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Yucca Valley, California — By the time Big Bear Lake Republican Rep. Jay Obernolte tried to unite at his “Community Coffee” event, his audience cried out and called him the Nazi.
“We’re not team liberals or conservatives. We’re not team Republicans or Democrats. We all play for team United States,” Obernolte told the overflow crowd at the Yucca Valley Community Center last month.
Boo owned him.
Obernolte told constituents to call his office “when there’s a government problem.” The female audience responded by singing the song from the theme song of “Ghostbusters.” fascist! ”
The crowd was furious that Obernolte defended the mass shootings of federal workers in the Trump administration. They cried out when the government’s efficiency department, or billionaire Elon Musk, who leads Doge, said on the federal budget, “we’re looking at all the waste.”
And, referring to Trump, they cried out: “There is no king! There is no king! There is no king!”
The scene from the solid, conservative, largely rural, 23rd Congressional District has been reflected in communities across the country, from California to Texas, Wisconsin and Georgia over the past two weeks.
Instead, many of these gatherings broke out in conflict and replies. Many of them focused on the power Trump gave to Musk to take Jackahammers for federal employment and eliminate tens of thousands of middle-class jobs, regardless of salary or pay offered by certain employees.
Pushbacks have intensified particularly around cuts to the National Park Service, losing nearly 10% of its workforce to federal acquisitions and layoffs. The excluded jobs included rangers, wildlife researchers and maintenance staff, and last weekend urged protests at around 140 sites across the country, including Joshua Tree National Park near Yucca Valley.
Republicans dismissed Tenta city halls as being organized by Democrats: “Paid ‘troublemakers’ are attending Republican town hall meetings,” Trump wrote Monday of the Truth Society, saying, “It’s all part of the Democratic game, but I’m not going to work for them, just like our big landslide elections!” On Tuesday, Republican campaign officials urged Congress’ GOP members to keep City Hall in a virtual environment.
In an interview with CNN, House Speaker Mike Johnson condemned the blow to the red district of “paid protesters” and “Democrats who came out early to fill their seats.”
However, at the city hall itself, some speakers were identified as Democrats, while others were identified as Republicans. And it was clear from the interview that the audience included many local residents at the Yucca Valley event on February 22nd. At least one person was wearing a Trump hat, and some attendees were clearly unhappy with the outspoken attendees.
GOP councillor Jay Obernolte screamed and met with boo at Yucca Valley’s February 22nd city hall.
(Stacy Moore/High Dessert Star)
In a statement to the Times, Obernorte’s office said it deemed Yucca Valley “an unusual” and held six other gatherings in the district that had “a more constructive discussion.”
Yucca Valley “had been given some animated voices,” but the statement was read, with many of the audience “presenting with the intention of confusing rather than engaging in productive conversations.”
Obernolte argues that “$36 trillion national debt is an existential threat to our country and supports efforts to eradicate taxpayer waste, fraud and abuse.”
Obernolte was re-elected during a right-hand swing in California in November. California has nine Republican lawmakers and more than 6 million Trump voters.
California was home to some of the country’s most competitive Congressional races last fall, giving the nation an extraordinary role in determining the balance of power in the nation. The GOP has one of the slimmest majority in history, with the Democrats holding 215 seats while holding 218 seats.
But their honeymoon is already over as Republicans control both Congressional homes and the White House, said Sean Bowler, a political scientist at UC Riverside.
“They had photo shoots. They had press releases. They spent 15 minutes on Fox and talk radio. It’s time to deliver, and there’s no reason not to deliver now,” Bowler said.
The vast districts of Obernolt, which stretch across the Mojave Desert and the San Bernardino Mountains, include most of San Bernardino County and parts of the counties of Caan and Los Angeles.
The tall desert towns around Joshua Tree have undergone radical changes in recent years. During the pandemic, city residents and remote workers moved into the desert in search of more affordable housing and easy access to nature. Home prices have skyrocketed. Real estate has been converted to vacation rentals. The bumper sticker reading “Go Back To LA” has become a common sight in the Highway 62, the main artery that passes through the Morongo Basin.
Voter registration in districts is roughly evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. However, the district has historically supported conservatives.
In November, Obernolte earned 20% points for re-election. And both San Bernardino and Kern counties, which make up 92% of the district, voted for Trump.
The district includes the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentin Palms and the Army Fort. Irwin National Training Center. It is home to tens of thousands of military veterans.
It is also one of the poorest council districts in the state, according to an analysis by the California Institute of Public Policy and the Stanford Center for Poverty and Inequality.
Many of the better-paid jobs in the area are federal agencies’ positions. And the small town relies on tourism in Joshua Tree National Park.
Park employees have collected admission fees and campsite fees, confirming that at least six full-time workers tasked with staffing the Visitor Center have been fired as part of the Trump administration’s cuts.
At the Yucca Valley gathering, Obernolte was plagued by questions about Park Services shootings, potential Medicaid cuts and a supplementary nutrition support program that provides food aid to low-income Americans.
Despite praise of Musk, Obernorte told the audience he was against Joshua’s tree cut. “It will create a terrible experience for visitors,” he said. “It’s going to destroy our community.”
He praised the administration’s decision to return to eliminating thousands of temporary seasonal positions at the National Park Service after the cost-cutting move was filled with massive public protests. However, the administration has advanced by firing around 1,000 probation employees (typically those who worked for the first two years).
Additionally, more than 700 National Park Service employees are participating in the federal acquisition program per year, according to an internal email sent to park supervisors last month.
Asked about the potential reductions in social safety nets, Obernolte said, “There was a lot of anxiety and surprise about the programs that everyone relies on, like Social Security like Medicare.”
“I want to be clear about this. No one is talking about reducing the benefits of those who depend on them,” he said.
The crowd chanted: “Liar! Liar!”
Keith Ham, a vacation rental host and registered Democrat who lives in Joshua Tree, was one of those who attended the event. He said he was hoping for a sleepy event that made him one of the few people who had objections. But then he began to hear “many buildups” and he said he hopes the meeting will become controversial.
“To be honest, it was more than I expected,” Ham said. Ham said it is a “deeply poor” place where many people rely on food benefits and medical.
He said of Obernolte: He has not fully contacted his constituency. ”
Joseph Candelaria, a 38-year-old musician and lifelong Twentynine Palms resident, began asking public questions by blowing up potential cuts in community food benefits, which he described as “underprivileged and underresourced.”
“We’re going to talk about the military being underpaid. So let’s remove the benefits of snaps? Do you know who is using the benefits of SNAP? The military community, we’re not paying them enough,” Candelaria said.
In an interview, Candelaria said the protests at the event were authentic, the rooms were full of locals and that they were angry at Republican leaders’ attempts to dismiss the blow in the Red District.
“Historically, I think this community has been used because we are lovely people. We are kind, but we are not stupid,” he said.
Candelaria said he is not registered with either major party, but has often attended local political events and has never seen it become so controversial.
He said of his own public comment: “I was told I did too much.”
Not everyone in the crowd expressed anger in the first few weeks under the new Trump administration. Many participants quietly nodded and applauded, as Obernolte said.
A few days after the event, Joshua Tree resident Brad Irwin, who was wearing a worn-out Trump 2024 hat, vociferously reaffirmed his approval when he left the port cargo in Yucca Valley. Irwin, 75, said he was happy to see Doge move so quickly, although he wasn’t attending the Obernorte event.
“I wake up every morning and say, ‘Lord, thank President Trump,” said Irwin, who has worked in the grocery business for 35 years. “We have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and will straighten our country financially, otherwise we’re done.”
When asked about Joshua Tree’s layoffs, Irwin describes himself as an “outdoor guy” who loves national parks, but the agency believes that better supervision is needed.
“How many government people are on porn sites should be working?” he said. “How many people are undergoing transgender changes when they are actually supposed to work?”
Branson Potts was reported from Los Angeles. Plevin reported from Yucca Valley.
This article is part of the Times Equity Report initiative funded by the James Irvine Foundation, which examines the challenges faced by low-income workers and efforts to address economic disparities in California.
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