Jason Call’s six
months suspension from the Washington State Democratic Central Committee due to
a "code of conduct" violation after he cut down a confederate flag
reeks of dirty politics and calls into question the WA State Democrats’
commitment to fighting white supremacy. Each legislative district in the state
elects two people to serve on the Washington State Democratic Central Committee
(WSDCC). Mr. Call was elected to be one of the State Committee Persons for the
44th LD and proudly represents the Bernie wing of the Party, a fact he feels is
the underlying issue in his current tussle with the WA State Democrats. The
lifelong Democrat and former Math teacher spoke with me via telephone and tells
a tale hard to believe, especially in these times of rising white nationalism
where the Democratic Party claims to be the counter balance to this disturbing
trend.
Jason is the
first to tell you, when it comes to his politics, he is passionate and out
spoken. He says he holds elected officials accountable. He believes his passion
has often been misconstrued as confrontational and this passion has even been
described more than once as bullying.
" If elected officials don't' answer my questions, I'm going to ask
them again and make sure I get an answer. Me putting elected officials on the
spot has made me a problem for the WA Dem establishment," Jason says.
"I've had people of color say they appreciate me speaking out to the party
insiders, something they feel they can't always do."
The current kerfuffle stems from two incidents, both
strangely enough having to do with flags. The first incident cited in a leaked
document entitled "Summary of Call Complaint" occurred at a 44th
District meeting in June 2018. It involved the United States flag, a pissed
Precinct Committee Officer, and Mr. Call. Jason says he hasn't been standing
for the flag since 2003 in response to the Iraq War. At the meeting in
question, as usual he didn't stand for the flag. A fellow Democrat, who is a
prison guard at the Monroe State Penitentiary and someone Jason had just helped
get removed from a leadership position within the LD due to his
ineffectiveness, turned around and stared him down as he sat for the Pledge.
This interaction set the stage for a mild confrontation at the end of the
meeting. As the defender of the flag left the building, Jason leaned in and
said, "Hey Mike, you do know turning your back to the flag during the
Pledge is disrespectful." The offended officer went off in response,
calling him an "obnoxious asshole," and reaffirming his disdain for
the flag demonstration, according to Call.
Not letting the
slight pass, Jason countered "Fuck off with your Nazi bullshit" which
set off a heated volley of "Fuck you's" from both men, stunning the
room of polite Democrats. Things calmed down, but as another member of the 44th
left, she shouted "This is my party." According to Jason, this
incident was handled within the district and he admitted such altercations
"could not happen again."
Don't Act Like a
Nazi, Don't Get Called a Nazi!
For those a
little rusty on their history, I was, it may seem a little out of place to
equate such Flag fervor with "Nazi bullshit." However, it is perfectly
reasonable to call someone who insists you stand for a flag a Nazi. In the
1930's Nazi's arrested thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses for not standing for
the Nazi Flag. Shockingly, similar injustices happened throughout the twenties
and thirties to Jehovah's Witnesses'
children who would not stand for the Pledge in school here in the US. The
Supreme Court upheld the barbaric practice in 1940 in Minersville School
District v. Gobitis. This case stood until in 1943, the Supreme Court ruled
in " West Virginia
State Board of Education v. Barnette someone could not be compelled to
stand for the flag as it was a violation of their 1st Amendment rights, a
decision crafted in direct response to what was going on in Nazi Germany. The
court wrote, "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional
constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall
be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or
force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein."
"Your Flag's
Coming Down"
After this
incident seemingly blew over, another chance to make a statement over a
different flag presented itself to Jason. Call remembers, "I was taking my
kid to school in March. As I was dropping my daughter off at her high school, I
noticed a truck flying the confederate flag. I had a talk with my kids about
what the flag stood for and promised I'd talk to the principal, but if it was
still up there in a week, I told them I was going to cut it down." He did
talk to the principal who said she couldn't do anything about the flag because
it was off campus. Jason asked if she could at least speak with the kid and
offered resources via email to help with the conversation.
"I don't'
know if the conversation happened, but the Flag was still up the next week, so
I cut it down and tossed it in the back of the truck. "I live streamed
cutting it down, because I'm not a coward and I wanted to show people what was
going on in my neighborhood. The video was up for a while and there were some
great conversations had about what I did, but Facebook eventually took the
video down without my knowledge." Jason revealed that while he was cutting
the Flag down, he noticed other racist messages dotting the back window of the
truck, including a sticker with an outline of the US with the words "Fuck
off, we're full!" written within the border.
About ten days
after the video, Jason says his LD chair started getting emails from centrist
Democrats, saying they thought the video was inappropriate. The LD chair
disagreed chalking it up to an act of civil disobedience, Jason says.
"Remember the person who chased me outside after the other flag incident,
well she went and complained to the chair of a neighboring LD about the video,
which led to the "code of conduct" violation. On April 12, 2019, I
got an email saying I was being reprimanded for violating the WA Democratic
Party "code of conduct’, but they didn't tell me what it was until two
months later when I was notified that I was to appear before a hearing to tell
my side of the story.
Really, the Confederate Flag Democrats?
The Confederate flag is a symbol raised by traitors to the
United States who chose to die fighting for the ability to own people, and
worse to die to prove the supremacy of the white race. Today, many people have
been misled to believe it has something to do with a positive Southern heritage
and therefore is an impotent symbol in 2019. This has led to a sort of
complacency toward the flag within the ranks of white society and institutions
like the Democratic Party. A fact put on full display in the suspension of
Jason Call from his position as a State Committee man after he unapologetically
cut the symbol of hate down.
The Southern
Poverty Law Center has this to
say about the confederate flag. "But the argument that the Confederate
flag and other displays represent “heritage, not hate” ignores the
near-universal heritage of African Americans whose ancestors were enslaved by
the millions in the South. It trivializes their pain, their history and their
concerns about racism — whether it’s the racism of the past or that of today.
And it conceals the true history of the Confederate States of America and the
seven decades of Jim Crow segregation and oppression that followed the
Reconstruction era."
Jason was
eventually allowed to tell his side of the story to an Executive Committee
subcommittee manned and womanned by DNC representatives David McDonald and
Sharon Mast. However, the accused was
not allowed to see any of the so-called evidence against him. Furthermore, Jason and his two witnesses were
permitted to answer questions only. After deliberating, the subcommittee
offered up a resolution to the entire Executive Committee recommending he be
suspended for six months.
The WSDCC Executive Committee voted
on August 20, 2019 to suspend Jason for six months with a vote of 14 - 7. Here
is an excerpt from the "Resolution and Reprimand of Jason Call”.
"Mr. Call
has failed to treat colleagues with the respect expected by the Code when they
disagree with him and failed to assume that others have good intent; he has
attacked colleagues who hold differing views from his with ad hominem or
belittling labeling including, in at least one instance, calling a colleague a
Nazi; in his capacity as a state committee member he has endorsed
(rhetorically), if not advocated, on social media punching people with whose
politics he disagrees (including but not limited to anyone labeled as a
“Nazi”); in his capacity as a state committee person he has promoted on social
media that his act of personal vandalism is an example of civil disobedience
that should be emulated by others and potentially extended to destroying
personal displays of support for Trump. Mr. Call exhibited no concern for the
impact his conduct may have on others and has repeatedly stated his intent to
repeat his acts and conduct. “
Dirty Politics?
Jason
strongly feels the first confrontation with the pissed PCO prison guard started
in response to Jason pushing to have him removed from a key leadership position
in the LD. Additionally, now that he is
suspended, his fellow State Committee person gets to cast his vote. "All
of a sudden I have this come up. They've basically taken away my ability to
vote on the new DNC members coming up in January. Furthermore, by taking me off
the Central Committee, my counterpart in the 44th, someone who opposes many of
my views, now has two votes for our LD. I've been silenced for the next six
months and the Executive Committee has given the establishment another vote for
the duration of my suspension."
The
suspension has also forced him to step away from his Separation of Church and
State Committee chairmanship on the WSDCC, but the suspension has not slowed
his activism down. Jason is running for Congress in the 2nd Congressional
District against establishment candidate Rick Larsen. He has no appeal against
the decision, but his supporters have vowed to fight the suspension. The
Democratic Party continues to push the issue with state chair, Tina Podlodowski, saying the
matter has to do with " "Misinformation, bullying, intimidation and
harassment" in a recent hastily written email to the WSDCC Executive
Committee. Jason says he did see the flag flying again on the truck, but he
wasn't able to take action at that time.
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