We…are the “somehow”.

The hope and change we want takes time to achieve. We need look no further than my parents’ generation to remind myself how long.

Malcolm Johnson

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A recent decision by the California Democratic Party to upend a local Delegate Election is something that barely made the papers in town, much less America. But it came with an awful reminder, to a local group of people, of where they stand in some politicians’ eyes.

The locale I was talking about is Glendale, California, and the group are Armenian-Americans.

In 2012, as local Armenian-Americans showed up at the polls to vote, they found a goodly number, all with Armenian sounding surnames, having the validity of their registrations challenged at the ballot box. This was not happening at the whim of a Republican, but at the hands of a member of their own party, their elected Assemblyman Mike Gatto.

A lot of Armenian-Americans have never forgiven Mr. Gatto for this tactic. I can’t say that I blame them.

He made things worse, by making sure it happened again in 2015. This time as a slate of mostly Armenian-American Delegates had their election overturned under questionable circumstances by Mr. Gatto’s friends in the State Party.

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