I haven’t really been paying much attention to the Third District race, but my wife asked me to post something because she has attended Eureka City Council meetings where she has watched Roy Gomez and others basically abuse the Council members. Roy Gomez apparently has a thing about anarchists in government. First he was picking on Mario Fernandez. Apparently it’s why he decided to run against Mike Wilson.

I’ve seen his sign at cannabis dens in Eureka and at homes of people I know to be on the right end of politics around the county. His signs seem to be in moderate abundance everywhere except Arcata, which makes up the bulk of the Third District.

If his speech wasn’t so stupid and he wasn’t so completely lacking in a sense of irony, I would say that he’s practicing a variety of McCarthyism. But it doesn’t even deserve the dignity of such a comparison. He clearly doesn’t know what anarchism is. For the most part, anarchists don’t run for government office.

If you’re curious about the tenets and philosophy of anarchism, there is plenty of information out there. Maybe start here. Anarchists have committed violence, but it’s not an inherently violent ideology. It’s a view of human nature that proposes that human nature is essentially good and that the problems arise when imbalances are imposed by various incarnations of authority over the individual. There are many varieties and practices. There are some anarchist practices in this county. To my knowledge, none of them has committed an act of political violence.

In any case, Supervisor Wilson is not an anarchist. He has constituents who are anarchists and he will treat them with respect as he will treat someone who practices a religion he does not. But he is not an anarchist.

If you want to support Mike Wilson’s campaign, visit his website. At this point his campaign is about sanity.

Gomez’s genius political analysis begins at 59:25 in the video. Apparently anarchists have been burning homes or something.