Speaking For the Community

A few weeks ago my friend Joe Sipowicz wrote a post about people who seem to think they have the answers to your problems. Their academic grasp of reality is sketchy and mostly based on fealty to abstractions and a dedication to idea that the government is sacrosanct.

There is a related tribe of individuals as well. These folk are sort of a feeble fifth column for manipulative politicians and bureaucracies; they tend to spout the same nonsense as the Know-it-Alls. If you have ever watched a Fullerton City Council meeting you’ve seen them and you’ve seen their common thread: they speak for “the community.” They also speak with a degree of certitude that is astounding.

These people see themselves as bodhisatvas, the beings in Buddhism who postpone their own trip to Nirvana to remain and help the less enlightened here on Earth.

It would be charitable to suggest that these people are known outside the council chamber. But they are ever-present to admonish the City Council, a council that represents 150,000 people, that “the community,” “the people,” must be followed, seeming to forget that elected people are elected to lead, not follow.

Egleth Nunncio purports to represent all sort of communities, but really only has a handful of followers willing to show up and babble at the council about arbols and cielos azules. Sometimes it actually works, but she really represents almost nobody.

Then there’s this angry little person named Anjali who nonchalantly throws her hare-brained ideological blanket across the broad spectrum of “the people.” She is still bitching about the defunct Walk on Wilshire that “everybody” wanted. I want it so they must want it – if they know what’s good for them.

We are already well-familiar with Diane Vena who nominated the perjurious candidacy of Scott Markowitz last year. This behavior hasn’t stopped her self-righteous pontification. See, she speaks for you.

Then there’s this ever-indignant individual, Karen Lloreda, who was recalled from the Dana Point City Council a while back and has brought her special brand of liberal populism to Fullerton.

A new member of the squad is our fresh young friend Elijah Manassero who is another one of the “the people want this this” squad. His motives are nakedly political but he speaks with the same self-assurance of the self-righteous. Tender Elijah knows what “the people” want. Not coincidentally, it’s what he wants.

The Fullerton Observer just loves to cite these people in their opinion pieces that weakly masquerade as news. The Kennedy Sisters too, flatter themselves that they represent “the community.”

Across the Observer banner is the unintentionally comedic slogan: News for the people, by the people, a rather breathtaking leap away from reality into the void of self-delusion, but certainly a comforting concept to the self-righteous liberal. There is almost no real Fullerton news in the Observer, of course and it is of no interest to the vast majority of Fullerton’s populace.

Hey, how about something like “some people wanted the Walk on Wilshire, but most people didn’t know a damn thing about, and would have signed an honest petition calling for the street to be reopened.

Like it or not, we live in a representative democracy and people get elected to actually represent everybody. The community. The people. Most electeds will bring their own understanding to issues and hopefully this aligns with the candidate they once were, and will be again. If not, you can get rid of them.