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California is collapsing under the crushing weight of our homeless crisis. Residents are fleeing and businesses are divesting due to the increasingly dystopian state of affairs. It's Mad Max here in Oakland, with encampments and open-air drug markets that rival any third-world country. Wood Street encampment (Google it please. Seriously... I'll wait...) is lined with countless tents, RVs, makeshift shacks and hundreds of burned-out and gutted vehicles of all shapes and sizes.
One would expect our elected leaders to provide solutions that balance the interest of all neighbors, housed and unhoused alike. But the reality leaves most of us smacking our heads in frustration.
Disillusioned Californians—especially those of us from a low income background—are fed up with the progressive Left's performative altruism, and many voters who have been traditionally Democrats are having an identity crisis when it comes to their allegiance to Team Blue. And several, myself included, have left the Left.
We are now politically unsheltered, disgusted by the duopoly and left to fend for ourselves. We've just had it with the palpable disdain elite, managerial-class liberals have for poor people. We're sick of the insidiously racist savior complex of white virtue signaling when it comes to racial politics. We marvel in disgust at how activists who claim to be compassionate enable conditions so terrible the UN calls them human rights violations. And then these same activists—like those in the NGOs that make up the "homeless industrial complex"—continue to receive billions of dollars in funding.
Republicans may not be doing anything to solve the homelessness crisis. But Democrats are doing everything they can to prolong it. So what at the end of the day is the difference?
Team Red and Team Blue like to see themselves as one and twelve on a ruler when what they really are is one and twelve on a clock. They squabble amongst themselves for total control, then reward the benefits to their respective elites. Meanwhile, the majority of Americans are left with nothing.
Because power has been concentrated at the extremes, while most of us find ourselves somewhere in the middle, hoping to avoid the crazies. The latest Gallup Poll shows 40 percent of Americans identify as Independents, while 28 percent identify as Republicans and 30 percent as Democrats. Meanwhile, 100 million Americans don't vote at all. There is just no party that represents them.
We need to fight back. We need to wage a battle against the elites of both parties and help average Americans regain political footing and economic prosperity.
The battle is already underway. You can see evidence of it in upsets like San Francisco's school board recall, which featured a parent-led grassroots effort that won more than 70 percent support. It was the first successful recall attempt in San Francisco politics since 1914. Motivation for this effort came from both Right- and Left-of-center activists, many of them from minority communities, like the effort's organizer, Kit Lam. Speaking out on the frustration of dealing with the "woke" school board members voters rejected, Lam made a crucial point: "No one is against progressive policies here," Lam told the Associated Press. "At a time of crisis, we are looking for leaders to lead us through. But we are not seeing that in San Francisco."
Instead of leadership and learning, San Fransisco's children were kept out of schools closed throughout the pandemic, while the board spent its efforts renaming school buildings, or—my favorite anecdote from the recall effort—spent two hours discussing whether a white, gay dad was diverse enough to serve as a volunteer on the Parent Advisory Committee, a committee that had eight open seats (the dad was rejected). Just imagine sitting through those two hours!It's time to admit the obvious: Progressives don't have better solutions than Republicans to the problems that are plaguing our cities. Their elitist patronizing has exacerbated our problems at the expense of lower-income Americans, pushing the American Dream ever further out of reach.
It's time for those of use who are politically homeless to find a voice; that's how we tackle real homelessness. It's time for a post-partisan revolution.
The political winds are shifting fast. We are going to see many more post-partisan candidates emerge in California. We politically unsheltered Americans need a home. But more important than rhetoric are solutions. We need smart candidates to support who have pragmatic solutions.
If we are brave enough to vote with our brains and our hearts, we have a shot at saving California.
Seneca Scott is the founder and CEO of Bay Area Nonprofit, Neighbors Together Oakland and is currently a candidate for Oakland Mayor.
The views in this article are the writer's own.
