I’m happy with Trump’s election: Optimistic local Republican speaks

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.

I know many in Santa Cruz County were not pleased with the election results. I get it. Even locally, votes favoring a Republican for president leapt double digits (nearly 12%) versus the previous election.

I can see where this would be upsetting those who think Donald Trump is controversial.

Nonetheless, I am an optimist, and I want to explain to you why. As a fifth-generation Californian who grew up on a cattle ranch and went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I’ve dug postholes, bucked hay bales, trained horses and done a bit of math. Despite being in the world of finance, I appreciate the agrarian-oriented works of writer Gabrial Marcia Márquez and artist Diego Rivera, though they were avowed leftists. Perhaps it is because I grew up with calloused hands and paid for my school clothes with my summer wages. I spent my youth in jeans rather than corduroy pants. At their best, the humanities and higher learning invite us to stop categorizing humans in a binary fashion.

Let me give you an interesting anecdote. As a member of the local minority party, I will never forget having a meeting with an animated, industrious and insightful woman of color. She is a Republican but because she is Black and a resident of our county, she’s prima facie presumed to be left of center. At the end of our meeting, she put a hand to my shoulder, leaned in, looked me square in the eyes, and said, “Now you know how we feel.”  

I got it.  

She was speaking about the reality of persecution. Of being a shunned and a censored voice. With recent Republican inroads in California, both our state and our county benefit from unmuzzled ideas. As Salman Rushdie reminds us, “Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ballgame. Free speech is life itself.”

So, let me give you 10 reasons why I feel good about the national election. See if you agree with any of these points.  

1. The upcoming administration isn’t anti-immigration.

Here’s the reality check: both the president- and vice president-elect are married to first- and second-generation immigrants. One from former Yugoslavia and one whose parents are from India. 

HB-1 visas are the lifeblood of Silicon Valley and JD Vance knows it. The new administration will be for legal immigration, including streamlining the process. In his first term, Trump allocated more money than the previous administration to help with court backlogs that stymied immigration. Though not often discussed, Cesar Chavez himself was against undocumented immigration and was a strong proponent of legal immigration. Undocumented workers are relegated to second-class status, whereas a streamlined approach to legal immigration changes lives for the better.

2. The incoming administration knows how to restructure debt. 

California, its municipalities and the fed are all awash in debt, in large part due to unfunded liabilities. What better candidate could one ask for to navigate the restructuring of debt than someone who has gone through it? 

If we don’t address this issue at local, state and federal levels, the capital markets will. We will wind up suffering the fate of Venezuela, Zimbabwe and other developing countries. Better to face this reality now and deal with it.

3. The upcoming administration admires women. 

Trump is the first president to hire a woman as his chief of staff. When he was in private industry, his head of construction for Trump Tower was a woman. His former secretary of transportation? A woman (Elaine Chao.) Both his picks for ambassador to the United Nations? Women. (Nikki Haley and now Elise Stefanik.) His secretary of education? A woman (Betsy DeVos). His current pick for Secretary of Homeland Security? A woman (Kristi Noem). His most recent appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court? A woman (Amy Coney Barrett). Trump’s nomination for national intelligence director? A woman (Tulsi Gabbard). The list goes on and on. 

4. Reproductive rights are not foreclosed; they have simply been relegated to the states. 

Competition between states brings about better outcomes, including amendments. It’s time for legislatures to stop passing the buck for political expediency. 

More can also be done to educate. The law itself (especially since the passage of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004) is contradictory, since a fetus can be characterized as the victim of a violent crime. Imagine, too, if young mothers were required to view an ultrasound of their unborn fetuses. I’m an advocate for reasoned decision-making. Let’s get both women and men educated about consequences. Let’s stop sanitizing reality.  

5. Santa Cruz County students will have a better shot at being competitive in a global world.

Academics based on meritocracy better equips our students who must compete against students from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Germany and China. We need less DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Additionally, though an anathema to powerful teachers unions, charter schools give the children of economically challenged households better academic opportunities.  

6. Hate homelessness? The free market does as well. 

Homelessness or unhoused, no matter how you describe it, it is a bane to a civilized society. Any Santa Cruz County parent knows that housing has become unaffordable for the next generation. And so, children either live with their parents or migrate to Texas, Idaho, Florida and other low-tax, pro-business states. Both public and private policy experts agree that the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) needs dramatic reform. 

We have been underbuilding housing inventory for over 50 years, due to Draconian zoning restrictions and untenable regulations. Instead of chasing a “living wage,” let’s reform land-use policies and allow the private sector to meet demand. 

The fed will abhor the diminution of property rights and owners will be able to build to higher and better use, including housing.

7. Californians, including residents of Santa Cruz County, will be raised out of poverty. 

Bad policy decisions around land use, energy, insurance and more have bestowed California with the highest poverty rate in the nation. Clearly, policies that lead to a high cost of living punish the less fortunate. Instead of camouflaging soup lines with electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards, California has an opportunity to address the issues that lead to poverty. Communism and fascism result in long, gray lines of death. Capitalism, in contrast, lifts the welfare of millions.

8. Santa Cruz will be safer.  

Soft-on-crime policies hurt law-abiding citizens. Proposition 36 passing in this election underscores that both sides of the aisle know leniency is a loser.  

9. Traffic will get better. 

We will move away from misplaced priorities. When I asked Santa Cruz County Supervisor Bruce McPherson why we couldn’t advocate for the railroad from Los Gatos to Santa Cruz to be rebuilt, he dismissed it as being too expensive. Instead of this very practical way of solving our regional traffic congestion, our state and federal governments have squandered over $110 billion on a bullet train link to nowhere near Bakersfield.

Moreover, the former head of the high-speed rail authority, Quentin Kopp, says that because of the rail gauge choice, the supposed “high-speed rail” is anything but high speed: evidence that the public has been bamboozled from the get-go. 

The message? By having sane Republicans in D.C., California will be forced to make more realistic traffic planning decisions.

10. Californians will get more water. 

Despite passing billions of dollars to fund water projects through voter initiatives, California has not built a large dam in 45 years. Compounding this lack of planning due to a dramatic rise in population, Sacramento is reportedly in the process of eliminating dams, including the Iron Gate, Copco 1, Copco 2, Matilija and Cerro Grande dams, despite water scarcity in the state. Having Republicans in federal office offsets our state’s betrayal of voters who want more, not less water. California politicians let billions of water flow out to the ocean, mandating that we shower less and pay more.

A bonus point, of course, is that our energy will be cheaper. California’s efforts to tamper with our nation’s energy policy will be brought back to a more rational and pragmatic center, whether it be via the Commerce Clause or other strategies. 

So, I’m optimistic. And yes, I’m a Republican in Santa Cruz County. And though you’ve been told otherwise, there are tens of thousands of us. 

Peter Coe Verbica is chair of the Santa Cruz County Republicans. He has lived in Santa Cruz County for 25 years. He is a certified financial planner and managing director of Silicon Private Wealth, a fiduciary and registered investment advisor firm. The heart of the second-largest state park in California (Henry Coe State Park) was donated by his family.