While listening to KNX 1070 AM, I heard something that stopped me cold: Two far-right events were happening that weekend — not in some distant county, but right here in both Northridge and West Hollywood.
In Northridge, Make California Gold Again — a far-right, faith-based group rooted in Trumpism — hosted the California Grassroots Action Summit. Their mission: to train so-called “patriots” to infiltrate school boards, city councils, and commissions. They call it a “spiritual revival.” It’s really a campaign to roll back civil rights, shrink democracy, and consolidate white Christian nationalist power.
The next day, in West Hollywood, the WalkAway Campaign — led by Brandon Straka, who pleaded guilty for his role in the January 6 Capitol attack and was later pardoned by the Trump administration — held a rally.
No permit. And that wasn’t an oversight — it was intentional. They chose West Hollywood, one of the most visible queer communities in the country, to provoke and perform outrage.
These aren’t isolated events. They’re a coordinated strategy.
And let’s be clear: this isn’t “grassroots” organizing.
The WalkAway Campaign was boosted by Fox News and MAGA influencers. While they rage about “unelected bureaucrats,” they ignore billionaires like Elon Musk — who has been using his influence to gut public services and build up America’s surveillance state under the false promise of “efficiency.”
Through aggressive cost-cutting, mass layoffs, and program cancellations, Musk’s so-called reforms have destabilized essential government operations without delivering real savings.
They aren’t mad about power without accountability. They just want power in the hands of a few oligarchs — and they call it freedom.
Meanwhile, Democratic Party leaders are once again pathetically moving in the wrong direction.
This isn’t just political theory for me. I’ve lived it — and so has my son.
In the 1990s, when Democratic leaders embraced “tough-on-crime” policies and “welfare reform” to chase the political center and corporate money, families like mine paid the price. I was working, raising my son, and building a future — but the politics of the day treated poverty like a crime, recycling the racist “welfare queen” myth to justify dismantling the social safety net.
After I was injured at work, I needed temporary help to survive and keep my family afloat. Instead, I was pulled into a system designed to punish, humiliate, and criminalize.
It wasn’t the far right that destroyed our stability. It was so-called moderates — Democrats who thought abandoning poor and working class people would win them elections.
They didn’t just cost me years of opportunity. They stole years from my son — years that should have been about safety, dignity, and possibility, not survival. Because of my conviction, we never had steady income. I was working constantly, but it was never enough. He didn’t fully understand what was happening, but he felt it — in the field trips he couldn’t go on, the shoes he didn’t get, the birthdays I tried to make special with whatever change I had left. He missed out on so much, not because I wasn’t trying, but because the system made sure trying wasn’t enough.
Instead of defending and building upon progressive victories, they’re once again chasing imaginary swing voters — while cutting DEI programs, backing away from reproductive justice, and watering down legislation in the name of “bipartisanship.” Meanwhile the far right has shown that power is about not shyly playing by the rules.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass has proposed a 2025–26 budget that would lay off more than 1,600 civilian city workers, including over 400 civilian positions at LAPD. It would also slash affordable housing funding by 80% while still increasing LAPD’s operational budget by $6.1 million — bringing it close to $2 billion.
When budgets tighten, it’s never policing that gets cut. It’s housing, care, and the everyday support that lets people live with dignity. We keep pouring resources into police-led crisis response instead of what helps people avoid crises to begin with. If we really care about public safety, we have to invest in the conditions that move people from surviving to thriving.
At the state level, Governor Gavin Newsom is sending his own signals. In a podcast interview with far-right extremist Charlie Kirk — a man who vilifies DEI and attacks trans youth — Newsom agreed that trans athletes competing in women’s sports is “deeply unfair.” Instead of challenging extremist lies, he normalized them — conceding ground that puts real lives at risk, for some imagined political victory
Let’s be clear: This isn’t strategy — it’s surrender in slow motion. You don’t beat extremism by echoing it. You don’t defend democracy by appeasing those who want to dismantle it.
California isn’t immune. California isn’t safe. And if we love it, we have to fight for it — not just every two or four years, but every single day.
They’re coming with strategy. We better come with urgency — or we’ll wake up in a state we no longer recognize.
Politics isn’t something you visit. It’s something you live.
They’re already organizing. They’re already marching. They’re already flipping cities.
The real danger isn’t that we’re distracted. It’s that we’re exhausted — and they’re counting on it.
We can’t count on mainstream media to sound the alarm for us. They’re too busy platforming both sides, downplaying the threat, and normalizing extremism to protect their bottom lines.
Our voices and our votes matter. If they didn’t, the far right wouldn’t be working so hard to gaslight us, suppress us, and rewrite the rules to silence us.
The answer isn’t panic — it’s participation.
We need organizing, storytelling, and vigilance — not just in election years, not just in battleground states, but everywhere, every day.
Tracee Michelle Porter is a writer, advocate, and Public Voices Fellow focused on criminal justice reform, economic justice, and policy rooted in lived experience. A 2025 Solis Policy Institute State Fellow, she centers the voices of those most impacted to shift narratives, influence policy, and reimagine public safety through care and equity
