Setting a New Bar

Texas Representative Joaquín Castro may have given himself a commanding lead in the race to be the Dumbest (Samuel L. Jackson Favorite Word) in Politics in 2019.

Rep. Castro is the twin brother of Julián Castro, a former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development who has spent about $3 million of other people's money to not be president of the United States. He serves as his brother's campaign chair, a pretty dumb move itself but not as dumb as his choice to have his own campaign Twitter account identify 44 people from San Antonio who had given the maximum amount to President Donald Trump's re-election campaign.

There are a lot of reasons why Rep. Castro's choice is nova-level dumb. He's supplied enough information about the people he identified to enable people to find their addresses and identify their family members if so desired. Should any of those people be hurt by someone who's both upset over their Trump support and almost as stupid as Rep. Castro, then they or their survivors will sue the representative until he's left with a cardboard box under a bridge (and then attorney fees will probably get the box).

Also, as our current political climate does more and more to prove St. Augustine correct about original sin, moves like Rep. Castro's will offer ammunition to people who want to mask the names of political contributors so we don't know who's giving to anyone running for office. Although we can probably guess 44 people who will give the maximum possible amount to anyone on any ballot running against the Castro brothers.

And as the story at the link above notes, in outing the 44 Trump donors, Rep. Castro also outed three people who donated to his campaign and three people who gave to his brother's campaign for Mayor of San Antonio. He claimed that the Trump donors had, by giving to the president, supported racism and other bad things. The congressman has been a little quieter about what kinds of racism these people supported when they gave to the different Castro brothers campaigns.

Although we can definitely suggest that by giving to both President Trump and either one or both Castro brother these donors don't seem too careful to link their money to the smartest candidates in a race.