Over the last month I’ve had the privilege of meeting many members of the Coalition for a Better Oakland who have volunteered to gather signatures for the Pamela Price recall. And I have to say how impressed I am by them.
When we first meet, we begin with the usual pleasantries, but quickly move on to more substantial discussions. They share with me their frustrations and anger at the incompetent governance of Oakland. We both tell stories of horrors we’ve encountered, of hideous scenes that should never be seen in an American city, of the repeated insults by Price and other woke politicians who are hell-bent on driving our city into the grave. Once these conversations start, they could go on for hours: everyone is so filled with resentment of the wokes, and they need to express those thoughts. I do too, which is why I love these encounters.
Anti-Price people are intelligent. They keep up with the news. They can articulate the many instances of appalling behavior, not just by Price but by her cohorts, including Carroll Fife, Nikki Bas and Sheng Thao. They’re people with strong moral convictions and a love of order and law, who hate to see Oakland descend into a cesspool of amoral wokeist anarchy. They’re almost always lifelong Democrats, and one theme that constantly emerges in our conversations is their intellectual struggle of how to remain faithful to a political party in which they were succored but has so lost its bearings. This is my struggle, too. Some of my friends have abandoned the Democratic Party, and while they generally despise the Trump-Republican cult, they’ve been so let down by Democrats that they feel they have no choice but to find a new home elsewhere. Although this breaks my heart when I hear it, I completely understand it.
Obviously the Democratic Party is experiencing an internal quarrel between its woke or “progressive” wing and the more moderate center. We don’t know how that quarrel will resolve, but my sense is that the wokes are losing. If even Oakland Democrats are angry at the far left for the destruction they have wrought, then Democrats nationally must feel the same way, if not more strongly. There must be some possibility of rescuing the Democratic Party from its extremist radicals, because if there isn’t, then we’re ceding power to the Republicans, with all their religious fanaticism, homophobia, misogyny and authoritarian impulses. However the 2024 Presidential election turns out, Oakland will remain in the thrall of radical leftwingers, because the unions who decide who has power won’t give up their wokeism easily, and union money is what decides who gets elected in our town.
I’m so proud to be associated with you, the people of the Coalition for a Better Oakland. You represent the sanity, love and hope that remain in Oakland. It’s frustrating to be always struggling to defeat the insanity of wokeism, but it’s also invigorating. We live to fight on, and we fight on to live. As long as you’re there, I’ll remain a voice for you.
Steve Heimoff