Loren Taylor is smart to remind voters that Barbara Lee vigorously opposed the recall of Sheng Thao. Thao is the most reviled Oakland political figure in years. She’s so unpopular that, if she’s tried in the East Bay, her lawyers will ask for a change of venue. The recall’s margin of victory was 64%, a landslide indicating just how Oaklanders feel about her.
That Lee was on the wrong side of the recall tells us volumes about her unsuitability for any elective office, much less mayor. She no longer has any political instinct, which isn’t surprising, given that she was in Congress for 27 years, in a safe seat, and completely out of touch with Oakland’s reality. She had no idea what was actually happening on the street, and she obeyed her union paymasters diligently. If she had political instinct, she would have realized how hated Thao was by the voters, and how much damage Thao had done to Oakland due to her anti-police and woke ideology. But then, of course, Lee is the godmother of woke, a relic of her days as a Black Panther.
But it wasn’t just political instinct Lee lacked. It was, and is, respect for her constituents. She had to have known the Recall would succeed by a huge margin. If she didn’t, then she’s even more out of touch than I thought.
Lee, at 78 years of age, should have gone into dignified retirement when she left Congress after embarrassingly losing her campaign for Senate, in which she placed last. She should have read the room: Californians don’t like her, and even many Oaklanders know she’s outlived her expiration date. But she’s addicted to public office and enjoys the perks that come with it. I have no doubt she’s not wealthy; to her credit she’s never been swept up in scandal the way Thao has. But Barbara Lee’s financial needs are not something Oaklanders need care about. It’s not our job to ensure that she can live an expense-account lifestyle.
Loren Taylor should keep on hammering away at Lee’s support of Thao. It’s hard to get a message through in these days of information overload, but this is a very simple message for voters to understand. Lee supported Thao. Say it again. Lee was on Thao’s side. On the side of a corrupt, cynical political hack. Lee is now trying to do some ‘splainin’ by claiming she has always opposed recalls, but that is a very lame excuse. She voted to impeach Trump—what’s the difference? She’s a hypocrite. The recall is built into the California Constitution; it’s absolutely legal, a vital remedy for voters who find themselves governed by incompetents and grifters. Lee supported Thao because both were part of the same corrupt political system. Those people always protect each other by circling the wagons and smearing the opposition, the way Lee is trying to smear Loren Taylor. But the old politics don’t work anymore. The voters have wised up. They now know that “progressives” aren’t looking out for their interests.
Steve Heimoff