The idiom, “All Politics is Local,” has been attributed to the late Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, but it dates back even further, and is no less relevant now than it was back in the ‘80s when O’Neill served in the House of Representatives.
It also encapsulates the focus of Turning Point USA’s new “Faith” arm. People of faith should be voting their values, and TPUSA-Faith is providing tools and resources to help them to be “upright citizens,” as one of my favorite Proverbs encourages:
Upright citizens are good for a city and make it prosper,
but the talk of the wicked tears it apart. — Proverbs 11:11
One of the resources TPUSA-Faith offers is its partnership with local churches who choose to be its face in the community and support TPUSA-Faith’s
mission to engage, equip, and empower Christians to change the trajectory of our nation.
My local church, Beachcities Community Church of Huntington Beach, CA, is part of that TPUSA-Faith umbrella. On Monday, Beachcities hosted a candidate forum with 20 candidates running for school board and city councils in the surrounding cities of Fountain Valley, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, and of course, Huntington Beach.
I have spent the majority of my time in California in the Los Angeles area, so I am less familiar with the political world behind the Orange curtain. I was enlightened, as well as inspired to see the passion these candidates had for the people of their community and their desire to contribute to the healing, shoring up, and thriving of their local neighborhoods and schools.
One of the new things I learned is that Huntington Beach is a charter city.
When California became a part of the union in 1850, the state first controlled the formation of cities and how they operate. We already know how poorly top-down control goes, and cities found that the state’s incessant meddling in their municipal affairs caused more problems than solutions—and this was when the state was mostly made up of ranches and farmland, without the huge population centers it has today. In 1879, California adopted a constitutional amendment that granted “home rule” power to individual cities, including allowing the cities to become “charter cities” to exempt themselves from state laws applicable to general law cities. These cities have their own councils, boards, police departments, and for some, even their own district attorneys and prosecutorial arm.
Huntington Beach has its own city attorney who is running for re-election. His name is Michael E. Gates. He is one of the attorneys instrumental in suing our Governor Hair Gel for his attacks on our freedoms, as well as his attempted closure of Orange County beaches during the pandemic.
Here’s a brief snippet to give you a flavor of what Gates is all about.
I like him already, and if I lived in Huntington Beach, he’d have my vote. If you would like to see the full video, move on over to a paid subscription.
This new knowledge gives me a keen understanding of not only Huntington Beach’s pride of place and heritage, but why the residents fight so hard against the infringement on their freedoms. While large cities like Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Fresno are also charter cities, we see the mess that has been made because they have shirked local governance and inclusion of the community in their decision-making, for political control and currying favor nationally. The current LAtinX Scandal mess that is happening with the Los Angeles City Council is reflective of what results when this happens.
But, I digress….
Over at RedState, I am doing an In My Orbit series, “All Politics Is Local,” where I will be covering some of the Southern California grassroots candidates, especially among school boards. Over the past year of covering parents’ and parent groups’ fight against our useless governor, school boards, and teachers unions to protect their children and secure their medical and educational freedom, I am amazed at how much power a school board can have, and how little they use it for the benefit of educating children or the inclusion of parental and community concerns.
Many school board members are bought and paid for by teachers unions, or are looking at higher office, and use the board as their career steppingstone. Parents are beyond fed up, and this uprising of We The Parents is a result. It’s going to change this election cycle, and could well be the beginning place of changing our state.
Ma tha Siobhan.
I covered the full TPUSA-Faith/Beachcities Community Church Candidates Forum over at RedState. Give it a read.
IN MY ORBIT: Ahead of the Midterm Elections, TPUSA Faith Mounts Local Candidate Forums
Here are some highlights—enjoy!
Because All Politics IS Local