Last Friday night, a mother and her two young children struggled in the cold, dark waters of the Rio Grande River near Eagle Pass, TX, eventually succumbing to the fierce current and drowning.
Multiple reports blame Texas military officers for preventing U.S. border patrol agents from deploying lifesaving measures as they typically do in such cases. The U.S. border with Mexico has long been controlled by the federal government, but recently Texas blocked federal access to the boat launch area where rescue efforts are initiated.
In Oklahoma City, a woman with a non-viable pregnancy that threatened her own life was denied the abortion she needed. To survive, she had to drive with her husband nearly 200 miles to another state for treatment. The hospitals that denied her care in Oklahoma said that state law prevented them from treating her until she was "at death’s door."
How are these incidents related? They are direct results of electing extremist Republican leaders who will stop at nothing — apparently including preventable loss of life — to push their right-wing agendas.
As a lifelong liberal Democrat living in Venice, CA, I’m horrified by what’s happening in these and other red states. But then I look at local news.
Last Friday night, a man died on Venice Beach. His body was found early Saturday morning. A cause of death hasn’t been released, but it’s not uncommon for people to die from drug overdoses on Venice Beach. No one would be surprised if that’s how this man lost his life.
Throughout Los Angeles, drug users have free access to paraphernalia. These including giving out needles and pipes for using opioids, meth, and crack along with naloxone nasal spray and fentanyl test strips for combating lethality. Because advocates insist these programs are essential for saving drug users’ lives, supplies are distributed even in public parks where children and families come to play. And overdose deaths continue to soar.
Just before Christmas, a one-year-old homeless baby died of cardiac arrest near LAX. Homeless people frequently die, from multiple causes, on streets all over LA. In fact, LA’s homeless now die at a rate of more than five people per day. This is because laws protecting against "criminalizing" homelessness have been stretched to the extreme point where unhoused people — many with substance use or mental health disorders — can reject multiple offers of housing and be left unsheltered for years in public places, dying often and early.
How are these incidents related to what’s happening in red states? They are direct results of electing extremist Democratic leaders who will stop at nothing — apparently including preventable loss of life — to push their left-wing agendas.
One may be extremely authoritarian while the other is extremely permissive, but they are both extremes. And most people do not want to be governed by extremes — yet here we are. The loudest voices have prevailed in far too many places, even though they’re in the minority.
In the first two examples, we know extremists are in the minority because national polls tell us they are. Polls show that a majority of Americans favor creating a simplified legal pathway to immigration. Polls also show an even larger majority believe abortions should be legal in certain circumstances that include threats to the mother’s life.
So why are majorities being subjected to extremist minority opinion rulings? On the national level, multiple forces are in play, of course. But locally, we have direct power to move away from extremism. The remedy is ridiculously simple. You, me, and everyone else we know just needs to vote for non-extremist candidates in local elections. That’s all it takes. And frankly, with everyone in Los Angeles receiving a mail-in ballot, it’s never been easier to vote. But we’re not doing it.
Again sticking with one of our local examples, a 2021 poll showed that 94% of Angelenos found homelessness to be a serious or very serious problem. But in the 2022 elections, only 44% of registered Los Angeles voters actually cast a ballot. Were the rest of LA’s voters actually unaware that serious problems get resolved by voting for more candidates with serious solutions for fixing them? Or where is the disconnect?
Whatever reasons people give for not voting, the reality is that people who do vote are the ones who get their candidates elected.
So when the majority of people who cast votes in LA are extremist, we’re going get more leaders who are also extremist. It’s a very straightforward equation. Just by voting in larger numbers, and influencing others to vote with them, a minority of voters becomes a winning majority. And that means they get to make the rules we live — and die — by.
If we’re going turn the tide on extremism and reclaim the center — where the vast majority of us are best able to thrive — we need to do it by voting in large numbers for pragmatic candidates with serious solutions. We need to educate ourselves on who those candidates are, and encourage others to make the same effort. And when your mail-in ballot comes, fill it out and drop it off. Then offer to help your friends, family and neighbors get their ballots in, too. It’s time to start voting like all of our lives depend on it.
Connie Brooks is a Venice resident and former social worker.
