Local Politics Gets Fiery
2017 Women’s March on Washington
As mentioned previously, 2GreenEnergy “headquarters” is located in Santa Ynez, Santa Barbara County, CA. Where the city of Santa Barbara is extremely progressive, Santa Ynez is very “God and country,” and it’s obvious everywhere one looks, from pictures of John Wayne and Ronald Reagan in the local diner to American flags flying all over town 365 days of the year.
I’m sure this conservatism was palpable since the town’s inception in the 1880s when this was a stagecoach stop and a collection of ranches, but before 2016 it really wasn’t a big deal. The liberal minority keeps a low profile; we may have voted for Bernie Sanders, but we realized we’d be extremely unwise to advertise that with bumper stickers.
In the era of Trump, however, that’s starting to shift, as some people feel that what’s going on here is more akin to criminality and insanity than mere conservatism, and that they’re betraying their own integrity if they remain silent.
This became interesting on the Santa Ynez Valley Facebook chatroom recently, where we had the following exchange:
Person A: Recently I see that one or two protesters are showing up to the farmers market and I have to say I hope this isn’t a trend. No one is being informed by the actions of these protesters, it is not positive or productive in any way. I plan to stop by soon and talk this over with them. I hope to help discourage this kind of behavior here.
Craig,
Setting aside the value of Facebook as a form of social debate, I think I understand what “person C” is trying to convey.
While every citizen in a free society has an inherent right to freely express political beliefs without repression or censure, such activity should be tempered with a sense of responsibility.
I’m old enough to recall the Anti-Vietnam demonstrations. As an Army officer during that period, I took care to remind men under my command that as soldiers they had sworn an oath to preserve and protect the rights of the demonstrators to protest!
On the other hand, I can see the point of view expressed by “person C”, who feels a community market isn’t an appropriate venue for political debate and interruption.
Such protests display a gratuitous desire to promote only antagonism and hatred in an otherwise harmonious community setting.
It’s difficult to evaluate such conduct as anything more than exhibitionism and an arrogant desire to impose and disrupt the pleasure of those attending a community farmers market.
The motivations of the protestors must questionable and counter-productive.
No sane person could admire or applaud the disgraceful hate-filled actions by members of the Westboro Baptist Church when picketing funerals of US service personnel.
The sad irony is those service personnel sacrificed their lives to ensure a handful of misogynistic bigots could exercise the right of free assembly.
I remember anti-Vietnam war demonstrators earnestly proclaiming that once the Western military alliance departed, peace, freedom and “true democracy” would be the order of the day in Vietnam.
45 years later, I read of an unfortunate 70 year old Vietnamese-Australian man who dared post a mild comment on Facebook while visiting the land of his birth after living abroad for 40 years.
Chau Van Kham was arrested, savagely beaten by Vietnamese authorities and sentenced to 12 years hard labour (In Vietnam, hard labour really means hard!).
Regrettably for Mr van Khan, although Australia provides hundreds of millions in aid to Vietnam, the Australian government doesn’t have a leader like President Trump!
When Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh the high-profile Vietnamese dissident and writer known as Mother Mushroom, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, President Trump applied increasing pressure on the Vietnamese authorities (to the horror of US career diplomats) and ‘Mother Mushroom’ was released from jail and allowed to travel to the USA along with her children and mother.
Over the decades US since Reagan, US Presidents have made speeches full of platitudes about human rights. Unfortunately, they never backed these fine words with any real action.
Curiously, it’s the pragmatist President Trump who has effectively intervened for more individuals facing imprisonment by repressive regimes, than any US President in living memory.
It may simply be various Dictators and despotic governments don’t mind doing him a favour. Since Trump shows no interest in raising human rights issues into trade negotiations, it may seem a small price to pay.
Or it may be from fear of antagonizing a leader who may levy sanctions without playing by the normal rules. Whatever the reason, there’s no denying the Trump administration has proved effective in getting individuals released.
In my opinion,, President Trump can relate to the plight of individuals or causes when brought to his attention, but has no real philosophic or ideological agenda when it comes to human rights as a cause outside the USA.
I think he sees world affairs purely in terms of American interests. He doesn’t believe US intervention to achieve regime change is beneficial.
In fairness to him, he’s open and candid about his viewpoint. The President thinks and acts like a pragmatic businessman (which is what he is), not an idealist or someone who feels they must appear to be idealistic.
This is probably why despots are willing to set free individuals since President Trump isn’t a moralist seeking regime change.