Re: Mike Garcia commentary (Jan. 12).
Denying success?
See here, Mike. You could review some of the recent skirmishes we are having among the letters in the opinion column here at The Mighty Signal. If you are assessing that California is messed up, as some conservative opinions have lamented, I point to yourself as an example of the success that occurs when men and women participate in vigorous capitalism. I think we have that in common – a belief in freedom and capitalism and in the pursuit of national greatness through rugged individualism.
In a recent submission (Jan 3), I happened to mentioned your uncle, Tim Archer, as an example of an immigrant to California in the 1990s who, through his participation over the past 30 years in The California Way, has become wealthy and who has decided to return to his native Idaho while still retaining his home and half of his business here.
Are you somehow now denying your own success or your own uncle’s success? Are you denying that your long-term commitment and your uncle’s long-term commitment (or is it carpetbaggin’?) to California and your luck at having been born here were somehow not factors in your success?
Are you denying that you have become relatively wealthy over your entire career because of your military service and because of California’s participation in the U.S. military industrial complex? I am sure that as an executive of Raytheon you know that California is the largest receiver of dollars allocated from the U.S. budget to military spending, right? (Approximately $49 billion, according to a Pentagon report, March 2019.)
I mean, thanks for being willing to run for office, but I believe you are making an error when you ascribe a crisis when we voters witness you and your uncle as direct evidence of success, successes spanning a 30-year period of mostly consistent behavior in California governance.
So please, Mike, endure the heat you might get from the RNC and abandon the shrill typical talking points that they want you to bang the drum for. Try something new and more interesting. Maybe try boosting California. We already have lots and lots of leverage.
Christopher Lucero
Saugus
