• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice
  • Arts
  • Education
  • Environment
  • History
  • Nature
  • Politics
  • Wit
  • About

Local Politics: The Republican Double Standard

May 9, 2018 By Eric Caine 2 Comments

Valley Democrats need to follow the Republican example and put party over person

Especially since Donald Trump prevailed in the 2016 presidential election, Democrats have been urged to develop better understanding and sympathy for Trump supporters. The idea is that Trump supporters have good reasons to support Trump and Democrats need to understand and address those reasons so that they can develop a winning platform next election.

We call BS. Donald Trump won in 2016 because angry voters in the nation’s rust belt gave him a one in one-hundred shot at a freak electoral victory. And there’s no mystery why those rust belt voters were angry: They had been abandoned by both parties long ago, and Trump sold them on the idea that he would “drain the swamp” of politics from Washington DC by putting people before party.

So what if it was a lie? Trump won because he ran against both parties and he’s holding on because Republicans, both in and out of congress, have decided they like his policies just fine.

Turn public lands over to private enterprise and strip them of their natural values? Republicans are fine with it. Return to dirty energy, do away with environmental protection, and threaten ocean life with off shore drilling? Republicans are fine with it. Start a trade war that threatens our agricultural economy in the San Joaquin Valley? Republicans are fine with it. In fact, Republicans are fine with virtually all of Trump’s policies and proposals, not to mention lying, money laundering and consorting with criminals.

The truth is, the only thing about Donald Trump Republicans don’t like is his transparent racism, his careless fornication, his open contempt for the rule of law (they prefer the contempt hidden), his defense of criminal cronies, and, well, the list goes on. The point is, Trump makes it hard to apply the usual Republican double standards mostly because he doesn’t even pretend to have standards.

In local elections, Republicans have long promoted another routine double standard—the myth that local elections are apolitical. Thus, when we vote for mayor, city councilmembers, supervisors, sheriffs and other positions, we’re supposed to vote for the person over the party. The result in the San Joaquin Valley is widespread dominance by local Republicans.

But as Steve Ringhoff has pointed out, ideology is as important at the local level as anywhere else. And Republican dominance has resulted in incumbent advantages up and down the ballot.

Thus, it’s easy for Republicans to argue we should vote for the person and not the party, especially when the person is an incumbent with far more specific knowledge of things like budgets, personnel, and resource allocation.

If we want analogies, we can compare national expenditures on the defense budget and local expenditures on law enforcement. Does the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department really need, “two airplanes, two helicopters (one needing about $1m in repairs) and 10 drones (one costing $9k)”?  Republicans tend to spend more on weapons and security issues in general than Democrats, both locally and nationally, while Democrats tend to spend more on education and social services.

There are hosts of other differences between Republicans and Democrats on any number of local issues, including wages, housing, homelessness, crime, drug use and more. Nonetheless, the myth that local government should be apolitical exerts a tremendous hold on voters, and here in the Valley it means ongoing Republican dominance of local politics.

Probably the best way to break that regime of dominance is ask one or two simple questions. The first question, when someone asks you to vote person instead of party is to inquire whether the candidate in question voted person or party in the last presidential election. Here in the Valley, the answer will almost always be that the Republican candidate voted party over person; everyone knew about Donald Trump’s unfitness for office long before Election Day, yet Republicans, and especially Valley Republicans, voted for him.

The second and last question is simple: “Why should I vote for someone with such bad judgment and so little regard for the nation?”

 

Filed Under: Featured, Politics

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. CDA RAMIREZ says

    May 9, 2018 at 4:11 pm

    Still a bit sore over the big loss, eh? That is okay, as you are going to see more losses on the Democrip side and the Rebloodlicans will keep dominating.

    There are many within both gangs that are just as bad, just as tore up, and just as evil. To call out the Rebloodlicans on their double standards is itself a double standard; considering we are judging the actions of one’s past I think that double standard is owned by both hooligans and their cohorts.

    Reply
  2. Damon says

    June 30, 2018 at 5:39 pm

    Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point.
    You obviously know what youre talking about,
    why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your blog when you
    could be giving us something enlightening to read?

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note: Some comments may be held for moderation.

Primary Sidebar

Off The Wire

California faces catastrophic flood dangers ? and a need to invest billions in protection
California faces catastrophic flood dangers and a need to invest billions in protection
A new state plan for the Central Valley calls for spending as much as $30 billion over 30 years to prepare for the dangers.
www.latimes.com
Oakland will get millions for the ?inhumane? crisis at one huge homeless encampment. Officials say it?s not enough
Oakland will get millions for the “inhumane” crisis at one huge homeless encampment. Officials say it’s not enough
Gavin Newsom’s administration has awarded Oakland a $4.7 million grant to come up with…
www.sfchronicle.com
Alaska?s Fisheries Are Collapsing. This Congresswoman Is Taking on the Industry She Says Is to Blame.
Alaska’s Fisheries Are Collapsing. This Congresswoman Is Taking on the Industry She Says Is to Blame.
Mary Peltola won her election by campaigning on a platform to save the state’s prized fisheries. A powerful fishing lobby is standing in her way.
www.politico.com
Jimmy Carter's final foe: A parasitic worm that preyed on millions in Africa and Asia
Jimmy Carter’s final foe: A parasitic worm that preyed on millions in Africa and Asia
One of former President Carter’s biggest hopes is wiping out an infectious parasitic disease that’s plagued humans for millennia. How close is he?
www.latimes.com
Climate Extremes Threaten California?s Central Valley Songbirds - Eos
Climate Extremes Threaten California’s Central Valley Songbirds – Eos
A “nestbox highway” in California’s Central Valley is guiding songbirds to safe nesting sites and giving scientists a peek at fledgling success in a changing climate.
eos.org
Alaska Republican touts benefits of children being abused to death
Alaska Republican touts benefits of children being abused to death
Republican David Eastman suggested the death of child abuse victims could be a “cost savings” to wider society.
www.newsweek.com
Editorial: Newsom's drought order amid wet winter threatens iconic California species
Editorial: Newsom’s drought order amid wet winter threatens iconic California species
Gov. Gavin Newsom has effectively ended environmental regulations protecting California rivers and migratory fish by extending drought-year waivers.
www.latimes.com
Two-thirds of McPherson Square homeless remain on street, D.C. says
Two-thirds of McPherson Square homeless remain on street, D.C. says
As of Thursday, just two of the more than 70 residents of McPherson Square had been placed in permanent D.C. housing.
www.washingtonpost.com
More Building Won?t Make Housing Affordable
More Building Won’t Make Housing Affordable
America’s housing crisis has reached unfathomable proportions. But new construction isn’t enough to solve it.
newrepublic.com
Why YIMBYs are about to sue the daylights out of cities across the Bay Area
Why YIMBYs are about to sue the daylights out of cities across the Bay Area
Housing advocates are about to deliver a message to the Bay Area: Comply with state…
www.sfchronicle.com
At the heart of Colorado River crisis, the mighty 'Law of the River' holds sway
At the heart of Colorado River crisis, the mighty ‘Law of the River’ holds sway
At the heart of tensions over water allotments from the Colorado River is a complex set of agreements and decrees known as the ‘Law of the River.’
www.latimes.com
Biden restores roadless protection to the Tongass, North America's largest rainforest
Biden restores roadless protection to the Tongass, North America’s largest rainforest
The Tongass National Forest in Alaska, a focus of political battles over old-growth logging and road-building in forests for decades, has received new protection from the Biden administration.
theconversation.com

Find us on Facebook

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Footer

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Subscribe for Free

* indicates required

Search

• Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 The Valley Citizen

Dedicated to the memory of John Michael Flint. Contact us at thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Editor and publisher: Eric Caine

Website customization and maintenance by Susan Henley Design