Why people do not trust the government any more
By Sebraleaves for Medium
Scott Wiener’s Press Conference to Announce SB 50 did not go well. Now he claims “Single family housing is immoral” and gets away with it. What has changed?
ABC coverage of the press conference that lists the items in SB50: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqSzXZ-0V94
Watching the above video brings up many questions, such as when did the public lose control of their legislators and how and why did it happen? Could it have anything to do with the new lack of trust in government and the power of the almighty lie? Has the lie become the truth for the foreseeable political landscape?
Is that how people lost their powers?
Look no further than SF’s election committee that tossed a candidate off the ballot. Now attempts are being made to disqualify others. Attacks against the current President of the Board of Supervisors appear to be going nowhere because he gets high praise from his constituents for tackling their problems.
City Hall influencers are also making claims against ballot initiatives they oppose. Attempts are being made to pull one of two housing initiatives off the ballot, claiming they confuses voters by contradicting the Mayor’s housing measure with a similar title.
Interesting argument since the Board of Supervisors used the same tactic when they put Proposition J on the ballot to confuse voters over Proposition I, which would re-open the closed streets to traffic in Golden Gate Park. Proposition J would keep those streets closed.
How are the battling housing measures more confusing than the battling traffic control measures? We shall see how the public reacts to these heavy-handed tactics when the time comes to vote. They already flexed their muscles with their denial of the $400 Muni Bond bill. How likely are they to pass the more regressive sales tax extension bill on the November ballot?
Watching ABC’s coverage on the elements of Wieners SB50, which was soundly rejected by the legislature, we were astonished by how many of issues people opposed in SB50 have become state statutes. YIMBY divided them up into small slices and sold them to the state legislators one bite at a time. As you watch the above video see if you recognize anything that hasn’t passed through the state legislature and been signed into law.
Now consider that State Senator Wiener, after devastating the state of California by commodifying housing and privatizing public property for the benefit of the corporations, is the “chosen replacement” for Pelosi when she leaves office. This heavy-handed corporate raider from New Jersey that swept in on a YIMBY rug is being served up on a silver platter to the Washington/Wall Street gang and giving his party a bad name.
It is up to us to warn the country about these party antics that have turned California into a farce built on the YIMBY plan to turn people into faceless digits.
Now is the time to push back against state overreach through legislative and court actions. To do so we need stronger leaders who will work with the growing number of organizations who are fighting back.
Our Neighborhood Voices, Livable California, United Neighbors, Catalysts, and California Cities for Local Control are a few of the many the statewide groups that are taking up the fight against state overreach. We need to support strong new leaders and candidates who are not afraid to fight Goliath.
