Government is theft. It is also a dictator. It passes rules, then decides who they apply to and who gets to skate on them.
“Want details? Extreme-progressive Democratic city council candidate Eunisses Hernandez ousted incumbent Gil Cedillo in the June 2022 primary election. Less than a third of voters turned out, but those who did felt that Democrat Cedillo was no longer progressive enough. Hernandez won 54% of the vote“after waging a [primary] campaign that involved more than 60,000 door knocks.”
That’s a huge mobilization of support and much of it came from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a powerful movement gaining ground. As proclaimed in a victory statement, “Since 2020, DSA-LA’s endorsements in regularly-scheduled elections have a 72% win rate.”
The Democrat Party no longer runs Los Angeles. The Democrat Socialists of America run the City. That is why it is a war zone, lots of homeless, illegal aliens and a massive deficit. Need a cop? Not in LA, they have been defunded and fearful of enforcing the law. LA cops are more like observers than enforcers thanks to the SA control.
Column: Time to Stop Letting Others Dictate Our Daily Lives
Connie Brooks, Westside Current, 2/23/24 https://www.westsidecurrent.com/news/column-time-to-stop-letting-zealous-ideologues-dictate-our-daily-lives/article_c0dcc1a8-d1f9-11ee-af0a-6b1cae438cca.html?utm_source=westsidecurrent.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletter%2Foptimize%2Fdaily-headlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1708702202&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline
LOS ANGELES – I used to believe that only national elections were important. However, experience taught me a vital lesson: if pragmatic people discount local elections and are “too busy” to vote, they give passionate ideologues the power to shape our everyday lives through their ballots.
If you think that’s an overstatement, think again. My Venice neighborhood experienced a three-year ordeal of encampment-related issues under former council member Mike Bonin. An advocate for an extreme progressive agenda, Bonin faced mounting opposition. However, he secured an easy re-election in the 2017 primary because his passionate supporters voted and his critics didn’t. Despite widespread dissatisfaction, only a quarter of eligible voters participated in the primary. Bonin took 71% of their vote.
A candidate in an LA primary only needs to get over 50% of the vote to win outright.
Stop letting the most passionate voters decide your quality of life.
Local voter turnout is critical. When you don’t vote, you give up the opportunity to elect a candidate who champions your interests and priorities.
FACT: If an LA City or County candidate gets over 50% of all votes in a local primary election, they win outright – with no runoff. And they need JUST ONE VOTE over 50% to gain that win.
FACT: Most of us don’t bother to vote in local primary elections. In the June 2022 primary for instance, countywide voter turnout was just 14.45%.
FACT: Our LA City Councilmembers and LA County Supervisors make decisions that dictate the quality of our lives. If we don’t vote, we’re letting other voters decide how we live.
A battle is playing out between extreme progressives and other LA Democrats.
Want details? Extreme-progressive Democratic city council candidate Eunisses Hernandez ousted incumbent Gil Cedillo in the June 2022 primary election. Less than a third of voters turned out, but those who did felt that Democrat Cedillo was no longer progressive enough. Hernandez won 54% of the vote“after waging a [primary] campaign that involved more than 60,000 door knocks.”
That’s a huge mobilization of support and much of it came from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a powerful movement gaining ground. As proclaimed in a victory statement, “Since 2020, DSA-LA’s endorsements in regularly-scheduled elections have a 72% win rate.”
Fair enough. That’s how democracy works. We all have a fundamental right to fight for what we believe in. But we all need to pay attention to what others believe in – especially if they’re voting and we’re not.
“Abolish capitalism and free all incarcerated people.”
A taste of what the DSA believes in comes straight from their political platform.
“We fight for the abolition of capitalism” and for “freedom for all incarcerated people.” The DSA wants to “abolish the carceral forces of the state [including] defund the police” as well as “stop all funding of prison expansion…and close local jails.”
Yes. That’s right. They want to do away with our capitalist economic system. They also want to free all prisoners.
Those are far-reaching beliefs and they are extreme. Yet they are being acted on in local government with real-life consequences. Take the issue of abolishing “carceral forces of the state.”
As an LA City Councilmember, Hernandez voted against the LAPD pay raise championed by Mayor Bass. It passed anyway, but in her previous role with JusticeLA, Hernandez helped influence the LA County Board of Supervisors vote in 2019 to cancel the contract to build a new men’s jail.
Today, our grossly inadequate old jail remains operational. We’ve built no other facility to house people who’ve committed crimes. And there’s no agreement on how to fix this terrible situation. But to alleviate overcrowding, prison “depopulation and decarceration” was suggested. That’s been tabled for the moment. But a faction of our elected officials is still pushing to solve prison overcrowding by releasing prisoners onto our streets.
Hernandez and her fellow extreme-progressive elected officials favor a system of community care in lieu of incarceration. This is laudable in its intent, but such a system has not even been planned, much less built or implemented. It’s a vision, not a solution.
Democracy doesn’t represent the majority unless we all participate by voting.
To be clear, I’m not criticizing Hernandez or other extreme progressives. They’re fighting for what they believe in. That’s the core of democracy. I’m criticizing the majority of voters who tell pollsters they support the police, express concern about the lack of public safety in neighborhoods and schools – and yet don’t bother to vote.
Of course, local elections don’t just determine public safety. Your local electeds direct everything from sidewalk repairs and whether households must recycle to how local businesses operate and who gets housing. But make no mistake – these elected officials also determine how easily criminals are released onto LA streets and how close encampments full of people with untreated substance and mental health issues can be to our kids’ schools.
That’s why all of us must vote in every local election – or bear the consequences of leadership elected by a passionate minority of ideologues who put their beliefs ahead of pragmatic solutions to our very real and extremely urgent local problems.
