Hard to believe these are all Republicans, but they are:
A school board member standing up for the kids against a corrupt, bullying and abusive board.
A city council member who has advocated for more money for the homeless and even opened his home up to two homeless people.
A city councilman who teamed up with a Dem to push through recreational marijuana sales in their city.
A couple of Republicans trying to wrest control of their central committee away from extremist wing nuts. (It will probably never happen.)
A black Republican school board member lambasted her board for blocking an Obama message to school children from being seen in classrooms.
A Republican Mayor and a Republican Councilwoman who left the Republican party due to Trump and are now decline to state voters. Okay, they're no longer Republicans, but it took backbone to buck their party -- and guess what? The mayor got reelected unopposed -- neither party ran anyone against him.
I'm a journalist. Years ago a wise woman told me in local politics, it's not about the party, but the person. I didn't believe her. But over time, I've come to see it's true.
I still think the majority of Republicans locally are sycophants to Trump, spineless and lacking compassion. But there are exceptions, a few good local Reps, just as there are a few bad Dems -- locally we've had a Dem councilman resign in disgrace and a Dem mayor plead guilty to sexual misconduct. No party has a lock on virtue.
Now here is the big problem. When it comes time to run people for higher offices, the Republican party regularly passes over decent officials such as the ones I listed above, and instead choose the most vile, corrupt ones and those with secrets so that they can control them. I believe that is why the Senate is so corrupted. I know for a fact that some members of Congress have been blackmailed -- if they've ever taken money from sources they shouldn't have, had an affair, slept with a hooker, if they're closet gays or lesbians, lied on their resume, lobbied for a foreign power, etc. they get promoted up the food chain.
That's why in San Diego after crooked Duncan Hunter resigned, we're seeing nationally prominent wing nut endorsing Darrell issa for Hunter's seat -- Issa, who couldn't get the crooked Republican Senate to confirm his nomination by Trump to a trade post because Issa couldn't pass an FBI background check. What's in it that the GOP leadership will use to keep him in check?
Those good people I mentioned? The Rep councilwoman left her party because they condemned her for endorsing a non-Dem in a school board race. The honest school board member was bullied and even targeted with an extortion attempt by a GOP operative to try and force her off the board. The homeless advocate was attacked with funding by big alcohol and tobacco for defying his party on those issues, too. These folks have their reasons for not changing parties -- they may be fiscal conservatives, or think Dems over regulate small businesses, or they oppose abortion rights, but they're not voting on that issue on a local board, and some are making compassionate decisions most of the time. Too bad their party forces the good ones out or keeps them down, while only running the worst ones for higher offices. We have lost the art of compromise and working together for the public good nationally; it's a mercy we still have it on some local boards.
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