After the News-Press Sunday, Sept. 20 Voices opinion piece by K.M. Carrillo condemning my campaign and me personally, my supporters prevailed on me to respond.
At first, I thought it unnecessary as the nature of the condemnations expressed were sophomoric ad hominem polemics that no serious person would accept. Then I realized this was a teaching and learning moment for me. So here is my rebuttal.
Far worse than the ad hominem polemics directed at me is Ms. Carrillo’s claim that America itself is racist, classist, sexist and homophobic. Such fighting words cannot be left unanswered or uncorrected.
Ms. Carrillo is right about my belief that we should return to the values on which our nation was founded. It’s just that Ms. Carrillo doesn’t understand what those values are.
Ms. Carrillo, therefore, does not understand what America is and why it must remain. We are the light of the world. And there’s the rub for our friends on the left.
True, Ms. Carrillo’s diatribe did drive more traffic and donations to my campaign site, coleforassembly.com, where people can actually read what I really believe, but there’s more.
A clear and precise presentation of my principles and values is necessary here.
I believe in freedom. Freedom of speech, of action, of assembly, of self defense and worship. These liberties are guaranteed in our Bill of Rights. Given the invective, these are freedoms that Ms. Carrillo, a Columbia University student, despises.
Here is what I believe in particular: I believe that if you want jobs and housing, you actually have to build businesses and homes, and that means private sector solutions, not more government.
I believe that if the state taxes citizens and businesses to death, it will kill jobs and chase prosperity out of California.
And I believe if you teach young people to hate America, to see only skin color and find contempt for any religion and morals, then they will riot in the streets and be filled with the insane rage we witness daily on our streets.
I believe Critical Theory/Bias Training/ Identity Politics/Social Justice Warrior victimhood Olympics are a divisive, racist, counterproductive cancer that leads to muddled thinking, emotionally driven decision-making and economic ruin.
I believe public safety and unity in our communities demands funding and protecting our law enforcement personnel. I believe in our individual natural rights to “keep and bear arms” as persons.
Ms. Carrillo’s encouragement of division, racial discord, anti-police sentiment, and job killing statism are a sure path to increased violence. Ms. Carrillo must be held to account.
These obvious truths escape the vision of many legislators who are ignorant of history and basic economics. These career politicians have little private sector experience, but are drunk on Marxist ideology. I’ve worked in the building trades, and the service industry and for family businesses. I’ve made payroll and I know firsthand how difficult more and more regulations are for job creators and employees. Business will simply leave the state as so many thousands have already done.
Leaving our state unemployed, underfunded and in the hands of welfare status and tax-and-spend legislators. Where will Ms. Carrillo get the money to finance her Marxist Utopia when California runs out of “other people’s money” as Margret Thatcher wryly observed?
When Ronald Reagan was the governor of California, college students didn’t burn down neighborhoods, our freeways weren’t falling apart, and the state was not a trillion dollars in debt. Now I champion those values of family, competence, merit, hard work and responsibility that once made our state the envy of the world.
No one is trying to break into Venezuela or North Korea. Ms. Carrillo should go there and see the folly of Marxism and stay there for good.
Moreover, here’s what I don’t believe.
I don’t believe that government is the answer to every social problem. I don’t believe that more legislators like my opponent should be elected, to advance failed Marxist and social justice agendas in California or anywhere. I don’t believe Californians should trade our shared American values for mindless state overlords.
It’s ironic then, that a self-proclaimed young Ms. Carrillo, who seems determined to shake up the establishment with ad hominem attacks and pipe-dream revolution, would champion my opponent, a career politician who collects three pensions and now seeks a fourth legislature one. Nothing says “leader for the future” like sending a guy who’s been in government for 37 years to Sacramento.
The people of California are tiring of these nanny state, tax-and-spend legislators.
And I am riding that wave, as an energetic, practical young man who’s not in it for the money. I care about you, your jobs, your homes, your business and family.
And I believe government should get out of the way, and make it easy for new businesses, new jobs and new homes to be built so you can have a life. That is the government’s job.
Now it’s time to vote. Mail-in ballots are already arriving and no ballot statements as yet. So shall we listen to the likes of Carrillo? Do we want riots, arson, looting, cop killing, endless debt, lockdowns, lawsuits against business and churches? Shall we run our state on feelings, rage, division and hatred? Or shall we use reason, logic, evidence and kindness as our guides?
I prefer the latter and I will fight for those values when I’m elected in November. I’ll be your voice of reason, logic and kindness in the Assembly.
I will defend the United States Constitutional protections we are guaranteed through all of its 27 Amendments. These include, but are not limited to, the right to work whenever, and for whomever we may choose; to assemble peacefully and seek redress of grievances; to our own defense for the defense of our life and family; to possess property and not be taxed out of it. These protections are not guaranteed by the state of California. But they are guaranteed in our federal Constitution.
They arise from nature itself, not from any human source.
Thank you, for reading what I actually believe.
Charles Cole
The writer is the Republican candidate for the 37th District Assembly seat.
