For those of you that read this blog, you may recall that sometimes I take a break from news reporting and excoriating political targets for personal updates. This is such a time. This post is intended to be serious. If you’ve never read a post of mine before please read this one.
As I have been advocating for the ouster of Chad Mayes as Assembly Permanent Minority Leader, I’ve noticed some extreme behavior and disturbing personality traits that have manifest that have given me serious pause. As a man nearing 15 years of Sobriety, and as a man with extensive experience working with some profoundly sick people in recovery groups, alarm bells are going off.
I know that Mr. Mayes is being supported by a close-knit inner circle that are attempting to insulate him from the firestorm. I know that “3rd House” Donors and lobbyists are putting pressure on Republican Members to keep Chad Mayes in Place. I know people are being threatened as well. It is also clear that many members of the Assembly Republican Caucus are very uneasy over the entire situation. It is also clear that the democrat leadership have been supplying Mr. Mayes with donors in order to fill his warchest for the coming election.
If you’re a Republican Member of the legislature – there is an angle beyond the donors, lobbyists, money, threats, chaos and turmoil to consider. What do you do when your current leader demonstrates an incurable behavior pattern that will destroy himself and everyone else around him?
When someone overcomes a major life issue like addiction, it is because you take a good hard look at your life, who you are and how you got to be where you are at. In AA, it is known as the 12 steps. At the beginning of every AA meeting, a passage of the AA Big Book called “How it Works” is read… there is a key part that is the basis for the remainder of my post:
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a way of life which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.
The most disturbing thing about watching Chad Mayes speak to the Riverside GOP and listening to him address the California Republican Party Board of Directors was his absolute lack of honesty. Some try to dismiss it as him actually believing the absurdities coming out of his mouth.
I know what that is like, I used to live there and until I could get honest with myself, I kept getting drunk. It was not until I was breathless at 325 pounds at the age of 31 that I had the moment of honesty. I could not tell the truth even though I meant well, and it was because I was not completely gone that the integrity stuffed deep inside of me was finally able to come out. It saved my life, literally – I was on blood pressure medication and cholesterol medication at the age of 31.
I fear for Chad Mayes. I fear for anyone near him. He has retaliated against Melissa Melendez, he has cut off the “One Ask Program” in an attempt to retaliate against Republican Groups that have spoken out against him.
Mr. Mayes was trying to control the circumstances of his appearance at the Riverside GOP, demanding to speak before Melissa Melendez, threatening several times to not come unless he got his way on things, and attempting to intimidate volunteers in to doing what he wanted. It is my belief that Mayes may well have had a hand in the leftist protesters that showed up at the RivCO GOP Meeting.
Mr. Mayes told a string of lies leading up to the Cap and Trade vote, issuing deceptive tweets, telling GOP Board Members there was no deal, telling constituents there was no deal – even as he had enablers like Rocky Chavez, Marc Steinorth and others lined up and ready to go.
Despite 20 County Parties, the State Party, the Impact Republicans, 4 Big Donor Lincoln Clubs and a host of local groups calling on Chad Mayes to resign, he has defiantly told the LA Times, “I am not going to capitulate,” he said. “I’m going to continue to keep pushing forward.”
It is clear that Chad Mayes’ ego is out of control. He has bought a lie of epic proportions and has determined that he would rather be completely destroyed than back down from the grotesque error he has made. He has based his behavior on polling data few people have seen, but those that have drew a completely different conclusion than him.
It is also clear that Chad Mayes sees everyone around him as an extension of himself and therefore they are expendable and inferior. There is no other way to explain why he is so dug in despite the firestorm and body of evidence that surrounds him. There is no other way to explain his sexual exploits as juxtaposed with the faith he claims.
When I encounter someone who is incapable of grasping their own faults and is incapable of contrition, it is truly a scary experience. It nearly killed me as the price I paid for my own delusion of perfection was alcoholism.
Chad Mayes seems content to let everyone and everything burn down with him in his spiral.
In politics, people throw the word Narcissist around so much it has no meaning. I know a few Narcissists in politics. It is my untrained, 15 years in recovery working with a lot of messed up people opinion that Mr. Mayes is such a person.
Most in psychology will tell you that you can not cure a Narcissist. I was told I was a Narcissist when I was younger, but the spirit of the Lord that was inside me from a young age (I accepted Christ at age 5), was greater than the illness and addiction.
It is my own personal battle with arrogance, ego, addiction, honesty and the like that allows me to have a perspective for these people.
I am divulging some personal details on purpose (as I know some people in politics may attempt to use this information against me), I believe I know of which I speak. Seeing Chad Mayes was like looking in a mirror from years ago before the power of the Lord and the 12 steps of AA helped save me from myself.
Chad Mayes needs to rekindle his relationship with the Lord and needs to do so somewhere far away from the spotlight.
Meanwhile, I am imploring his fellow assemblymembers to take a break from the political firestorm to consider his behavior and the toxic effects it is having beyond the political realm. Please relieve Chad Mayes of command and get as far away from him as possible. And, if you are a person of faith, pray for him that he will find the ability to be honest – because only a willing honest heart will make it possible for Chad Mayes to become a whole person. Right now he is dangerous to everyone and everything he is around.
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