My task in writing this daily blog is to debunk the perfidious lie that has become so entrenched in Oakland that some credulous people actually believe it. Like a metastasizing cancer that has sunk into the marrow, blood and sinew of our body politic, this Big Lie is killing us. More people than ever understand this truth, thank God, but there are still others who can’t or won’t. For this reason it’s important to call out the Lie, wherever it turns up, which is usually from “progressive” politicians and a gullible media.
What is this Big Lie? Two articles from yesterday’s S.F. Chronicle shed light on it. The first is about how residents of Sea Cliff, the seaside San Francisco neighborhood, have begun a movement to unseat progressive Supervisor Connie Chan and replace her with a moderate, Marjan Philhour. The important thing to understand is that these residents consider themselves liberal Democrats. As one told the Chronicle, “I’m not a Republican. I’m a liberal. But [progressivism] went too far.”
The other article was about Pamela Price’s embarrassing campaign to keep her job as District Attorney. I call it “embarrassing” because she’s resorting to the most blatantly manipulative claims in order to mislead voters. Her opponents—those who wish to recall her—are motivated by “hatred and racism,” she avers. This has been her defense ever since the Recall started gaining momentum last year.
Consider the two quotes—“progressivism went too far” and Price’s “hatred and racism”—together. Is Price suggesting that the Sea Cliff resident who worries about crime is motivated by “hatred and racism”? What an insult. What patronizing condescension. What hooey. Concerns about crime are not illegitimate. But Price, in her relentless ideological drive to impose her woke politics on everybody else, is incapable of empathy with those of us who just want to live peaceful lives. We are expendable, in her view—collateral damage in her war to remake society in her Black Panther-inflected image. You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, she seems to be saying, and if we—the law-abiding, tax-paying citizens of Oakland and Alameda County—happen to be those eggs, then we ought to gratefully offer ourselves up for the sacrifice.
Price is fighting back against the perception that she’s soft on crime, that she favors young criminals of color over the victims they prey upon. Yet her own words and actions over the years prove that our suspicions are real. Well has it been said that Price isn’t a real District Attorney, she’s actually a public defender, i.e. a lawyer who day in and day out defends hoodlums. Her argument is that these muggers, thieves and murderers are the real victims, that “racism,” “capitalism” and “white supremacy” have forced these young men into lives of crime. But we who actually live reality on the ground in Oakland know that this is the Big Lie. Nothing compels anyone to be a sociopath.
The San Francisco Chronicle, in its own war on truth, tries to portray Sea Cliff residents as out-of-touch, resentful, rich and racist “conservatives.” I have no desire to defend the rich, who really should be paying higher taxes. But these reporters and editors have no explanation for why Sea Cliff residents themselves identify as liberal Democrats. Why would a Democrat be pro-cop, anti-crime, and want to get rid of woke politicians like Connie Chan? For the same reason that Oakland Democrats want to get rid of Pamela Price, Sheng Thao and, eventually, Nikki Bas and Carroll Fife. Because we love our city. Because we wish to live in peace. Because we’re sick and tired of racial politics. Because we belong to a pretty decent political party that the wokes are trying to destroy and replace with some form of authoritarian socialist dictatorship. If ever there was a cause to fight for, surely this is it. The fight for control of the Democratic Party is on, full-fledged, in Oakland and San Francisco, and the whole world is watching.
Steve Heimoff