Huffman talks politics in Sebastopol
By Laura Hagar Rush, Sonoma West Editor, [email protected] Sep 5, 2018
West county’s congressional representative, Jared Huffman, worked his way through Sebastopol last Friday, speaking first to the Sebastopol Rotary at its noon luncheon and then to the public at the Burbank Heights and Orchards Social Hall.
At Rotary he struck a conciliatory note, talking about his current legislation (wilderness preservation and rural broadband) and his efforts at bipartisanship, while at Burbank Heights, a low-income housing complex for seniors, he seemed ready to mount the barricades, calling the Trump administration “a criminal enterprise” multiple times.
At Burbank Heights, the room was packed, and Huffman began with a short preamble about the current political moment, calling it “dysfunctional, crazy and vexing … but also really important.”
“I see the central challenge of this time being there are all of these huge existential issues are hanging in the balance … You can’t just compromise your way through things like climate change and reproductive choice and fundamental rights, where there’s a right side and a wrong side. But we also have a political climate that is toxic. We are too divided. There is too much hate and anger, and in some cases even violence. So the challenge is, how do we fight for the things we know we have to fight for, while at the same time pulling the political dialogue back in a more civil direction?”
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