John Benoit And Socialism

In an interesting article today, Jesse Marx of the Desert Sun describes how the local GOP is passing a new resolution which condemns local GOP officials who sign letters of endorsements for Democrats. The Riverside County Republican Party vows that it will not support any candidates who commit this transgression in the future. This even includes endorsing Democrats for supposedly non-partisan offices. The measure was pushed by former GOP Riverside Chairman Bob Richmond and his wife Elise Richmond, a local talk show host. One of the officials targeted was John Benoit, the Coachella Valley Supervisor. Benoit had endorsed Democrats Richard Roth and Burke Strunsky. Roth is now a State Senator and Strunsky is running unopposed for a judgeship.

What I found interesting about the article is not what the GOP has done.I believe in party discipline and it is certainly in their purview to do so. What I did find illuminating were the positions John Benoit espoused in the article. Ones that he never seems to mention to constituents here in the Valley when running for office.

First he withdrew his endorsement of Strunsky because of Strunsky's being an advocate of gun control. Yes you read right. It seems 11 years ago Strunsky supported a proposed SF ban n handguns. Strunsky has since retracted that letter. He has however condemned the NRA and that is too much I guess for John Benoit. Benoit, a former CHP captain, has sided with the fringe elements in this country when it comes to sensible gun control.

Benoit later in the article says the GOP has to be more inclusive to grow their party. Makes sense. But this next paragraph is really interesting.

 “We’ve got some outstanding people who happen to have a ‘D’ instead of an ‘R’ next to their name. We should not draw lines like that in the sand and expect we’re able to prevail with our general philosophy of having a conservative or capitalist government in Sacramento. We just can’t do that.

Capitalist government? We have always had a capitalist government in Sacramento except when oligarchs like Leland Stanford were calling the shots. What threat to capitalism is being promulgated by the Democratic Party? This is a strange to say the least.

Political office holders need to be judged in totality for their positions. It will be interesting to see when Mr. Benoit runs in 2018 whether or not any challengers bring up these out of the mainstream stances.

Steve kellycan be reached at skelly@rrbroadcasting.com or @skellynj