A Tale of Two Blue Cities
Concentration of wealth is moving Centrist Democrats to the Right … and bringing neoliberal and libertarian politics to even deep Blue California cities
It’s election season in my state. We vote in our primaries very, very soon. Many of us are dismayed by the trending Christo-nationalism and/or (pick your word) authoritarianism and/or fascism that is on the rise in this nation, with its cruel and ignorant attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, on free speech protections and rights of Black Americans to study their own history and to protect their own lives, on DEI, on gun control advocates — especially Black state representatives (Justin Pearson and Justin Jones) in Tennessee, where even news media outlets like the Tennessee Holler are getting banned from legislative chambers.
Fascism arises when a population becomes fearful and those who are prone to do so turn to a “strong man” or woman who promises to make them feel safe, to keep the bad guys at bay and to fight off the “elites,” the migrants, the liberals, the “Radical Left.” It also arises due to income disparities and a deep discontent of the kind we see today, sprung from a new era of barely taxed global billlionaires and even trillionaires — who come out of tech, private equity, real estate, fossil fuels, green capitalism and hedge funds. Of course, fascism or Christo-nationalism also results from good old racism and patriarchy, or what I call “white fright” and the “man lash” in this nation, where white and Christian populations are in decline, and women and others are on the rise.
Since launching my new radio-show-host and podcaster career (“Moment of Truth with Ami Chen Mills”) my scrappy, all-volunteer team and I have hosted guests and unearthed factoids which speak to new and troubling allegiances or alliances between centrist or corporate Democrats and the neo-fascist power structure that supports Donald Trump and MAGA.
Ground Zero: my hometown of Santa Cruz, California and its much more dazzling sister city, San Francisco — our beautiful, Bay Area “Baghdad by the Bay.”
Seeing these connections started for me when we first interviewed Ali Collins, a former school board member at San Francisco Unified who was recalled — with two of her colleagues — around the same time as the progressive-leaning District Attorney in San Francisco, Chesa Boudin. I learned about these recalls over the airwaves on NPR and thought, “Oh yeah, that sounds reasonable,” when I heard the accusations that these board members were “wasting time” on changing school names rather than opening up schools again after Covid.
But it was during my talks on KSQD with Ali Collins that I learned of the Far Right money behind these recalls, including from David Sacks, who helped launch the Ron DeSantis presidential campaign with Elon Musk on then-Twitter, a platform already becoming a dumpster-fire of Far Right hate and disinformation.
The uber talented San Francisco-based author and essayist, Rebecca Solnit, wrote about the huge impacts of the tech industry and tech money on San Francisco — where Twitter is based — in an excellent, long-form article for the London Review of Books titled: “In the Shadow of Silicon Valley.” Solnit bemoaned the now hollowed-out office buildings, spooky, driverless cars, privileged mentality and avalanche of political contributions that have taken a colorful, spirited, artistic haven for human and equal rights for all … and begun to turn it into some kind of sanitized playground for the very wealthy. The Guardian documents this “hostile takeover” in this article, by Ali Winston and Will Jarrett, below.
Some intrepid journalists and activists have even created a new podcast called “Sad Francisco” to document the rise of neoliberalism in the City and the fight (I pray for them!) to take it back.
How does one speak up to and stand against millions and millions of dollars from folks whose “success” means to them that they are vastly skilled at everything, clearly, and should rule the world and fly to Mars and mine the moon?
Here in Santa Cruz, an hour and a half down the coast from San Francisco, I find too many parallels to what is happening in the City. And the link between these two cities, in my mind, has become a political movement called YIMBY. Yimby stands for Yes in My Backyard and there is a lot to say about YIMBY, but I will let you “do your own research.”
Essentially, this is a movement focused on housing, almost exclusively, and the high prices of housing, especially in desirable areas. Their solution has been to take down any and all obstacles for developers to build.
Our own community is not in the shadow of Silicon Valley, but a hop, skip and jump away. We used to be protected by a mountain range from all that “productivity” and “innovation” over the Hill, but now Google money, “Tech Bro” money, and work-from-home policies have drawn tech workers and CEOs and very wealthy entrepreneurs to what was once a sleepier beach town.
Cue lots of angry comments here — from YIMBY proponents (who get very, very angry) and possibly tech workers … and these two often overlap. But let me explain! I have no problems with people who work for a living — whether in tech or wherever — or even who try not to (a valid choice in these late stage, capitalist end times). I have no problem with seeking to build more housing for those who can least afford it.
But I do notice that money tends to consolidate. Money looks out for itself and grows itself and stops listening to those who cannot help money make more of itself. Even begins to attack such voices. Begins to align with anyone at all.
One of the central proponents of the YIMBY movement is a Centrist Democrat and State Senator named Scott Wiener. I don’t know Scott. People say he has done some good things — he is good on climate legislation, I have heard. Perhaps he is lovely, but Wiener, along with pro-charter school folks and tech billionaires helped oust the electeds who stood for social justice and equity in San Francisco. Indeed, Wiener’s campaign manager, Todd David ran one of the PACS that did this.
Now, there were all kinds of seemingly valid reasons for the recall. But upon closer inspection, I found that a lot of the school board decisions Wiener was fanning the flames of were made by the people on the board who served just before those who were viciously attacked, likely due to a chaotic and extremely challenging global pandemic.
YIMBY shows up as a pretty strong political movement in Santa Cruz, too, because YIMBY is, of course, supported by local and global real estate interests (and mind you, real estate is perhaps the most powerful lobby in the State of California, if not the world).
It has therefore been a natural fit for YIMBY folks to work hand-in-glove with those candidates and pre-existing PACs who were already funded and backed by real estate interests and developers, to pack a one-two punch in all our local elections, tilting the balance toward Republican-style governance that seems hostile to ideas like protecting trees, open spaces, habitat and nature, in general (even as we lose 200–250 species per day).
This governing style also seems hostile to allowing for wide community input into our urban design, to considering the climate crisis and our future (current?) need to grow more food here, right here where we live. It seems hostile to acknowledging the great gravity of our current ecological and climate situation at all and the fact that it was the march for endless growth and expanding profits that created this mess to begin with.
Some of the pro-YIMBY folks I know in town seem, to me, to be very sincere in their desires for housing the unhoused. Some of them are good people, as I know them. (I believe all people are good people deep down.) But because of their backers, and who they align with to back candidates, it also seems to me like the dialogue and realm of possibilities for ways to get housing for truly desperate people — while considering our ongoing (not future!) climate crisis — has been severely narrowed and truncated.
Energy is diverted from progressive taxation efforts (an “Empty Homes” tax, for example, or a real estate transfer tax), renter protections and social housing initiatives (a municipal or community land trust, for example) and toward only one, neoliberal solution. Our city is moving further and further away from progressive policies that “spread the wealth” — which is what I thought Democrats were supposed to be about.
Real estate folks are interested in making money and as a much as possible. That’s to be expected. They are definitely not here to “lower rents,” but they might, a little, temporarily. We can’t talk about this because the real power players have become “off limits” in this city and, actually, ordinary, mom-and-pop homeowners and those who push back at all on developers or development — even when that development might be problematic — become the targets of wrath and fury.
Our “Moment of Truth” show team was surprised to learn that M. Nolan Gray, research director at California YIMBY, was also writing a regular column for the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, where Christopher Rufo — the architect of the mass, national bashing of critical race theory (now morphing into bashing DEI across the country) and the force behind the ousting of the first Black, female president of Harvard and all around asshole, frankly — is also based.
We reached out to California YIMBY about Gray and the Manhattan Institute, but have not heard back. It’s just hard to square a movement that purports to be on the side of the unhoused with support for an organization like The Manhattan Institute, which is providing pseudo-intellectual firepower (including apologists for Clarence Thomas) to the MAGA movement’s efforts and to Trump — who has promised to round up the unhoused and put them in internment camps.
So, I’ve supported and endorsed the candidates in my community, for California Senator (Barbara Lee) and Congressperson (Sean Dougherty) and for our county board of supervisors and our city council, who are not entangled in this strange and wealthy network of influence — people who will think for themselves outside of the unimaginative dictates of endless growth … and who will speak up for those of us who do not operate nor benefit from corporate-funded Political Action Committees and who do not mingle with fascists.
Disappointingly, most of these candidates, so far (ballots still being counted) appear to be losing our March, 2024 primary. It’s a wonder to me, actually — when so many of our constituents voted for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in 2020 — that, locally, we seem to support the kind of unbridled, free-market (even government subsized) capitalism that is more aligned with a Reagan, Bush or Trump.
This is why so many young people, and all people, are critical of centrist or corporate Democrats. And this is why Trump, as a wrecking ball, as an enemy of the “global elite” and “deep state,” may win in November.
(See Santa Cruz city and county endorsements, below)
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The “Moment of Truth with Ami Chen Mills” podcast is available at Apple and YouTube … and at our show page at KSQD/KSQT . We broadcast live 1st & 3rd Mondays at 6 pm Pacific Time, livestreaming at www.KSQD.org and on the airwaves at 89.5, 9.7 and 90.7 FM in the California Monterey Bay Area.
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