Hard Truths is a monthly newsletter about national, state, and local issues, with some sassy personal updates from the author – Heather Schmidt, M.PA – Public Policy Consultant, Political Analyst, and Mom of Three. Beginning in Summer 2025, this newsletter will be available in audio, video, or digital print versions. Please subscribe for newsletters and other updates!

Hard Truths

June 2025

As I logged in and started to write this newsletter – already having in mind what I wanted to talk about at the State Level – I read that Kamala Harris is officially “gearing up to run for governor.”

Look. I understand a lot of people felt she was a great fit for president, and they’ll likely clear the Democratic Party field for her to run for governor in kind. Winning elections is more than celebrity endorsements and empty promises, though. She will have to earn the candidacy through policy and debate this time, or she isn’t qualified to run the world’s fourth largest economy. Period.

Now let’s get to it…

National Nonsense

Last night, the US military engaged in a targeted bombing of a nuclear enrichment facility in Iran. This came after weeks – months – of negotiations and increasing concerns that Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons.

The world (well, a lot of pundits and politics and news influencers in the US) lost their collective minds.

People seem to have suddenly forgotten all the other times through out modern history that presidents have engaged in limited strikes in the interest of national security. Within minutes, people claimed the president declared war, violated the Constitution, claimed it was WW3, said there was no threat from Iran, said the threat from Iran retaliating was so great we’re all going to be nuked by July, and when I woke up this morning, the entire Internet had become an armchair expert on the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s closure of it’s likely impact on oil prices.

If you are among the people pontificating on all this: stop. Just stop. You don’t have to be an expert at everything.

Foreign policy and national security are incredibly complex issues. Iran is run by a dangerous and oppressive regime. The strike that was carried out yesterday was strategized and gamed out – even exercised – under Biden. No one complained about that, nor about the many strikes Obama made… even Clinton. That’s because sometimes, it’s necessary. Most people really do not even remotely understand all that is involved in keeping us safe. Decades ago, Iran declared war with the United States, and they have repeatedly done so since. We have just chosen to ignore it. Should Iran under its current regime develop a nuclear weapon… well, I actually don’t want to fathom what would happen should that occur.

Iran. Can. Not. Have. Nuclear. Weapons.

Other than that final point, I’m not arguing one way or another on the strike. I just want everyone to stop making claims that are simply misinformation.

From the Greatest State in the Nation

As if the 2026 gubernatorial election already gearing up weren’t awful enough, California is bracing for another one of CARB’s outlandish gas tax increases. This time, beginning on July 1st, a 65 cent per gallon tax will be added to our gasoline bills. Insanity.

This comes as our economy is already beginning to stagnate (more than it already has) as a result of the increases in ICE raids, as well as the chaos with the National Guard and US Marines being deployed to the City of Los Angeles in response to protests. People are – simply put – afraid to go to work, or don’t want to deal with all the police and military all over the place. And while this seems to have eased up a bit as employers take more decisive actions to protect and education/aid employees – I believe the toll on economic activity will likely continue so long as these raids and the military presence continues.

Just Local Stuff

When I was in grad school, one of the key lessons we learned to the point of exhaustion was that there are times for politics and time for governing. Good governance is when you stop putting elections and politics into every decision you make as a policymaker. This – regrettably – is the ideal though, and not something we’re even seeing anymore at the local level. Every decision today has been politicized to death. Governance – the day to day operations of serving the public – has been politicized.

Locally, we have people already raising money for the 2026 and 2028 election cycles. The 2026, I can sort of understand; though the 2028 is where things have gotten a little weird. Multiple people have asked me if I’m running for anything again – either in ’26 or ’28, and recently I learned that one of my “political foes” contacted one of the universities I’ve attended to try and gain access to my transcripts, claiming I had applied for a job at their place of business (a little psychotic, right?).

But this isn’t just about the politicization of our government and its day to day operations. The news has been politicized as well, which I’ve talked about here before, but is more noticeable by the day. One of the County Supervisors up for re-election next year recently made the news reel because he and his office are being sued for wrongful termination by a former employee. During my regular poking around the Election Clerk’s website, I discovered that former employee just happened to also file to run against the guy the day after the news broke. Most of the local papers won’t even publish anything remotely politically controversial, and all the major paper (the Ventura County Star) posts in the realm of politics and government is about Trump. That paper literally suppressed a letter I wrote outlining violations of campaign finance law by multiple elected officials here in Oxnard, I can only assume to keep in their good graces.

There has to be a way to walk back this politicization of every aspect of life and society, and I suspect that will be begin at the local level. (But how?)

A Bit on Me

Shockingly, there is more to my personality than politics and government. I know that’s all I seem to be able to talk about lately – and definitely the tone and tenor of this newsletter in general – but as my kids get older, and my time becomes more mine again – I’ve really leaned into my hobbies of panicking, being over prepared, and being unable to sit still.

I’m kidding!

But in actuality, I attended a neighborhood meeting recently about things to do to “get prepared” and have since built a humongous container garden on my balcony, while also organizing and building out my emergency supplies and so-called “bug out bag”. I can food now. I dehydrate fruits and vegetables. I have a solar powered hand crank radio, and several aluminum foil blanket options. I’m even learning to churn my own butter.

Who knows? Maybe the chaos and politics on the world, state, and even local stages will call up the need for those supplies and skills sooner than I believe after all.

Until next month…