Small-time leader with a big mouth shows the problem with today's politics
The former mayor pro tem of Huntington Beach fancied himself the Donald Trump of Orange County, gaining national attention for calling COVID-19 a “plandemic” and “political sham” and for his confrontational refusal to wear a mask in public.
He recently quit less than six months into his first and only City Council term, apparently finding the minutiae of local governing — budget reviews, committee hearings, personnel decisions — less fun than sailing his boat through Huntington Harbour with “Trump” and “Tito” flags flying.
Brief though it was, Ortiz’s stretch in small-time politics reflects something much bigger: a political culture that spurs conflict, rewards intransigence and empowers the loud and adversarial, even if polls show most voters would rather their lawmakers give in some if it means getting things done.
Increasingly, politicians from City Hall to Capitol Hill are incentivized — by the bases of the two major parties, the flow of campaign contributions and by the outsized media attention they receive — to stake out unyielding positions, shun compromise and treat those who disagree with them as evil and the enemy.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-06-18/tito-ortiz-huntington-beach-run-shows-us-political-extremism
= new reply since forum marked as read
