Trump and his cabinet have been making headlines recently in terms of the pushback they’ve given to California for its sanctuary city policies. The president has been characteristically critical toward California’s own brand of liberalism, and he recently singled out Governor Jerry Brown in particular. In response to Trump’s activity involving California, a Tuesday editorial from the Sacramento Bee claimed that President Trump hasn’t seen the real California, and has, thus, vastly mischaracterized the state on the national stage.

Here’s a segment:

As Donald Trump visited California on Tuesday for the first time as president, he limited his view to what serves his agenda – a border crossing in San Diego to inspect prototypes for his proposed wall, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar to speak to service members, and a private home in Beverly Hills for a $35,000-per-person fundraiser.

If only the president and the nation could see the real California. They’d see a state that drives much of the U.S. economy, with diverse and dynamic people leading the way into America’s future.

Granted, I’m on board with the idea that Trump’s rhetorical style often relies on the use of “broad brushstrokes.” The same can be said for many politicians. That, and it’s definitely true that California is a diverse state, it’s filled with dynamic people, it’s significantly impactful over the US economy, and Californians do develop tech that will launch us into the future.

But those on the editorial board at the Sacramento Bee are deluding themselves if they think Californians live in some idealistic liberal utopia.

I live in San Francisco. I cherish my city, but it has major problems, none of which the editorial addressed.

The worst problem of all– way worse than soaring rents, the high cost of living, unreliable police, ridiculous taxes, less-than-optimal public transit, and laws that hamstring businesses and individuals in the name of liberal ideology– is the trifecta of homelessness, mental illness, and addiction that affects people who live on the streets.

To give you an idea: this past Monday, I was walking down the entrance stairway to the Civic Center BART station, and on my way down, I walked in between two homeless men as one passed a crack pipe to the other. They made zero effort to conceal the pipe because it’s just normal in that area of town to do hard drugs out in the open. And several days ago, when my husband and I went to the public library downtown, we saw several plastic pieces that had come off of hypodermic needles laying around. My husband has seen people shooting up before. He once saw someone defecating in the street. I’ve seen someone smoking a pipe in the street. I’ve seen a pregnant woman smoking cigarettes on the street. One time, I saw someone pee on the side of a building downtown, and their bag was laying in the middle of their pee stream as it ran into the street, so when they finished doing their business and picked up their bag, it was dripping urine as they walked away.

Nothing shocks me anymore. A couple of weeks ago, as I was working in a coffee shop, I looked out the window onto Market Street, which is the main drag through downtown San Francisco. I saw a person on the sidewalk take all of his clothes off, raise his hands high in the air, and talk to an invisible person for about five minutes before putting his clothes back on and walking off.

It’s San Francisco, so, no big deal. That kind of thing happens all the time.

Do the local and state governments in California actually help the people who live on the city streets? It doesn’t look like it. Or, at least, help from the government is not apparent to those of us who live here. The reality is that homelessness has, in recent years, worsened tremendously in California and on the west coast in general.

Ben Shapiro does a great job explaining the situation cities like San Francisco face here, in an answer to a question posed on his podcast. He essentially says that:

• 1) Every citizen has a right to access city streets in relative safety, and thus, it should be illegal for people to loiter on the streets, establish encampments, and leave waste in ways that create hazards for anyone else, and also
• 2) It is cruel for the government to see homeless people suffering on the streets with severe mental illness and addiction and do nothing to tangibly help them.

Government should be small in almost every sense, with the exception of caring for those who truly cannot help themselves like the addicted and mentally ill. When a person is suffering from a debilitating mental illness or addiction to the extent that they wander the streets, unable to live normal lives and care for themselves, the humane thing for the local and state government to do is to use the resources they have to treat such people (instead of blowing said resources on less important projects– like giving Fisherman’s Wharf a facelift).

But what do we hear from the Sacramento Bee editorial?

If Trump could rise above politics and let go of grudges, he just might see how important California is to the success of his presidency and to America’s prosperity. But that would mean looking at the bigger picture, and acknowledging the America he doesn’t want to see.

The members of the Sacramento Bee editorial board should examine their own motives. They should use their Trump lens on themselves and acknowledge what they don’t want to see: the fact that their state is a highly nuanced place… filled with many amazing sights (despite liberals’ constant attempts to make everything just a little bit worse) and also filled with untold brokenness, dirtiness, and pain.

Attacking Trump by pretending the state has no problems won’t make the state’s problems go away. Only good policy, good sense, and compassion for all who live in California will do that.