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15-02-2024
HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIFORNIA: Bisecting a wide sandy beach, the Huntington Beach pier beckons tourists and surfers alike, creating a break in the waves that helps gives the city its nickname; Surf City, USA.
It is a scene as laidback as the name would suggest and a stark contrast to the political hostility spilling out of City Hall just a short drive inland.
Since a conservative majority took over the Huntington Beach City Council a little more than a year ago, it has vigorously pursued an agenda aligned with the Republican Party politics of former President Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
The pushback has been just as dedicated, led by a grassroots opposition movement called Protect Huntington Beach, made up of Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans. Clashes between supporters of the two sides have turned City Council meetings into rancorous affairs.
Last week the conservative bloc with the 4-3 City Council majority addressed an issue close to the heart of MAGA supporters’ security along the US-Mexico border whipping up a debate punctuated by boos and cheers from both sides. Conservative hecklers shouted “You’re done!” and “USA baby!” at liberal speakers.
Huntington Beach, a city of about 194,000, has become a microcosm of a polarized America in the Trump era. Norms of comity have given way to a zero-sum game where total conquest is sought because the opposing party’s values are seen as un-American.
“It’s a blood sport to be involved in Huntington Beach,” said Tony Strickland, part of the conservative council majority. “So many people are active. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
Orange County, where Huntington Beach is located, Richard Nixon was born and Ronald Reagan was venerated, has traditionally leaned conservative, a place of lopsided Republican victories in a broadly liberal state. Today, Democrats outnumber Republicans countywide.
Huntington Beach, however, saw a more activist strain of conservative politics flourish during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people who resisted mask and vaccine regulations began to gather for demonstrations at the pier.
Then the November 2022 elections ushered onto the council the four-member bloc of conservatives embracing MAGA politics and backed by a local Christian church, Calvary Chapel of The Harbour . The church’s senior pastor, Joe Pedick, did not respond to Reuters requests for an interview.
Such political takeovers of municipal governments are rare, especially in California where local offices are non-partisan, although Christian conservatives have won control of local school boards while running as a bloc in California and other states.
The new council majority in Huntington Beach voted to remove books deemed as having sexual content from the teen section of the library, restricted who could give the opening prayer before city council meetings, and stripped the three liberals of assignments on boards and commissions. Last week it took on the border dispute in faraway Texas. (Int’l News Desk)
