The worst part about living in history is not knowing what is new, normal, or just outdated.
Everybody’s freaking out right now about national politics, the geopolitical situation, and the trustworthiness of the news media.
“This is the new normal,” annoying people tend to say. But how could they know?
Californians have wondered for years now if the drought is “the new normal” for the state—with climate change factored in—but you know what they say about predicting the weather. The heavy rains this year could be a soggy reprieve from the “new normal” of drought, or it could be a return to the actual normal. Who knows?
Or how about the recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across the country, including four deportations in Santa Maria and one in Los Alamos? Is this the new normal under President Donald Trump’s unprecedented administration? Should undocumented locals be on the watch for black vans, or was the sweep just a targeted approach at dangerous criminals?
There’s no way of knowing just yet. But that’s what we’re here for: To let you know what’s happening, every step of the way, whether it’s lawful or alarming.
And there’ve been more than a couple alarming developments from the Trump White House. The open derision of critical news outlets, the petty feuding with businesses, celebrities, and federal judges—and this is just on the president’s Twitter page! The last thing any of this is is normal.
A recent letter writer called all this concern “liberal hysteria!” There’s some truth to a statement like that, but it’s worth reminding how conservatives behaved following the election of former President Barack Obama, like the “birther” movement (hey, who made that popular again?), the Tea Party, and literal accusations that the 44th president was the antichrist.
Everybody freaks out when their side is voted out of power, that’s normal. But what isn’t normal is a president entering office with the cloud of foreign collusion (what happened to the Russia story?) hanging over their head, lying about completely trivial things, openly intimidating the free press, and picking fights over social media.
I seriously doubt this is the “new normal” in American politics. But hey, I don’t know that for sure. If 2016 taught us anything, it’s that unexpected things aren’t impossible. And if you have no history of a situation to go on—like a reality TV star president—trying to predict what’s going to happen, or what’s normal, is pretty futile.
But at least the County of Santa Barbara had some past experience to go on in the case of Camp 4—yeah, I know, you’re probably tired of hearing about it too—and the current federal ruling to annex the land into the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ reservation. But the county is in uncharted waters when challenging the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The Chumash received 6.9 acres of new land to the reservation after the feds annexed it in 2012, which only came after 12 years of legal struggle. The county didn’t pursue litigation against the feds at the time.
You’d think the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors would have learned their lesson on that one, and would have sped up the negotiations with the Chumash in regards to Camp 4.
It looks like this treatment of the Chumash is the norm in Santa Barbara County, and there’s nothing new about it.
The Canary is far from normal. Send your thoughts to [email protected].
