Editor’s note: This is an interesting point by Steve Frisch (below), responding to another jab by one-time County Supervisor Todd Juvinall, over on the Rebane blog: pointing out the difference between Truckee and our western county.
It is a reoccurring theme here. I spend a good deal of time in Truckee and never encounter the rancor of extremist politics. Policy disagreements, yes, but not the “hatred” for “the other side” that Bill Clinton referred to in his recent speech.
It begs the question: Why do we continue to let a small group of vocal, extremists (diminishing in their clout, judging by election returns in recent years) lead us around by the nose in our western county?
And what role does the media play in perpetuating it in the interest of “First Amendment rights” (a cop-out for lazy editing)?
Time and time again recently, local voters support the moderate, not the extremist, candidate in our local elections. In Truckee, as I’ve reported before, the local tea party tried to find a candidate to run in the supervisors race this summer, but were politely turned down.
And most important, does this phenomena hold back our public policy and planning efforts, whether it’s land-use, economic development, environmental policy or whatever? I am certain it does, and I keep waiting for a civic, business or elected leader to step forward and address it more seriously.
Steve Frisch to Todd Juvinall:
I moved here in 1987 and immediately got involved in local issues. You may not have seen me because you were too busy trying to become dog-catcher. Smartest thing we ever did up here was split our asses off from the rest of the county so we could control out own planning and local government decisions. That was largely because people like you were so out of step with the 20th century. I’m pretty proud of that.
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