Are you a San Luis Obispo County New Progressive?

April 6, 2019

OPINION by T. KEITH GURNEE

Well Tom Fulks is at it again. In last Sunday’s Tribune, their favorite leftist columnist called for the defeat of San Luis Obispo County supervisors Debbie Arnold and John Peschong in 2020 in his quest to pack the board with nothing but New Progressives.

Next, he’ll go after Supervisor Lynn Compton in 2022, trying for a grand slam Progressive takeover of the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors, shutting out any alternative voices on the board.

As the minister of propaganda for the local New Progressive movement, Fulks has labeled these hard-working public servants as “Trumpists” in the hopes of whipping his fledgling followers into a feeding frenzy. In his version of “hate speak,” Fulks revealed his true chops as a propagandist, using trigger words designed to incite his minions to salivate like Pavlov’s dogs.

Then he states that Arnold and Peschong “should be replaced by public servants who disavow rigid ideology and believe elective office should benefit all the people, not just those who voted for them.” Surely, there is no one who is more devoted to New Progressive ideology than Mayor Heidi Harmon, and no local government is more locked into pushing that ideology than the San Luis Obispo City Council.

Don’t the following circumstances demonstrate how facetious this Fulks’ statement was? Consider those marijuana moguls who were recently awarded the right to sell their products in San Luis Obispo as approved by its City Council. Those selected happened to be major contributors to the campaigns of Harmon and councilmembers Carlyn Christianson and Erika Stewart.

Then comes CCN’s revelation that these and other public officials bankrolled by those “winners” in the marijuana industry had failed to disclose a number of financial contributions from them in their originally submitted campaign-finance reports. Now they’re busily filing multiple revised Form 460s after the fact to avoid being investigated by the Fair Political Practices Commission for their failure to disclose those contributions.

Something’s rotten in the state of our New Progressive-led local government.

But in firing his first salvo of the 2020 local election season, we should give pause and reflect upon Fulks’ New Progressive propaganda. Before yielding to it, voters should ask themselves, Could I be a New Progressive?

Could you be a New Progressive?

As someone who has come face-to-face with the viciousness of the New Progressives and who has come to know what drives them, here is a list of 16 statements that capture the essence of their movement. Scroll down the list and ask yourself whether you agree or disagree with each of them:

1. Will I want what we want and I want it now, but at someone else’s expense?

2. I believe that everything I read and hear in the mass media and social media is the unvarnished truth.

3. I believe unconditionally in the group think of our Progressive leaders and their followers, regardless of any evidence to the contrary.

4. I believe in alternate facts and revisionist history while rejecting any documented history that is at cross purposes with my beliefs.

5. I believe in big government and that big government can do no wrong.

6. I believe I am owed an affordable place to live wherever I want to live, regardless of the inability of local infrastructure and resources needed to sustain it.

7. I believe in open borders, despite the collateral damage of innocent Americans dying at the hands of illegal immigrants.

8. I believe we should impeach President Donald Trump, regardless of the results of the Mueller report.

9. I believe that Jussie Smollett was completely innocent of the charges against him, regardless of the evidence that proved otherwise.

10. I believe we should receive free medical care for all, free childcare, and free college tuition at the expense of the richest Californians.

11. I believe in the “Green New Deal,” regardless of its dire consequences to our economy and our way of life.

12. I believe we should tax only the wealthy for what we want because we outnumber them.

13. I believe that all people should live the way I want them to live.

14. I believe I deserve everything I want without my having to work for it.

15. I believe that anyone who does not agree with all aspects of my ideology is my enemy.

16. If it takes Socialism to make my beliefs come true, then I believe in Socialism.

If you agree with eight to 16 of the statements, you’ve probably already identified yourself as a New Progressive. On the other hand, if you disagree with most of these statements, congratulations! You’re an independent thinker and now is the time for exercising those thoughts.

Despite the fact that the New Progressives are giving the original Progressives a bad name, their movement has metastasized itself within today’s Democratic Party.

As a Democrat for most of my life, it’s sad to see what has become of the party that no longer resembles what it once was. In its lurch to the extreme left, it has now become the party of anger, fear, hate, distortion, obstruction, and ignorance.

Something’s got to give. We can’t afford to let the thought control of Tom Fulks and his New Progressive sycophants prevail. It’s already gone too far. It’s time for us to stand up to this menace before it goes any further.