When I moved here seven years ago, I kept hearing about how the local left was at the root of the community’s problems. Being more conservative, at least in the liberal Bay Area, I was all ears.
As it turned out, most of what I heard from the right were personal attacks, some of it pretty nasty: “He’s broke, so we’re not worried,” “She’s nutty” or “He’s with so and so” (gadzooks!) and so on; the only real issues I heard about were NH2020 and the anti-growth initiatives.
I’m sure there are two sides to every story. For example, I heard the Rood Center needed a “mediator” to help some of previous board members communicate with one another — pitiful for a small town. But now that I’ve lived here a while, I have a view of the left and the right from personal observations, not hearsay.
Nowadays it seems that the vitriol comes from the right, not the left — almost daily. The left has strong passions — to be sure — but I never hear the personal attacks that I do from the right. To me, at least, it weakens your arguments.
Examples:
•Former Supervisor Todd Juvinall vs. former Supervisor Peter Van Zant. (Not even close).
•Political activist Reinette Senum vs. activists Russ Steele, George Rebane and Barry Pruett. (Reinette is passionate, but she never personally attacks or belittles anyone).
•The Union publisher/editor Jeff Ackerman vs. Yubanet’s Pascale Fusshoeller. (Again, totally different styles).
•Staunch local Republican Central Committee members (more personal oriented, based on a “history” with someone) vs. Democratic Central Committee members (more affable and issue oriented).
So when a newcomer moves up here, it’s hard to understand what all the noise is about when it comes to the “local left.”
This is just my observation. But it comes from somebody who has been conservative fiscally and more liberal socially throughout their lives. It can be unsettling, causing you to question some basic assumptions about California.
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