Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday urged California cities to clear homeless encampments, escalating efforts anew to address the makeshift tents that line underpasses, parks and streets up and down the state.
He used the occasion to exhort cities and counties once again to use the money and policy changes provided by the state to do their part to help eradicate the disturbing street conditions that have come to define much of California
“No more excuses,” he said at a news conference, adding, “It is time to take back the streets. It’s time to take back the sidewalks. It’s time to take these encampments and provide alternatives.”
Source - AP News
In 2027 & 2028, 4,000+ Democrats will announce their candidacy to represent us as the next Democratic nominee, in the 2028 election.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…who we pick as the nominee will be the most important decision made by us, as a collective.
With the abundance of choices we’ll have in that moment, it’s important that the candidate we choose from that field, represents our values.
We CANNOT pick just any Democrat, or play the “they have the best chance to win” game again.
Someone like Gavin Newsome, who is willing to cozy up to dangerous right-wing figures like Steve Bannon, or White Supremacist ideologues like Charlie Kirk, already felt disqualifying to me.
This story cements it.
We don’t need a candidate who treats unhoused people like some blight on society, or a “problem” that needs to be out of sight.
The problem regarding the homelessness epidemic isn’t the “eyesore” of people and tents on the streets, it’s the conditions in our society that generated those conditions in the first place.
Wall Street privatizing housing
Landlords that can jack up rents, with no limits
Corporations not paying workers enough to live off of
State and Local governments that mishandle money allocated to address the housing crisis
So many more factors…
I don’t want a candidate who looks at the millions on the streets & focuses on the problem THEY are, I want a candidate who understands the societal conditions that drove them to the streets & kept them there.
If someone trying to gain national prominence either doesn’t understand that, or will not directly speak to it, they do not belong in contention to lead us.
Let’s not settle next time around.
We should be very critical of the field of candidates that arises in the next primary cycle.
Until next time,
Desmond
