GOVERNMENT IS VITAL TO AMERICA
Evans read my baker’s dozen of comments.
“Thank you,” he said.
I figured turn about is fair play.
“Tell me where I’m full of nonsense,” I said.
I didn’t need to repeat the offer.
I had suggested that the report underplayed the importance of Clovis – the municipal government, the business community, the schools – on how things unfold in our metropolitan area.
“What you said about Clovis I found very interesting because we don’t hear a lot about what goes on in Clovis from a party perspective,” Evans said. “I need to look into that.”
He said it’s his understanding that “they are mostly moderates on their (city) council.”
Evans disagreed with my claim that it’s a contradiction to say the Right wants both unlimited growth and low wages for everyone.
“I understand the logic of your argument,” Evans said. “But from what I’ve seen a lot of business owners are shortsighted in that regard. Maybe it’s tunnel vision. (They say) ‘It doesn’t need to be my employees who are going to be the consumers. It’s everybody else’s employees who are going to be the consumers.’
“The vision Henry Ford had – ‘What’s the point of me making a car my employees can’t afford?’ – I’m not sure that’s the mindset of all our current business owners.”
I had pooh-poohed the report’s fear that, despite the Measure G results, privatization of city services remains an important issue for the Right.
“Privatization – I’d like to think we’ve moved beyond that, but I just don’t know,” Evans said. “They could privatize fire, they could privatize police, they could try again to privatize residential trash service, they could outsource regulatory (such as land-use) issues. I’m still fearful.”
We talked about free markets, corporate welfare, help for the poor, downtown revitalization. Evans’s report describes a bigger contrast in Left and Right viewpoints on these issues than I’ve witnessed over the years. Maybe I’ve got it all wrong.
Evans was about to change the subject to the 2016 election when he caught himself.
“I do want to speak on the homeless issue,” Evans said. “There was recently an op-ed (in The Bee) by Clint Olivier where he breaks down this idea of homeless vs. vagrants, which seemed to be if you’re nice to me you’re homeless (and) if you’re not, you’re a vagrant.
“There are a lot of reasons why people end up on the streets. But we know a significant number is related to mental health issues and substance abuse issues and, increasingly, having been incarcerated.
“So, you can’t solve homelessness independent of addressing these other problems. You can put people in a home, but if don’t address their mental health concerns they are eventually going to be back on the streets.”
