Dissecting the Progressive Democrat Takeover in Santa Barbara
by Justin Shores
Many progressives are so deeply committed to their agenda that their cognitive dissonance will not allow them to change their opinions. Imagine if you allowed your child to cut off his or her sex organs. Would you ever admit you were wrong? You did it out of love. A progressive doctor told you your child would commit suicide if you refused to go along, turning your child into a lifetime medical patient.
In 2018, I spoke out against Planned Parenthood’s profiteering from sex hormone sales, its authorship of the California Healthy Youth Act (CHYA) for Shirley Weber, then state legislator and current Secretary of State, and their consistent support for Democrat candidates at SBUSD meetings.
CHYA, crafted by Planned Parenthood, forces progressive curriculum like Teen Talk and Ethnic Studies into schools, pushing LGBTQ and race-based agendas on children under the guise of “health education” and “social justice.” This prioritizes ideological conformity over age-appropriate learning. Instead of teaching children to read and strive for academic excellence, giving them productive goals and opportunities and then getting out of the way, progressives mandate focusing on race and sexuality.
The ”Redistricting” Wars and COVID Strategies
During the redistricting process across the county from 2020 to 2022, I participated in Zoom meetings, informed conservatives, and created calls to action to influence final maps. I learned a lot about local government and how voting districts are shaped purely by race. Currently, depending on which group is closer to a majority, Latino communities must have majority-Latino districts, and Black communities must have majority-Black representation.
That local focus gives me a unique perspective, having watched thousands of hours of Santa Barbara politics and seen the same people and organizations involved in every Democrat-created crisis. Some evolved from fiery socialist activists to powerful elected officials.
Socialist Democrat leaders showed glaring hypocrisy during COVID: they allowed over 4,000 people a day to cross the border unchecked amid a global pandemic, and at the same time shutting down our economy, crushing small businesses, and harming students. This strains insurance (costs for the uninsured pass to the insured), local police and fire services, homeless programs, food banks, and more.
The average Democrat voter and even some politicians are not necessarily to blame; they are often led by weaponized empathy. These issues are hard to discuss publicly; even Republicans struggle with messaging in these pivotal moments. Once you recognize the same playbook repeated, it is easier to see through the chaos.
The Cloward and Piven Ploy
These socialist Democrat policies overwhelm communities, drive up poverty, strain public services, and force reliance on government assistance, a textbook Cloward-Piven tactic devised in 1966 by socialists Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, with the aim of collapsing public systems by flooding them with unsustainable demands, triggering crises that justify socialist policies.
Most of us support legal immigration, a system that respects order, fairness, and national sovereignty. It is incredible how many people refuse to acknowledge the difference between legal and illegal immigration.
Legal immigrants wonder why they had to work so hard to get here and prove self-support, while illegal immigrants receive massive handouts and resources.
Santa Barbara County faces soaring pension debt, stalled wildfire prevention and recovery, and crumbling infrastructure, yet socialist Democrat officials would rather use taxpayer funds to shield illegal immigrants from federal enforcement. This is easily explained by socialist Democrat Rahm Emanuel’s mantra: “Never let a crisis go to waste.” Besides, If the infrastructure isn’t crumbling, how can we scare you into approving yet another bond next election season?
Elect, Neglect, Deflect.
Shout out to SBCC, Measure P!
On July 31, 2025, the Santa Barbara City Council raided the housing fund to allocate another $500,000 for illegal immigrant support services.
Socialist Democrats push sanctuary laws to protect and support illegal immigrants that strain resources, then exploit ICE raids, like recent operations in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties targeting human smuggling, to funnel money to NGOs such as CAUSE and allies.
Only Mayor Randy Rowse opposed the funding while four other progressives and one moderate (Friedman) voted yes. Socialist Councilmember Santamaria stated she did not want to vote because it removed money from housing.
Santamaria suggested taking the funds from local law enforcement instead, possibly abstaining from voting to grandstand in the failed attempt at an even bigger progressive win if they could have also voted to “defund the police.” It also could be due to her most recent role as a Community Organizer at CAUSE, a potential beneficiary, where she is still listed as staff on their website.
The NGO and Planned Parenthood Nexus
Local NGOs receiving tax dollars (CAUSE and Planned Parenthood), with board members and staff becoming elected officials, create conflicts blurring governance and activism. They mobilize members during elections to boost turnout for aligned candidates and bring large groups to council meetings, creating an illusion of widespread support for socialist causes while drowning out dissent.
Most citizens are busy with families and jobs. These activists now call for COVID-like responses, diverting funds from law enforcement and towards services to illegal immigrants.
CAUSE, claiming to “improve representation” on the Central Coast, shaped Santa Barbara County’s 2021 redistricting by submitting numerous maps. Their Equity SBUSD Map, adopted by the SBUSD in February 2022, prioritized race over true communities of interest.
True communities of interest are neighborhoods sharing income levels, schools, churches, or shopping areas, united by priorities, not race. We live, work, and worship alongside diverse neighbors; race should not define districts. Yet CAUSE’s focus on “Latinx” voting power fractures these bonds. Their map was selected by the progressive activist-packed SBUSD board.
Come election time, NGOs such as CAUSE become political arms, donating to Democratic PACs and campaigning for socialist candidates to cement their agenda. Political connections give them advantages when running for office.
Successful Gerrymandering
Democrats rely on census counts (including non-citizens) and race to gerrymander districts and secure congressional seats.
California’s maps, drawn by the Citizens Redistricting Commission, favor Democrats, who hold 43 of 52 U.S. House seats and a supermajority in the state legislature.
Governor Newsom’s push to override this commission for a special election redraw risks further skewing representation. Republicans and moderates have already been gerrymandered out of a voice in California.
On August 1, 2025, the Supreme Court signaled that it may narrow the Voting Rights Act, requesting briefing on whether majority Black and Latino districts in Louisiana violate the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments. This could challenge Section 2, which requires such districts. A ruling against race-based redistricting, building on Cooper v. Harris (2017), would dismantle similar maps nationwide, including California’s.
Los Angeles protests against law enforcement, with burning buildings and attacked officers, are called “peaceful” by Democrats, reveal Cloward-Piven’s selective chaos deployed since the 1960s.
This pattern began with 1960s race riots, like Watts in 1965 and Detroit in 1967, where disorder and welfare demands overwhelmed systems, leading to federal aid expansions, as Piven and Cloward analyzed, to force further concessions. It continued in the 1970s with massive strain on the welfare system.
More recently, Black Lives Matter amplified “defund the police” calls, straining budgets and polarizing communities while boosting Democrat turnout through disruptive protests echoing Cloward-Piven.
During COVID, Democrat-led policies like prolonged lockdowns and open borders created economic collapse and dependency on government aid, overloading healthcare, welfare, and resources, matching the strategy’s aim of crisis-induced socialism and eliminating private ownership.
It is the same playbook every time.
•••
Since 2018, I have been extremely attentive and active in Santa Barbara County Board meetings. I identify politically as an anti-progressive and believe conservatives and moderates agree on a lot. We can be effective if we stay pragmatic and focus on the root causes of our communities’ biggest needs.
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Wonderful column, Justin. The three places I've lived in during my life - Santa Barbara, LA and NYC - have been plagued by Progressive “reform.” When I moved to NYC in the 1980s it was still showing the disastrous effects of mayor John Lindsay's policies. I have often explained to young people who think Socialism is cool that movies from the 1970s like Taxi Driver and Serpico are accurate depictions of what NYC had become from it. Under Giuliani, I watched the city become livable again. My last night in NYC before coming home to Santa Barbara to live was ten years ago - I walked home alone through the Village at 2 am from being out with friends and I wasn't afraid. I'd never do that now.
Unfortunately, it isn't just young people who are the problem because they just don't know how hard it is to bring a place back after it's been destroyed by Progressive rule. It's the people of my Boomer generation who yearn to be young again, fightin' The Man because they're bored to idiocy by their cushy lives. They show up for a Carbajal No Kings March and for a brief moment think their lives have meaning when they should be grateful that they spent the years between the 1970s and now without the fear of being mugged or their house broken into and do everything they can to preserve that civilization - and never again allow Progressive politicians to destroy it.
Thank you for this article. It is mind bogling how so few can manipulate us. If you do not know Carl DeMaio, he may have some ideas to help. He founded Reform California.