Told you so.
It was observed before last week’s City Council election that seat-winning Göran Eriksson would present a conundrum for progressive voters.
His C.V. reflects his deep and broad influential commitment to the most advanced environmental matters.
Aha, one of us, progressives quickly thought, triumphantly.
Not so fast, though.
Mr. Eriksson, at first and second glances, is the consummate American businessman. Traditional to the core, he seldom is seen in other than a business suit. He can expound learnedly on subtle and neon topics in the commerce universe.
Tall, with picture perfect posture, he owns two Culver City-based businesses.
Progressives wondered, in pre-election days, and they worry now in post-election days:
Which is the real Mr. Eriksson – the progressive environmentalist or – horrors – the Republican-looking business owner?
The easy answer is that both are.
That is one reason readers presently are debating whether Mr. Eriksson is one of the Good Guys or belongs to the dreaded Other Side.
Finally, there is Mr. Eriksson’s long-term high-profile, office-holding relationship with the Chamber of Commerce, not the favorite dessert of tree-hugging progressives.
What is a conflicted progressive voter to do with this deliciously spicy dilemma?
The dueling parallels of Mr. Eriksson’s professional life knock liberal orthodoxy – you are with us or against us – into an environmentally safe cocked hat.
“Which is the real Mr. Eriksson – the progressive environmentalist or – horrors – the Republican-looking business owner?”
Given that Mr. Erikson opposed the single-use plastic bag ban and derided it as the work of “professional agitators”, my money is on the latter.
http://www.thefrontpageonline.com/op-ed/single-use-plastic-bag-is-far-more-practical
As a reminder, here are some of the “professional agitators” who supported the bag ban: Environment California, Heal the Bay, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club California, Surfrider Foundation, and the California League of Conservation Voters.
“What is a conflicted progressive voter to do with this deliciously spicy dilemma?”
Vote for actual progressives and environmentalists. Which is what they just did in 2016, and almost certainly will do again in 2018.