Thread by @Misopogon

This ad with my name on is going out in today's metro-Detroit Jewish News. We include Dems, libertarians, even an aide to a GOP rep. I wanted to explain why we purchased it, why most of us who grew up with @LenaEpstein are strongly urging voters to choose anyone else.

Our reasoning: We are horrified that one of our own is on the national stage, disingenuously aping every awful talking point and strategy from the worst rung of Trumpism, riding a wave of fascism to her ambitions. We are even more horrified at what she'd do there.

After a Pence campaign event this week where Lena bizarrely featured a defrocked Messianic Jew, @joshtpm wrote this article that accurately captures Lena's campaign/political career, but admits it doesn't understand Lena.

talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/never-g…

I'll fill in the blanks.

I have this little Microsoft Paint picture I drew of Lena in 2005-ish. I made the same for six other close friends plus my brother, who was at the time romantically involved with her. These were just goofy avatars that took about 15 minutes each. Except Lena's. Hers took drafts.

I grew up with Lena at Temple Beth-El. She was a year younger. She conspicuously never spoke to me until that point in high school youth group when the next wave of leadership is shaking out. I was going to be song-leader, and well-liked. Lena wanted to be president.

First time we hung was at her house after a board meeting she hosted. She was the first person I knew who was Going to Harvard. This was all-encompassing. Extracurriculars were crucial for Harvard. Running unopposed for president of the youth group was crucial for Harvard.

She was also the second-richest person I knew. The aesthetic of wealthy Jewish metro-Detroit is ascetic, generous, and wise. The Epsteins embody it. They are proper, soft-spoken, ethical, liberal, and do big and meaningful things without any nachas (pride/fanfare).

Lena's sister does it effortlessly: "She married a Republican. But he's the Nicest Guy!" Lena had to construct it. She works hard, and directionally: Do X, Y & Z to get to Harvard. Do B, C & D to earn your inheritance. Befriend T, P & M, and say J, K & N to win an election.

Lena is privileged and entitled. But what defines Lena isn't family wealth but that she believes if you get to the end of an alphabet you deserve It, if you don't you don't, & everyone's a cynic. She has major personal hurdles, and keeps them to herself so they won't define her.

I wouldn't say she was ever a "dyed in the wool" Democrat. She was liberal because we all were. Lena could get passionate, but it was for bandwagon things. In 2005 a conservative Michigan friend who met her called her a "Hollywood Liberal": Knows what to say, not what it means.

Around then I was making those silly pictures for my best friends. Everyone else laughed and thanked me. Lena wanted drafts. Please fix my hair. Why am I in a hoodie? Can you add Bruno? (Bruno was her tiny new puppy). Finally I revolted and called it finished. She didn't like it.

Lena always closely curated her image, and for that reason most of the people who met her (eg my mom) thought her extremely fake. Lena calls people she barely knows "Oh honey" or "Oh sweetie," an accidental parody of her mother, who is genuinely, maniacally sweet.

For her part Lena hated Disney concepts like "Find the real you." Real Lena was a nemesis, prone to crippling despair, dark wishes, laziness. Passion and ambition are allowed out, because they're useful. But Real Lena wouldn't get into Harvard. Real Lena was defeated long ago.

I haven't spoken to Lena since shortly after her divorce. Like the rest of our high school group, her transformation to amoral mouthpiece for deceitful Dinesh d'Souza politics pushed me away, and in her eyes anyone who didn't support her ambition was disloyal, the worst offense.

In my community and in our group of friends she's now a frightening curiosity. This staged photo made Rounds! This is first the person I ever saw order a portobello burger. It would be comically disingenuous, except disingenuous is who Lena is.

The @freep, in endorsing Haley Stevens, described Lena perfectly: She is scripted. Since it came from the pressure she puts on herself to Achieve it didn't used to bother me. She got a crucial endorsement, I got a friend when those were hard to come by.

freep.com/story/opinion/…

And now it's biting me in the ass. I'm on the board of Detroit Jewish Community Relations Counsel, and Lena is out there cashing out years of our work projects, volunteer programs and relationships to make suburban whites feel more comfortable about voting with their racism.

Like Lena herself, I don't live in the Michigan 11th anymore, even though we have our whole lives, because Republican redistricting chopped out every Jewish neighborhood and packed us into Detroit. The 11th is so gerrymandered it inspired a ballot proposal #YesOn2

My message to those still in the Michigan 11th: Don't buy into this kind of cynicism! Don't believe a word Lena says even if every word was meticulously chosen to ring with what's in your head. Even if it means sending a Democrat to Congress.

The thing to know about Lena that I learned too slowly is she doesn't like you. She doesn't like things you like. She doesn't believe the politics she trumpets. She does not care to understand policy nor its outcomes. She just wants to be president.