Chad Lykins is a Useful Idiot
But not for any cause you'd want to support.
In my first anti-endorsement, I’d like to direct your attention to Chad Lykins. Chad is a coward, a fool, and a promoter of antisemitism. He’s also flying under the radar of many District 4 residents because he’s well liked and probably very friendly. Chad Lykins should not be on the Portland City Council.
Endorsements
Chad is endorsed by:
Mark Gamba - friendly with the Portland DSA - antisemitic, pro-terror views masquerading as cuddly pro-union “Bernie Bros”
ARC PDX - vegan activists who coincidentally endorse all the DSA candidates.
Bernie PDX - actual Bernie Bros who coincidentally… see above.
Moms Demand Action - an anti-gun violence group, which is sad because the DSA is so anti-police that they encourage gun ownership for self defense and it’s almost like these people don’t think things through.
Portland For All - barely a non-profit. Pro Mike Schmidt and Susheela Jayapal. Salty they lost those races. (it was “the Jews”) 😅
Portland Neighbors Welcome - a non profit made up of other groups who benefit from our current wasteful and ineffective programs; often derogatorily referred to as the “Homeless Industrial Complex.”
Protec17 - a union group with strongly “anti-Zionist” views.
If you look at each of these endorsements you’ll find that they all endorse the same group of candidates. The astroturfing is visible, but only if you squint a bit.
All of these groups push DSA Candidates plus a few others like our boy Chad. This is “more of the same, please.” You will get exactly the type of “leadership” that got us into this mess with this crowd. Bonus is that they’ll be much more explicitly anti-Israel. Yay?
Palestine, oh Palestine
You probably remember the controversy over PAT’s “Know Your Rights” training about “bringing Palestine into the classroom.”
If you don’t:
KGW (D2’s Sam Sachs and D3’s Jesse Cornett are in this one)
Willamette Week (again)
Because they are endorsed by PAT, District 4 Candidates Chad Lykins and Sarah Silkie put out a “Statement of Support for PAT Efforts to Restore Respectful Dialogue about Palestine and Israel.” The statement is dishonest and spineless, down to the strange repeated order of “Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Jewish, and Israeli” in a post claiming to condemn antisemitism. If you’re going to be weird just alphabetize them?
Yes, the red triangles are a violent and hateful threat symbol. Yes, “from the river to the sea” is a horrible chant translated to English from an even uglier Arabic one. Yes, implying that PPS, Portland City Council, The State of Oregon, and the Biden-Harris administration are actively supporting and covering up a “genocide” is an antisemitic conspiracy theory promoted by the Iranian Regime and the Muslim Brotherhood. But hey, we’ve spoken to PAT and “they are being responsive.”
Their response included shutting down comments on social media (silencing union stewards who demanded they leave comment open). It included moving the offending materials to a different site until they got caught again. And it involved posting memes about the controversy, openly mocking concerned teachers, parents, and community members.
Chad will clearly run defense for any group who helps him get elected. Don’t expect him to stand up to PAT, Sisters of the Road, or the Portland DSA. He claims to have your interests in mind, but he’s probably gotta run it by the unions first.
ACAB
Chad is no friend of police but he is a fan of the Portland Mercury’s team of investigative journalists:
The article in question is a hatchet job.
Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s trainings are likely to reduce the chances of a police shooting, and the author of the piece misrepresents this. Or maybe the FBI is really stupid and hires pro-murder wing nuts to teach them how to making killing more fun?
A small disclosure - I know Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. His son was a childhood friend of mine and they lived across the street. I first read his work when I was 14 years old.
I’d like to believe I have a better grasp of his philosophy than Lykins or the Mercury reporter.
The author of the piece, Abe Asher, is exactly the sort of writer you might guess. Portland “Progressive:” pro-union (only the right ones), anti-cop, and obsessively anti-Israel.
So that keeps coming up. Israel and Jews. Not weird for me, because I’m a proud Zionist. But very strange for Portland city council candidates, unions, journalists, and activists to keep inserting their obsession with a foreign war into their local work. As if Portland doesn’t have serious problems that need immediate solutions.
No, we need focus on stopping the horrible Zionists from… stealing elections, hoarding money, and covering up a “genocide.”
Wow. Very Progressive.