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ALPERN AT LARGE - I’d start with “it’s funny how the GOP has been thrown out of the state, city, and other branches of our California governmental elites, with a resultant explosion in crime and homelessness” but it’s not funny.
Not funny at all.
The problem with labeling one party or another as “extremist” is that such a label is, in and of itself, extremist. A two-party (or more) system usually ensures balance, moderation, and compromise, and is arguably the best defense against extremism.
And NOT all Democrats are the same, and NOT all Republicans are the same, any more than any one group of ethnic or other groups of individuals.
In my last few CityWatch articles, and certainly in my upcoming articles, I have and will continue to harp not on WHO is the best person to run for office, but WHY so many people will vote for someone deemed so dangerous by many others.
As in: Voting for Trump? Are you serious? The guy is a criminal lunatic who’s a classless and foul-mouthed dictator! Look who he surrounds himself with! He is a delusional psychopath and puppet who will end democracy!
Also, as in: As in: Voting for Biden? Are you serious? The guy is a criminal lunatic who’s a sneaky and passive-aggressive dictator! Look who he surrounds himself with! He is a delusional psychopath and puppet who will end democracy!
Meanwhile, government and personal debt, and both underpaying employment (not just Unemployment, but UNDERemployment) and inflation are eating us alive. Crime abounds, affordable housing is unobtainable, and the value of a college education keeps getting increasingly less.
Enter Proposition 47’s supporters and its coauthor, George Gascón, who bucked the age-old trend about listening to Law Enforcement about crime and helped promote the reign of George Soros as the man to run (and ruin) our cities.
Gascón was elected in 2020, but the Proposition 47 he coauthored was passed by the voters back in 2014; in other words, he had a “history” of being very, very SOFT on crime.
I suspect that those who favored the low crime rates (but at the cost of some judicial overreach) of Three Strikes either left the state, as age and other demographics changed, and/or bought into the “crisis” of prison overcrowding. I also suspect that the COVID pandemic and the George Floyd nightmarish crisis strongly influenced voters.
In the 2020 Attorney General race between Jackie Lacey and George Gascón, 72% of donations totaling $7 million for Lacey came from law enforcement unions, while 53% from wealthy individuals totaling $12.4 million for Gascón came from wealthy individuals (including New York billionaire George Soros as well as Bay Area philanthropist Patty Quillin and her husband Netflix CEO Reed Hastings).
So after kicking out the conservative “out-of-state, evil, rich Koch Brothers” from California politics, we then welcomed out-of-state gazillionaires like the Soros family and the “limousine liberals” who have NO idea of life without bodyguards and high-walled mansions to own us politically…
Rich, wealthy conservatives…bad! Rich, wealthy liberals…good!
Got it!
So now we have “non-violent property crimes”, where the value does not exceed $950, turned into misdemeanors (which now also have no associated bail or reliable enforcement). Ditto for some simple drug possession offenses turned into misdemeanors, and which even when they’re not so simple are forgiven.
Fast forward to 2024—after years of a crime wave affecting our urban regions (not just in California, but in virtually all major cities), and after COVID lockdowns and prison release programs, chaos abounds. Closed and locked-down grocery stores, and the inability to access shops without someone accosting you for money.
Has Gascón now announced a change of heart? Have George Soros and his creepy, uberwealthy son Alex now announced a change of heart?
Absolutely not.
But they and other major California Democratic political leaders and power players have pointed to, and still with a frenzy point to, former (and perhaps future) President Donald Trump as the great entity to be feared.
Hence the question of WHY must now be repeated.
WHY is California, and WHY are so many major cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, being pointed to as examples to NOT be followed?
WHY are so many Americans realizing that the “let-no-crisis-go-to-waste, fingerpointing-to-deflect-from-their-own-malfeasance-and-bad-governance” Far-Left has used and abused them…and are now considering putting a brash-mouthed non-politician named Donald J. Trump back into the White House?
And WHY is the controversy swirling around President Joe Biden’s and his electability concerns now leading to blue states becoming swing states, and political leaders with troubled futures suddenly shifting to the right?
(Frankly, the chaos surrounding the Left and its acolytes probably started on 10/7/2023 with the Hamas slaughter of Israeli civilians, and the local/domestic chaos and explosion of public antisemitism since then, and also worsened with high-profile murder and crimes by illegal immigrants and terrorist cells…but I digress).
A reform measure, Proposition 36, backed by the grassroots and Law Enforcement, and which is meant to reverse the excesses and crime-inducing portions of the aforementioned Gascón-coauthored Proposition 47, was opposed by Governor Gavin Newsom and the Far-Left Democratic leadership running the California Legislature.
All sorts of nonsense and poison pills in Legislature-promoted laws and alternatives to Proposition 36 were attempted, but apparently they did not succeed.
Then…whammo! Governor Newsom (who has an obvious role in either 2024 or 2028 as a Democratic White House hopeful) withdrew his and the Legislature’s attempts to subvert the will of the people, by surprisingly withdrawing his opposition to Proposition 36 (the Proposition 47 reform measure).
Governor Newsom worked feverishly to come up with an alternative to Proposition 36, but perhaps President Biden’s current campaign problems, and/or the inability to find consensus with a Sacramento Legislature (as Far-Left as we’ve ever seen in our state’s history and as beholden to the Soros & Company Elites), stymied this effort.
Similarly, San Diego Democratic Mayor Todd Gloria (up for re-election against several challengers), who advocated for Proposition 47 reforms and worked with state legislators and Governor Newsom, suddenly and “sadly” backed Proposition 36 as the only choice left.
WHY?
Is it because Democratic leaders, who decry everyone and everything Republican (including crime control, limiting the ravages of drug abuse, controlling the border, and supporting a strong United States of America) as eeeeeeeeeeeeeviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiil, realize that crime and the fentanyl crisis can’t be ignored?
Or is it because their political hides are on the line?
One way or another, lots of folks who cannot STAND Donald Trump will vote for him, both in California and throughout the nation (similarly, lots of other folks are out there who want Biden replaced on the 2024 ticket, but will without hesitation vote for Biden as the best way to stop Trump).
One way or another, lots of folks who cannot STAND Republicans will consider and reconsider Nathan Hochman and Rick Caruso as a future L.A. Attorney General and L.A. Mayor, respectively…despite their previous affiliations with the Republican Party (as if those affiliations are somehow criminal and malicious in intent).
One way or another, lots of folks who cannot STAND conservatives will recognize that lenience and tolerance of criminal behavior, with policies promoted and enforced by far-left liberals, are practices that cannot continue forever.
One way or another, lots of folks will get off the dime and throw Gascón out, and reform his radical, unsustainable Proposition 47 to boot with Proposition 36.
Because common sense, common decency, public safety, and civilized law-and-order have never, NEVER been mutually exclusive.
Vote YES on Proposition 36, regardless of your political background and regardless of what your opinions are of Republicans and Donald J. Trump.
Vote YES to a more civilized future for the Golden State.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
