The problem with Elen Asatryan for Glendale City Council
Your Irascible Correspondent has been doing a bit (just a bit) of investigation for you guys. Recently Elen Asatryan was a guest on the WiseNuts podcast, an Armenian American Podcast based out of Burbank CA. The hosts, the 3 WiseNuts talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly side of everyday life. With a new guest every week, they are currently the longest running Armenian podcast. Podcast is primarily in English.
I was impressed with Asatryan’s story of her early forays into pro Armenian activism leading into political life, she certainly has some good accomplishments to her credit. Even some of her ideas, particularly in south Glendale are fairly reasonable, such as requiring developers to include green spaces between projects to make the neighborhoods more welcoming to residents walking their neighborhoods, seem reasonable. Especially since the whole thrust of building massive, multi story hives right up the the sidewalk seems to exclude the idea of these new kinds of residential blocks are intended to include any kind of pleasant aesthetics.
But as she goes along it becomes very clear that there are some topics she doesn’t want to talk about.
Such as the idea that perhaps police discrimination against Armenians might have something to do with Armenian kids driving Dad’s expensive car at 90 mph on city streets.
She supports Black Lives Matter, and wouldn’t really look at the facts behind George Floyd’s death. The fact that he was a violent thug and died of a drug overdose while in police custody is irrelevant and ought not be part of the conversation. She evades the question of the violence associated with that whole sordid incident.
She would support the so called “Gay Pride” parades despite the concerns of the hosts as to the display of, in their terms, “certain ways of dressing” which would offend against decency norms.
She considers Justice Jackson fully qualified and her appointment as having nothing to with the fact that she is a black female who has a judicial history of being soft on sex criminals convicted of sex crimes against children.
She claims she is clueless about the transgender debate raging in society at large and the schools in particular. She seems to support biological males competing in women’s sports and does not regard transgender ideology as undermining the women’s rights movement.
By this point it is clear that she is very annoyed at the hosts trying to pin her down on particular topics, and pleads a prior engagement to end the interview rather than face further questions from the hosts or their audience listening live on the internet.
The response of the listeners in the comments section is instructive:
Glendale CityClerk – Greg Krikorian
I haven’t watched the episode but I’m glad the hosts grilled her with the questions Glendale residents would like to know. I’m Filipino, been living in Glendale for the past 12 years, and I love it here. I love my Armenian neighbors, Glendale isn’t perfect, but I love it. It’s these white liberals from DTLA and out of state that are trying to change Glendale and need to go. They use people that look like us to push their agenda. I will not be voting for her definitely.