Posted on 07/13/2024 1:57:17 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
akland politics are heating up. On July 9, the City Council voted to place a recall referendum for Mayor Sheng Thao on the November ballot. Public discussion has focused on last month’s raid on the mayor’s home by the FBI, IRS, and US Postal Service in a broad but as-yet-opaque investigation into allegations of corruption and money laundering. Yet the campaign against Thao has other motivations—and ignoring them would be a big mistake.
Spearheaded by retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte and members of Oakland’s minority communities, the campaign gathered more than 40,000 voter signatures in favor of the city’s first-ever mayoral recall—more voters, in fact, than those who supported Thao in the first round of the city’s ranked-choice election system in 2022. These regular Oaklanders have had enough of rising crime and civic neglect under progressive governance.
Positioned in opposition to this coalition is a dwindling but die-hard cadre of progressives who have feebly attempted to smear recall organizers and supporters as right-wing extremists. This includes the mayor herself. In her first public appearance after the multi-agency raid, Thao claimed that she had been targeted by “radical right-wing forces” working to remove her from office.
These claims, however, are preposterous. In fact, Thao’s political troubles owe to a remarkably post-partisan grassroots movement, driven by ordinary people who just want the city to function properly. Many frontline organizers are proud native Oaklanders, including descendants of Southern black migrants. Others are first-generation immigrants. Some, like myself, are former progressives, working to reconcile our ideals with the phony progressive policies and politicians that have brought our city to a crisis point. None of us is happy that we have been sold a lie—and we are in full revolt against those at fault.
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(Excerpt) Read more at compactmag.com ...
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Nice, but you’ll have to have something positive to fill the vacuum.
Things begin to shift.
As a result, low-information voters regularly vote for familiar progressive incumbents over their pro-business challengers. I, too, voted the same way for most of my adult life.
Sheesh....
Some, like myself, are former progressives, working to reconcile our ideals with the phony progressive policies and politicians that have brought our city to a crisis point.
Was the raid ordered by John Fisher? She seems like a better mayor than the other recent mayors, is she being punished for going up against John Fisher?
She seems a lot less wolf than the people before her.
Seneca Scott...
Let's say I'm going to hold judgment on what his "ideals" are, pending more info, but I'm not optimistic.
For example, is he voting for Trump?
Everybody goes through a transition period. David Horowitz did. Roseanne is. David Babbitt was, might still be. You want a McMAGA loyalist? It’s a process. See for whom he’s voting in November. He might have been fully red-pilled by then, or not.
You can’t make corn grow faster, no matter how hard you pull.
That has to be done on the local level.
They are. It’s a process.
Just like with fjb, after years of being lied to the peasants are woking up:-)
“Some, like myself, are former progressives..”
Didn’t embrace the suck eh?
Means still a progressive and deserves Oakland.
Oakland used to be a decent safe livable town with many cultural entertainment and retail choices
Now people are afraid to even drive through it lest they suffer a car breakdown or Breakin or heist
I wish him well, so we’ll see.
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