Nina “Eat Shit” Turner, who told The Atlantic last month that voting for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would be like dining on a bowl of warm fecal matter, announced this week that she is forming an Ohio-based public affairs firm. In urban speak, that means “I ain’t got no job.”
The former Cleveland city councilperson, former state senator, former candidate for Ohio Secretary of State, former Hillary Clinton supporter, former co-chair of the Bernie Sanders campaign, former head of Bernie Sander’s “Our Revolution” and former CNN analysis and national news analyist, looks like she is exiting the big leagues and returning to her Ohio roots to seek fame and fortune. I wish her well. But in my opinion, Turner’s self-inflicted wounds will seriously scar any attempts to gain clients in Democratic circles.
In a 2017 interview with the Huffington Post, Turner was asked how Bernie Sanders’ “Our Revolution” — which she headed — related to the Democratic National Committee and other mainstream Democratic organizations. Her response was “I don’t think it is our job nor our obligation to fit in. It’s their job to fit in with us.” As the interviewer, Peter Rosenstein, so aptly pointed out, that self-centered, egotistic attitude of “It’s my way or the highway attitude” is how Sanders handled his whole career; why he has accomplished so little; and why he is still a thorn in the side of the Democratic National Committee who fear that his supporters are not on board with the candidacy of Joe Biden. It is called being a spoiler. Turner is following in her mentor’s footsteps.
In 2010, Turner drew the wrath of former Cleveland City Council President George Forbes, then head of Cleveland’s only black newspapers, the Call and Post. Turner was the only black elected official who supported Issue 6, which called for reform of county government and an elected county executive. The issue, which eventually passed, was not supported by leaders in the black community who favored a year-long study. Forbes called her an Aunt Jemina, a self-proclaimed leader of the black community and not a team player — something Turner has never been. But Turner put that behind her and moved on to the national scene.
In her meteoric rise to her 15 minutes of fame, Turner made the rounds of the national campaigns in 2016. Her “angry black woman” persona, something that her opponent Jon Husted effectively used against her in 2014, coupled with her preacher cadence of speaking made her the self-appointed voice of the underdog. She used her vaporous record as a scholar of African-American history and credentials as an assistant professor at a community college to equate herself with real students of the subject. She used the title “senator” — alluding to her one term in the Ohio Senate — as if she had been a member of the United States Senate.
Originally a Clinton supporter, Turner apparently deleted the word loyalty from her political vocabulary, and to the shock of most political pundits, withdrew her endorsement of Clinton, and switched to the Sanders’ camp. She must have figured that being a big fish for Sanders was preferable to being a minnow for Clinton. What she failed to consider was that politicians and their supporters have long memories, especially when they think back on her 2014 campaign for which Bill Clinton wrote a fundraising letter in her behalf.
When Clinton won the nomination, Turner’s star was still on the ascendant. She had the possibility of jumping ship again when she was offered the chance to run as the vice-presidential candidate with third-party candidate Jill Stein. But being a defeated vice-presidential candidate on a third-party ticket relegates even the most ascendant political star to an answer in a trivia contest and guaranteed political obscurity.
With the Trump victory in 2016 and no paying gig on the horizon, Turner stayed on with Sanders. Based her announcement this week, it looks like “she don’t work there no more” and rumors that she had secured a huge contract to do her own radio show were apparently fake news.
In virtually every one of her speeches Turner reverts to her anatomical analogy of osteopathic medicine, referencing the connection between the neckbone, to the backbone, and the backbone to the hip bone. It is an analogy that she has used ad nauseum.
Maybe her new consulting busines should be called “Neck Bone Connections.” That will give her a skeletal structure to build on as her career careens from positions within D.C. beltway and national media back to her roots Cleveland.
Turner’s political instability and verbal gaffs, all to the detriment of her natural constituency, the Democratic Party and her own political future, have put nails so deep in her political coffins that no tools exist to extricate them. Up-and-coming candidates tend to shy away from politicos who have jumped ship from one campaign to another and then crudely bash the Democratic presidential nominee. That is not the type of person that prospective candidates want to be associated with or look to you for advice.
With all her so-called political savvy and education, Turner has apparently neglected to learn two basic rules of politics. One, you meet the same people on the way up as you do on the way down and two, politics is a game of chess not checkers. You need to look a few moves ahead before you sacrifice a rook or a bishop. A bad move can come back to slap you in the hipbone.
C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she serves on the Board of the Ohio History Connection, is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission and president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.
One Response to “COMMENTARY: What’s Next For Nina Turner?”
Mary Boyle
Ellen, you have that knack to bring back such poignant memories! Wasn’t there also a piece in that story where the ODP put Nina on the staff for a year or two as the CLE or the woman’s or the Black constituency voice? While all around her good folks were going hungry?