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[ ELECTION 2026 ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/election-2024)
# Election Season Final Suggestion: You Can’t Choose Reality…It Chooses You
October 29 2026
Written by Ken Alpern.
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ALPERN AT LARGE - For those of us who vote how they “feel”, and ignore the past and future consequences of their decisions…
For those of us who ignore (or condemn) those in society pushing for critical thinking, fiscal literacy, and balanced/open-mindedness in our lives and our society…
For those of us who project their own bigotry on others by lumping a given group as being all the same, and not realizing how blind and bigoted they actually are for feeling that way…
For those of us who blame others for their problems without really recognizing that most of our problems come from the person staring back at us in the mirror…
For those of us who do well politically and/or sleep easily at night blaming “the other side” to provide cover for their own corruption and incompetence of “their side”…
For those of us ignoring those leaders trying to explain more of what their plans are, and supporting/enabling other leaders who instead hide their ultimate plans for us all…
For those of us who haaaaaaaaate Trump’s supporters and haaaaaaaaaate socialists, without trying to learn WHY many people have been drawn this way or that our of economic desperation…
For those of us who presume that there are gobs and gobs of money and rich folks who will support us instead of us supporting ourselves…
For those of us who ignore physics, economics, and biology because they raise unpleasant realities, and/or who treat scientific and sociologic trends as their new religion (all the while decrying organized religion)…
WE/YOU/I DON’T GET TO CHOOSE OUR REALITY…REALITY CHOOSES US!
I personally helped raise transportation taxes (twice!) approximately 15 years ago that were very locked into budgetary projects, so I don’t have a problem with taxes…
…but our track record in the City and County of Los Angeles, and at the state level, has been proven so godawful that our new state propositions are almost certainly “blank checks” that will be misspent.
I very much WANT money for housing and medical research to be spent WELL and with GOALS and DEFINED METRICS, but private investment with public/government oversight is the only honest, viable way to GET THINGS DONE in California:
- Hence I support a NO vote on Propositions 2, 3, 4, 5, 38, 44.
- Hence I support a “LEAN NO” but give more respect to Propositions 1 and 37 to facilitate more housing…even though I seriously doubt how cost-effective those budgetary items will be enacted in the Real World in THIS state at THIS time.
- Hence I support an ABSOLUTELY (!) NO vote on Proposition 40 in order for our society and our children to survive and thrive, because it will immediately and increasingly slaughter and exile the taxpayer base of our state and its economy.
- Hence I support a YES vote on Propositions 39, 41, 42, 43, and 45 to protect the middle class and create more housing in the Real World.
Many of the Propositions I personally oppose are ideas that might have been innovative and excellent in a bygone era, and I would have supported them, but:
- Does Sacramento treat YOUR money like it’s YOUR investment, or Sacramento’s personal money to do with whatever the heck it so wishes?
- Is the money being spent well?
- Is there a “bait and switch” that will inevitably occur, as has been repeatedly evidenced over the past 10-15 years or more?
- Will these propositions really help things become more affordable for ALL Californians, and are there hidden agendas that prevent things from improving for all parties—especially middle-class citizens who aren’t connected to special interests?
And NO, I don’t enjoy having to be so hard-edged on some of these Propositions—if I’ve been pushed hard to more conservative and cynical positions over the past generation, all we need to do is look at the High Speed Rail Project, the LAX People Mover, the L.A. Mayoral race, and the Homeless/Housing crisis.
But Reality is Reality, and it’s something that you and I really have no control in its creation or consequences.
If anyone reading this and/or voting want to make their own political party, their own feelings, and their own wishes into their new “religion” then that’s your/their business…but we have enough recent events in our state and city’s history to know how Wishful Thinking will end up.
So please vote your consequences, and don’t be afraid to dream and do your civic obligations…but please consider working with the Reality that IS, not the Reality we keep getting promised and then lied to again and again and again.
*(**Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D,** is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at . The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)*
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