Editor’s note: The following is a letter to the editor. The opinions expressed in this letter are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect those of The Mendocino Voice. If you would like to submit a letter to the editor feel free to write to info@mendovoice.com.
Dear editor,
I am a longtime Mendocino County resident. In my youth, Barry Goldwater was the darling of the Republican Party, but he would not recognize what passes for the GOP today. So what does it mean to be a Republican these days? If you identify as a Republican and support President Donald Trump’s agenda, it seems to me, you are de-facto endorsing the following policies:
- Legitimizing the attempted overthrow of the United States government
- Firing or removing career government officials because Trump doesn’t like the results of these officials doing their jobs – for example, the prosecuting attorneys who indicted him for crimes he was later convicted of; or Trump using the Department of Justice to retaliate against his perceived enemies, truth-tellers who present data he doesn’t like, or those who contradict him
- Threats to violate the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 by sending in the United States military to do Trump’s bidding in US cities, and authorizing the use of lethal force by the military in our cities
- Allocating second-class citizenship to women by depriving them of their right to determine what happens to their own bodies
- Using the once-independent Justice Department to go after Trump’s perceived enemies, including journalists, comedians, law firms, media outlets and elected officials
- Stacking the Supreme Court with judges who lied to Congress to get appointed
- Using the authority of the Supreme Court to justify, legalize and immunize policies that contradict and reverse decades of settled law
- Authorizing private industry to access resources on public lands — something that hits home here in Mendocino County — Cow Mountain, the coast, offshore oil, etc.
- Prompting environmental policies that fly in the face of economic reality and de-funding alternate energy sources
- Denying the science of climate change, despite growing evidence of a warming earth
- Destroying our credibility with our allies and foes alike
- Usurping the Constitutional powers of Congress by instituting tariffs on countries without Congressional approval
- Attacking citizens of sovereign nations in international territory
- Having no coherent foreign policy or national defense policy
- Marginalizing people of color by re-writing history and removing references to historical events
- Trump using the Office of the Presidency to enrich himself and his cronies
- Spreading misinformation about a variety of issues, including public health
- Promoting racism and misogyny
- Depriving millions of people around the world of life-saving aid
- Enacting policies that will increase the cost of health care for millions of Americans
- Using Federal funding to blackmail educational institutions and local governments to promote policies endorsed by this administration
These are things that have actually taken place since Trump took office in January 2025. If you call yourself a Republican, I’m going to suggest taking a good long time to think about the above points. Because America is starting to look and feel a lot like 1930s Germany.
If we’re going to stop these abuses of power, we need to do everything we can to ensure a Blue Wave in Congress and the Senate in 2026. I don’t love this proposition, but I am going to hold my nose and vote Yes on Prop. 50. The proposition will expire in 2029. I’m asking you to be a good American and take back Congress to restore the checks and balances the founding fathers put in place. Vote Yes on Prop. 50.
Julie Beardsley, Mendocino County
CalMatters Voter Guide 2025
What you need to know to vote in California’s Nov. 4 special election on redistricting. Find out more here.
Great letter. Thanks for your effort. Vote YES on 50.
Everyone I know is voting YES! on Prop 50.
Like Gov. Newsom said, “We must fight fire with fire”.
When you sit down to play a game of chess & the first thing your opponent does is punch you in the face, you’re not going to prevail by getting better at chess.
Good one 👍🏽
OOh my God, Like everyone I know is totally voting yes because like Gavin totally said so, so you should too. Like Whatever, Yay!
The best way to fight fire isn’t with more fire—it’s with water. If your strategy is to match destruction with destruction, all you end up with is ashes. What you’re describing isn’t strength, it’s escalation. When the state tells you to “fight fire with fire,” what they really mean is to justify using their same immoral tactics under a different banner.
You don’t fight immorality by becoming immoral. You don’t restore integrity by voting for corruption that just wears a different mask. When you play their game, they’ve already won—because the moment you accept their rules, you accept their authority.
Stop falling for the “lesser of two evils” illusion. Evil doesn’t shrink when you compromise with it; it multiplies. Real change comes from stepping outside their board altogether, not playing a rigged game while pretending you have a choice.
If you like open borders, crime, defunding the police, legal shoplifting, emptying the prisons, inflation, globalist agenda, make politicians millionaires, Vote for slimy democrats to rig elections for themselves. Prop 50 is just wrong no matter what party it favors. Vote “NO” !!!
Unfortunately, it seems you are one of those unreachable Trump loyalists who deny facts and have deep seated beliefs in conspiracy theories that are void of truth or facts. You deny the truth and facts of the correlation between tariffs, and Trump’s stock market manipulation with our inflation. We don’t have open boarders and that is a fact. In 2024, the Biden administration deported more people than any president in decades and far more than any in Trumps first term. Trump has defunded Law Enforcement and the VA. The Biden Administration far outspent for veterans and Leo over Trump. Shoplifting is not legal and never has been. You seem to be confused about what are state statutes and what are federal laws. Shoplifters in Mendocino County are not prosecuted in Federal Courts under Federal law. You lack critical thinking if you believe it is a good use of tax dollars to spend $50,000 plus to prosecute misdemeanors, hold a jury trial, pay for lawyers on both sides, judges, jail, medical, and probation for petty shoplifting crimes. We have to responsibly spend the tax revenue we have. FYI, for large corporations, they receive tax write offs for any losses and/or
have insurance. You feign concern about politicians who are millionaires but have zero concern over the billions that Trump has amassed through his corruption of market manipulation, insider trading, crypto scams, stealing of billions of tax dollars he is funneling from public agencies to private corporations through contracts (privatizing long standing government departments), selling off millions of acres of our public lands to his real estate cronies; like Cow Mountain (follow the money). You claim that democrats rig elections but deny the fact that is exactly what Trump was accused of doing and actually did from him demanding states magically find votes for him that no one cast, to the insurrection to STOP the certification of the General Election. Trump filed nearly 50 law suits to challenge election results and he lost them ALL; even in red and purple states with Trump appointed judges. There was zero evidence. The ballets were counted, recounted, investigated, and counted again. Still you live in a delusional denial of the facts just like Trump and your other Trump Loyalists. Your Globalist Agenda claim is just another unfounded, factually disproven conspiracy theory, drummed up in some parent’s basement, by a tinfoil hat wearing, unemployed adult son, playing video games with likeminded conspiracy theorists. Do you live in your parent’s basement? The “globalist agenda” is a far-right conspiracy theory that alleges a secret cabal of global elites is plotting to create an authoritarian one-world government.
VOTE YES ON 50. It’s a no brainer if you have a brain.
Response to: Facts over fantastical imagination
Fortunately, I’m not one of those unreachable Trump loyalists or a video game player in my parents basement.
I am a senior citizen and have been a registered Democrat my whole life. I have been a war protester since high school when the Vietnam war draft was hanging over my head. If the dems want my vote it will not be by stealing 5 congressional seats. It won’t be for supporting school indoctrination, sterilizing children and men in women’s locker rooms and sports or with discriminating identity politics and DEI etc. They will have to support policys that most sane and rational people want like living a safe and affordable lifestyle. Dems don’t represent me or try to earn my vote. “Orange man” bad is not a policy! Vote “NO”!
Holy shit talk about a room temperature IQ. Did you sleep through the last 10 years? Did you sleep through obama? Were you born yesterday?
Can anybody be this willfully ignorant and moronic???
Hurrrrrrr, can’t argue with the truth, so personally attack the messenger. that’s what slimy dems do!
Prop. 50 essentially does not even allow any Republicans to run for office ever. Vote no. Keep California bipartasin. Newsom has lost his mind worrying about Texas. Let’s worry about California,
That is a complete lie Carleen Lane! Have you even read your ballet? I guess not! It is a very temporary measure. Wow! Be honest! What the..,,,,
While I know that these are opinion pieces, it seems that this is full of made-up truths. I won’t call them lies just because if you truly believe it, that is what you think whether made up or not. It is just full of lots of twisted reality and differing viewpoints. Many of the items listed cannot be verified as written and are sensationalized in the name of hating the person that is president right now.
Hey Don,
The actions I enumerated taken by the Trump administration are real.
Julie I respect your opinion, but they are not at all real. I don’t want to argue or demonish anyone’s opinion, but I don’t understand where you are receiving your information. How is one enriching themselves and his cronies when he and several of his administration doesn’t even take a salary. Have you seen how wealthy many many Democrats in Congress have made themselves millionaires with a supposed salary of about $170,000 per year? I just wish people would have an open mind when it comes to President Trump. You don’t necessarily have to like him to see that he is doing everything he possibly can to help this country. Why the heck is our Governor spending $300,000,000 on a special election to get 5 more Dem seats when the Dems already have 43 seats to the 9 Republican seats. And the only reason the shoplifting is a misdemeanor is because our governor made it a misdemeanor. Not to mention we the people voted for Prop 47 to make the punishment stronger for repeat offenders, and the governor refuses to fund it. I don’t know about you but to have to wait for someone to come and unlock a case for some face wash or laundry soap in a store is utterly ridiculous. All because they don’t want to be ripped off again.
Like I said I don’t demonish anyone’s opinion but please research things a bit more instead of listening to the main stream media. They really are looking likes fools right now. And health care has skyrocketed due to the affordable care act, not because of anything Trump has done. In regard to the DOJ, it sure wasn’t Trump who tapped a large number of sitting Senators phone calls in 2023. Strange how no one had these horrible things to say about Trump until he decided to run for office.
Check out how jared kushner started managing a hedge fund and got literal billions of dollars invested by quatari soverign wealth funds into it. Golf club deals etc. There are estimates that the Trump family has made literally billions since his election from foreign investments into his enterprises. Quatari air force base in Idaho. Nuff said!
How can you complain about money when Trump accepts a jet, rebuilds the White House for parties, and fires most federal workers? And gives 40 billion to Argentina? Yes on 50 matches what Trump is doing in GOP states.
This just goes to show how fast partisans will backtrack on their ideals when it is deemed politically expedient. If democrats really want to regain power then they should look to change their policy commitments that are currently toxic. The brand has been sullied. Look how fast Donald Trump was able to recruit sponsors to kill the democrats priorities. Support for democratic priorities is extremely shallow nationwide.
Julie Beardsley obviously lives in the corporate media echo chamber and not in the real world. I feel sorry for those that consume and fall for this propaganda.
When will people realize they can’t vote themselves free?
Both the left and the right support the same core pillars of control—the military-industrial complex, the Federal Reserve, endless deficits, entitlement programs, and violations of privacy. They both feed the same machine of democide and rights violations. People just cherry-pick when to care, depending on which team is doing it, because they ignore history and forget how their own side behaved when it held power.
The real issue is systemic: policies that benefit the central apparatus, the things that never change. Even during so-called “government shutdowns,” the extortion, robbery, and violence continue without pause.
The world is doing its flip again. The right feels too far left, the left feels too far right—but that’s only because nearly everyone views politics through a horizontal spectrum. Left versus right. Democrat versus Republican. It’s a binary illusion.
The real spectrum is vertical—liberty versus authoritarianism.
Once you map both axes, it becomes obvious: most people don’t fit into the left/right box at all. There’s authoritarianism on the left and right. There’s also voluntaryist thinking on both sides, rooted in individual freedom. People assume that anything outside the left/right dichotomy is “centrist” or “moderate,” but that’s a misread.
If someone lands in the middle of the Nolan Chart, they’re suffering from cognitive dissonance—supporting liberty and coercion at the same time. That’s a contradiction. You can’t believe in self-ownership while endorsing violence-based policy.
It’s not about left or right. It’s about whether you believe force should be used to rule others—or not.