"Movements often try to dismiss the other sides objections as meritless, but they almost never are truely meritless."
Yes, yes YES. This dismissal is like the way Americans seem to imagine the federal budget: a pie chart in which a third of the pie is labeled, "Useless crap" that we could simply cut without anyone noticing. Everything on …
"Movements often try to dismiss the other sides objections as meritless, but they almost never are truely meritless."
Yes, yes YES. This dismissal is like the way Americans seem to imagine the federal budget: a pie chart in which a third of the pie is labeled, "Useless crap" that we could simply cut without anyone noticing. Everything on which government spends money has a constituency, whether or not one thinks that expenditure is worth it. Getting that constituency to let go requires either A) electorally overpowering them, or B) persuading/negotiating with them. Given how many people own homes, and the power those people wield, in terms of housing Option A is just a dead end.
2. You can in fact win political battles at the state level that overcome local control issues. Sometimes, you can even win at the local level it’s just many more battles.
Here in San Francisco we are winning the hearts and minds of San Franciscans. We just got two more pro-housing members elected to the Board of Supervisors and probably most famously we have elected and re-elected Sen Scott Wiener to the State Senate, where he has passed effective pro-housing legislation.
We often do dismiss the extremists on the other side as meritless. Some of them are. Some are unpersuadable and have a strong financial interest in supporting their class interests. More are not. San Francisco has a majority of renters, it is much easier to build a coalition that gets to 50% +1 in such a city.
"Movements often try to dismiss the other sides objections as meritless, but they almost never are truely meritless."
Yes, yes YES. This dismissal is like the way Americans seem to imagine the federal budget: a pie chart in which a third of the pie is labeled, "Useless crap" that we could simply cut without anyone noticing. Everything on which government spends money has a constituency, whether or not one thinks that expenditure is worth it. Getting that constituency to let go requires either A) electorally overpowering them, or B) persuading/negotiating with them. Given how many people own homes, and the power those people wield, in terms of housing Option A is just a dead end.
1. YIMBYs understand the politics at hand.
2. You can in fact win political battles at the state level that overcome local control issues. Sometimes, you can even win at the local level it’s just many more battles.
Here in San Francisco we are winning the hearts and minds of San Franciscans. We just got two more pro-housing members elected to the Board of Supervisors and probably most famously we have elected and re-elected Sen Scott Wiener to the State Senate, where he has passed effective pro-housing legislation.
We often do dismiss the extremists on the other side as meritless. Some of them are. Some are unpersuadable and have a strong financial interest in supporting their class interests. More are not. San Francisco has a majority of renters, it is much easier to build a coalition that gets to 50% +1 in such a city.