There’s so much horrendous stuff happening in America that sometimes it almost seems petty to focus on local politics. I mean, with Trump poised for a comeback, and “Christian” nationalists staging a slow-motion coup to take over America, and (unlikely) World War III looming, maybe our Oakland issues don’t amount to a hill of beans.
But our Oakland issues are the ones that confront us every day, and so they must remain our focus. Sure, it would be horrible if some future Trump regime mandated evangelical Christianity as the official state religion. But that hasn’t happened yet, and while it’s still slouching towards power, we have the current realities to deal with.
The collapse of this city is a tale that cannot be told enough. In no other city in the U.S. do we witness the crumbling of law, order, sanity, reason and safety the way we do in Oakland. The infuriating thing, of course, is that this is by design. A generation of Black socialists and their progressive stooges has deliberately caused it, and now that they’ve had a taste of success, they’ll fight like honey badgers to keep it. They hate Trump, but the ironic thing is they play by the same rules.
It’s said that many young people have tuned politics out. I don’t doubt it. With crushing debt and a forlorn future facing them, they see little difference between the two parties, so why bother voting? Here in Oakland, as near as I can tell, most young people are low-information voters. They have little to no understanding of how and why we’re in the current crisis, but they tend to feel sorry for underdogs. They thus buy into the fiction that people of color are held down by the forces of structural racism and capitalism. That’s untrue. You know it and I know it. But it works. You can fool a lot of people a lot of the time, and you can do it for a long time. But what you can’t do is un-do the damage your political ideology has caused.
I feel so sorry for Oakland. Somewhere, buried under the detritus of crime, tragedy and dumbness is a beautiful city, just waiting to rise up again. It used to be a wonderful town, back before “progressives” seized control and ruined it. The streets were safe and fun. Neighborhoods were neat and tidy. Oakland didn’t have maniacs running around out of control. People weren’t shooting each other by the hundreds. Stores did lively business; downtown thrived; the ball parks were filled.
Now, we’ve lost all that. I date it to when the progressives took control, after World War II but especially since the 1980s. Oakland has been in a downward spiral since. How could educated voters not see that? How could they keep electing the same vicious, stupid politicians? Why are they not rising up in revolt against wokeism?
P.S. I’m so glad that Chief Armstrong joined the race for at-large! He took his time, but finally it’s official. We can’t yet endorse him because he hasn’t released the details of his platform, but I hope that will be forthcoming—and he promised me personally yesterday that he soon will. He can’t and shouldn’t just run a rose-garden strategy based on his immense popularity. Here’s his rudimentary website.
But he needs to answer questions. Among them: Do you support the recall of Price and Thao? How many sworn OPD officers will you demand? (He once told me Oakland needs a minimum of 1,100.) Will you take on the Police Commission in all its deformity and cynicism? How will you fight the Fife-Bas-Kalb-Thao cult that still wants to defund OPD? Will you renounce, in no uncertain terms, haters like Cat Brooks?
Leronne Armstrong’s candidacy is an exciting one. He’s young, attractive, charismatic, smart, and—I think—moral, which is why we honored him earlier this year with our Person of the Year award. He could be at the beginning of a political career that knows no boundaries. As he figures out his platform, he could play it safe and be bland. Or he could bust through the complacency and roar with the truth of ten thousand trumpets, inspiring Oaklanders to rally beneath his banner. Chief Armstrong, the choice is yours.
Steve Heimoff