Venice Beach, CA, where fools and conservatives are not suffered gladly
As we mentioned several weeks ago, there’s a phony Republican effort to recall California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, that garnered enough signatures to become a real special election on September 14. One of the Republican candidates vying to unseat Gov. Newsom is conservative radio talk show host and conspiracy theorist Larry Elder, who, because of his celebrity (can you say Arnold Schwarzenegger?), is considered the front-runner among the Republican candidates. However, it seems that either Elder’s political instincts or his campaign staff were not ready for prime time on Wednesday, when Elder, who showed up for a staged photo op at a homeless encampment on Venice Beach to criticize Gov. Newsom, instead quickly had to be hustled away from the scene, as the crowd yelled and cursed at him, and one person even threw an egg at Elder. Here is a tweet from ABC7 TV in Los Angeles, containing video footage of the incident:
#HappeningNow – the homeless who live on Hampton and 3rd Ave in #venice don’t seem happy to see @larryelder – some are shouting at him to leave and now following him as he tours an encampment @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/CLMVwKskES
— Josh Haskell (@abc7JoshHaskell) September 8, 2021
Now, it’s true that the problem of homelessness in Venice and elsewhere is no laughing matter. And it doesn’t help that the homeless encampments along Venice Beach are difficult to clear in part due to a patchwork of laws, regulations and jurisdictions. For example, the California Coastal Commission, a powerful state agency that has been around since 1972, has as one of its missions to ensure maximum access by the public to California’s beaches, and at times, it has interpreted this as maximum access for homeless people to camp out. This has led to many tensions and problems with local residents and tourists alike.
What is funny, however, is the reaction to the Larry Elder incident by some of Elder’s right wing supporters, who were apparently miffed that Elder had whiffed on an attempt to attack Gov. Newsom. One of these Elder fans even got the whole “staging” thing backwards:
Who knew the homeless were so "up" on politics? What is real and what is staged? If regular "press" probably staged.
— RustyDusty (@RussellTreadwa2) September 8, 2021
Perhaps California’s homeless and their advocates know enough not to want to be used as props in a politician’s photo op. And perhaps they also know that the solution to their plight does not lie with Elder’s hateful conservative agenda, elements of which have been especially cruel to the homeless, and have caused more homelessness, over the decades. Indeed, this looks like a case of an elitist talk show host not knowing what it’s like in the real world until he ventures outside of his conservative media bubble and gets a reaction very different than the glad-handing and pats on the back to which he is accustomed.
Photo by Michael Mangin, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/rKNHN3
