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As much as CA is depicted as a progressive bastion, the struggles on display in the statewide propositions really illuminate how right wing views on private property are so entrenched that they are barely seen as political — but taken as givens.
That’s the lasting achievement of the homeowners movement in CA — giving a human, family-oriented face to property ownership that has been exploited by real estate barons and private equity ghouls for decades. The mask they’ll hide behind again to justify statewide austerity.
When your politics are not only popular, but accepted by wide swaths of the public as “common sense” or political givens, you’ve ensured a trajectory in the politics of a society that will last many election cycles, even generations. Your politics become societal bedrock.
That’s the type of politics we lefties have to aspire to — breaking up the foundation laid by the right, so that we can realize the fullest of our political imagination.
That foundation is hard and thick, and it will take a long while to break. But it’s a necessary project.
That foundation is hard and thick, and it will take a long while to break. But it’s a necessary project.
All my love and solidarity to those who worked on CA propositions — 15, 16, 21, 22, and others — you’re breaking the old foundation so new foundation can be laid.
Never stop contesting for power and aspiring to a deeper politics.
Never stop contesting for power and aspiring to a deeper politics.
