The problem was not policy but of personal conduct. When Mr. Coleman was 12-years old (he is 19 now) he got a naked photo of a girl. He then told her that if she did not send him more naked photos, he would circulate the one he had. She refused, and Mr. Coleman followed through with his threat. Some Democrats denounced him, others said that since he was so young when he did this, and had apologized, he should be forgiven. Pressure mounted and Mr. Coleman dropped out of the race. Then he decided to reenter the race — which is when he discovered that ActBlue had dropped him. Since then, more allegations of misconduct have surfaced, and leftists across the country are sounding off.
The sarcastic comments on this post seem myopic to me. I think Coleman sucks — that’s not the interesting question. But would ActBlue ever block Bill Clinton from fundraising through the platform? Omar at the height of the antisemitic accusations? Morse 2.5 weeks ago? https://t.co/Pz5ni1vCBw
— better build back bee 🐝✌🏾 (@Vanessa_ABee) August 25, 2020
So the 19 year old in Kansas is back in the race – thanks to everyone who convinced him he was the victim!
— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) August 25, 2020
Yes killing half a million people at 60 is a far more forgivable flaw https://t.co/I9Vdgcx7Xg pic.twitter.com/Jo4SeQ9x3s
— $ean P. McCarthy (@SeanMcCarthyCom) August 25, 2020
ActBlue is a Democrat online fundraising juggernaut, and has raised over six billion dollars since 2004 — and until yesterday, had never dropped anyone. In banning one official Democrat candidate, it has opened the door for rivaling leftists to try to get each other bounced. In the short-term, this is good because Left infighting helps everyone. In the long-term, more leftists will come to care about deplatforming and censorship — and we need allies to win that fight.
