Anxiety regardless of the circumstances or the time of year, is a heavy burden. Carrying it into the new year seems to make it weightier.
But here we are. Reflecting on where we have been and anticipating where we may be headed.
Soon-to-be former District 1 County Supervisor, and National City/Chula Vista representative, Nora Vargas announced she will not fulfill the obligations of a second term despite being—resoundingly—re-elected in November.
“Due to personal safety and security reasons, I will not take the oath of office for a second term,” she wrote in an announcement that did not elaborate on the presumed dangers she faced.
If cynics are given audience and consideration when they contend the resignation is a politico’s move to get ahead of a broader issue or even a scandal, then the public has been met with disservice and broken trust, particularly in Chula Vista where residents saw another elected official leave their post earlier this year.
If Vargas is to be taken at her word then her abdication is an indictment of us.
For nearly a decade we’ve seen the incidents of threats against public officials steadily climb.
The instances in which dangers were most readily apparent were following the 2020 presidential campaign when everyone from poll workers to secretaries of states to the vice-president of the United States because a political sect did not care for the outcome. Four years later then-candidate Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt.
Ironically, Trump reportedly shrugged off calls for violence against his then vice-president Mike Pence during a failed insurrection at the Capitol in 2021.
One of the explanations—political polarization—has been offered so frequently that it’s nearly become cliché.
Reasonable people know differences in opinion can be had without bloodshed or threats of physical harm. Heading into 2025, however, it despairingly feels like the number of reasonable people is quickly dwindling.
In the new year and in those moments when the political discourse is heated to the point of violence let’s be more proactive in reminding one another that democracy suffers when violence is seen as the primary or only option.
