When Hardesty Loses, Don’t Let her Guilt Trip You, Because She Will Try.
As time slowly marches toward chilly November, it looks like Commissioner JoAnn Hardesty’s name recognition and past employment with the Oregon House of Representatives, (1995–2001) nor her time with the Portland City Council will be enough to undo the enormous damage she has done to her professional reputation, all on her own.
Moreover, it looks like Rene Gonzales will indeed win the 2022 race for seat three. If you remain undecided I hope you put some serious thought into this most important election and vote for Rene Gonzales.
Spurred on by Hardesty’s erratic behavior and divisive toxic language, directed at the dedicated and hardworking members of the Portland Police Bureau, and even other City Council leaders, including the Mayor, the Portland public has lost confidence in Hardesty’s ability to lead, interact with others, and they overwhelmingly no longer support her.
While in City Hall, due to Hardesty’s odd lack of emotional intelligence, her frequent outbursts and because of her patterns of careless deception, (most specifically with regard to her past) and her longstanding attitude of entitlement, Hardesty has essentially destroyed her political future in one term.
- Hardesty has done this in much the same way Chloe Eudaly also destroyed her future in politics.
JoAnn Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly, both political ‘one hit wonders’ have several things in common — namely that they are both college dropouts, (not necessarily a character defect in itself) but they have demonstrated they have dishonest natures and are often incapable of being truthful. Their propensity to exaggerate and lie about their level of education, claiming to have earned “associates degrees” when in fact neither one even came close, has proven both women are casual liars and have no problem deceiving Portland voters.
Furthermore, both women, in true insecure fashion, have also demanded their constituents address them by their “title” when other more secure commissioners would never make such comical and supercilious demands.
I think I speak for all of Portland when I say how gratified I am to learn that Rene Gonzales will take over from here. Gonzales is a welcome respite and the right kind of leader for Portland City Council — thoughtful, educated, cautious and respectful to all people, even those who make false claims about his character, or his campaign, as Hardesty has.
But perhaps I should issue a word of warning: when Hardesty does lose to Rene Gonzales, I hope you don’t allow her to guilt trip you, because she will try.
Hardesty will use the “race card” to try to manipulate people into feeling sorry for her. She will make excuses as to why she chose not to address paying back a very small debt for a person who makes nearly $8,000 per month and has for the past several years. She will further make excuses as to why she chose to be a no-show at a court hearing in which her presence had been requested, to come to some manner of resolution regarding the $16,000 debt she owes Bank of America.
I’m certain the primarily white Portland residents who still support Hardesty, despite her abysmal performance in City Hall will find some kind of employment or volunteer work that she can transition into when she’s no longer a commissioner.
And honestly, I applaud the efforts of whoever these folks turn out to be, and I definitely wish JoAnn Hardesty well. I think she has much to offer as an activist that could become an asset to any number of agencies, but she is simply not qualified or temperamentally suited to be a big city politician, even for a small town like Portland.
We all know the embarrassing details of Hardesty’s drama filled life, from her previous claims that police and all prisons should be “abolished” to her endless criticism of police procedure and police science, topics she knows nothing about. This includes accusing police of starting fires at 2020 riots, when they had not, to further accusing police of “eating all day” rather than doing police work.
We’ve all seen the cringe-worthy news stories, wherein we collectively just shake out heads in wonderment.
The unfortunate reality is that Hardesty does not understand issues pertaining to public safety, police science, criminalogical trends or patterns due to police defunding, (which has been an ongoing, off again, on again political trend going on historically for over eighty years). The reason Hardesty has no comprehension of these subjects is because she has not studied them. She has not studied them rigorously enough, for example in an academic setting, like in a university, or even at the lower community college level.
Hardesty has boasted that she knows all she needs to know about police issues because she is a “Black woman” but the reality is that the color of ones skin has literally nothing to do with how well a person understands a particular academic discipline. Police science is not a straightforward academic discipline, anymore than sociology, anthropology, or criminology is. It is complex, multi-faceted and challenging.
What many people believe Hardesty is afflicted with is a little known condition called The Dunning Kruger Effect, wherein a person tends to overestimate their own abilities while discounting the abilities of others who are more qualified, educated, skilled.
“Low performers are unable to recognize the skill and competence levels of other people, which is part of the reason why they consistently view themselves as better, more capable, and more knowledgeable than others.”
This is JoAnn Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly to a T.
Their lack of even a rudimentary college education is why they don’t work well with others, (group projects are integral to college and university life) because they teach us how to work in groups harmoniously. Both Hardesty and Eudaly have demonstrated their inability to work well in groups, or take any form of criticism without taking it as a personal affront, becoming offended and then later dramatically storming off.
In this day and age of Participation Awards for everyone, and without wanting to sound in any way elitist, I must state the obvious when I state that city leaders really MUST have a rudimentary level of education. Portland cannot have college dropouts who lie about their level of education.
And on that note, it becomes increasingly clear we need the best and brightest in City Council. We need smart people, who have a wide and expansive understanding of the Bigger Picture. Currently, that person is Rene Gonzalez.
My prediction is that Hardesty will pull a ‘Donald Trump’ when she loses, and will denounce most of Portland as “racists” because they voted her out. I hope I’m wrong but that is what I see happening.
The bottom line is, if you love the Rose City as much as I love Portland, then be smart and vote for Rene Gonzales, and when you do, and he wins seat three, don’t allow sour grapes on Hardesty’s part to make you feel even one tiny bit guilty. We have to be pragmatic in our efforts to save Portland. That ought to be the only consideration in this next race.
We need sound leadership, smart leadership, logical leadership. Leadership that supports law and order as the most important precursor to racial, cultural and economic harmony and equity.
We need RENE GONZALEZ.
