Canon, actually: "Dem Candidate in Deep Red District Comes Out in Favor of Reparations."

Last summer, we were in Chicago for British embassy matters when Dan Canon declared his candidacy at NABC's downtown location, now again dubbed Bank Street Brewhouse, where he made his announcement against a backdrop of hop vines, urban brick remnants, the cloud-hugging Elsby Building, and Rosa L(uxembourg) Stumblebus, the longtime company logo prominently displayed on her side next to his banner.

Eight months down the campaign trail, this photo is iconic. It keeps popping up in media coverage both near and far, and whenever I see it, my eyes are immediately drawn to the symmetry of beer man lofting keg positioned just behind Canon's clenched fist.

Whatever else I might say or not say about my history with NABC, it's probably already obvious that when I see the company logo -- one always intended to be a sign of progressive thought -- appearing next to a candidate of Canon's caliber, it makes me quite happy.

So do his platform positions. 

Dem Candidate in Deep Red District Comes Out in Favor of Reparations, by Colin Kalmbacher (Law and Crime)

A Democratic congressional candidate in a red state is bucking conventional wisdom and party politics by endorsing a raft of explicitly left-wing and populist policy proposals–including reparations for African-Americans.

Dan Canon is running for Indiana’s ninth congressional district. This district includes the city of Bloomington and most of the Indiana side of the Louisville metro area. Canon himself is locally known as a prominent civil rights attorney who helped secure same-sex marriage rights in nearby Kentucky.

The “Priorities” section of Canon’s campaign website positions the candidate firmly in the progressive mold–but goes even a bit further than that. One of the specific policies Canon aims to see enacted is, as mentioned above, reparations for African-Americans.

Canon’s website offers a fairly lengthy breakdown of the candidate’s support–reproduced in full below [emphasis in original]:

Work to close the racial wealth gap in ways including, but not limited to: encouraging support for minority-owned enterprises; protecting the integrity of the federal judiciary and executive cabinet by encouraging diverse appointments; support for measures to demilitarize local law enforcement units, particularly in communities of color; support for the Commission to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African-Americans Act (H.R. 40); introduce and support legislation authorizing private unjust enrichment actions to be brought against corporations and other entities that reaped enormous benefits from the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act was introduced in Congress by Representative John Conyers and currently has 32 cosponsors. Canon’s support for the bill puts him solidly on his party’s left-most flank, as do some of his other campaign positions ...