California Politician Apologizes For Concisely Expressing Radical Progressive Agenda

A city council member in Santa Barbara has officially apologized for his recent statement about the progressive agenda that resulted in blowback and mockery.

Santa Barbara has been all over the news over the last two weeks for its “leadership” on the issue of plastic straws. Like Seattle, the progressive-run city has decided that straws must be banned for the good of the environment. Santa Barbara’s new ordinance threatens to slap hefty fines on restaurant employees for giving a straw (whether plastic or compostable) to a thirsty customer. For the second offense, employees face the possibility of a $1,000 fine or jail time, National Review notes.

The city council easily passed the ordinance by a vote of 6 to 1. Among those who supported the radical measure was Santa Barbara city councilman Jesse Dominguez.

At a meeting two weeks ago, Dominguez said in response to a question from residents about “what’s next?” on the city’s progressive agenda that “what’s next” is “every aspect of people’s lives”…

“Unfortunately, common sense is just not common,” said Dominguez. “We have to regulate every aspect of people’s lives.”

The comment sparked strong backlash for the overly-direct expression of the progressive’s top-down approach to imposing “common sense.” In response, Dominguez officially apologized at a recent meeting, but made sure to insinuate that all those who took him literally don’t understand the concept of “rhetorical” language.

“I just wanted to apologize,” he said, Noozhawk reports. “A few weeks ago I made a string of words in a rhetorical fashion about regulation and they were not taken as rhetorical and that’s my fault so I want to apologize.”

He explained that he felt compelled to address the issue because “there was confusion” about what he said.

As Powerline’s Steven Hayward points out, Dominguez’s attempt at downplaying his “string of words” won’t play well among conservatives and libertarians:

I know of a new editorial board member at the New York Times who will buy that, but otherwise I think everyone can understand exactly what the councilman believes. That “string of words” combines into a noose for individual liberty. And common sense. Here’s to hoping the voters of Santa Barbara recover their common sense and pull the string on Dominguez (and his “words”) at the next election, along with the other five knuckleheads who voted for the plastic straw ban.

H/T Powerline