In “The Republic,” Plato introduced his concept of philosopher-kings. These are ideal rulers who exhibit all of the great virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, temperance and moderation. These philosopher-kings have no desire to rule. They prefer the contemplative life over power – they merely do so out of a sense of duty.  

The philosopher-king has a balanced soul. Rational and a master of his disposition, never betraying vice with excessive displays of uncontrolled emotion. Plato thought that this was important because it would allow the philosopher-king to rule dispassionately and rationally for the common good of all, never allowing their emotions to dictate their actions, instead using their wisdom for policy and their courageous nature to choose justly even when it is to their detriment.

I had these beautiful and distant notions in mind Wednesday evening as Riverside County Sheriff and candidate for governor Chad Bianco became increasingly agitated and hysterical with every question I asked him during our meeting over Zoom. 

The troubles started when I asked the sheriff about his department’s low crime-solving rate. You see, I thought that the public might want to hear why they should trust a candidate to lead the state when his department had the lowest Part I crime solve-rate in the state of any sheriff’s department, standing at about 9%. 

“Yeah, let me stop you. Does that even sound possible to you?” he asked.  

“So is that your response, that that’s inaccurate?” I replied with the calmness of a monk on the verge of enlightenment. 

“Yeah, I’m asking you a question. I’m going to tell you it is an absolute lie. It’s not inaccurate. It’s an absolute lie. Does that even sound reasonable or possible to you, a 9% crime-solving rate?” he answered grumpily. 

After he blamed old technology and the state for fishing for ammunition against him, I asked, “So if that’s not legitimate, then do you have the actual number for the solve rate?”

One would think that if the figure was truly inaccurate, given that this low crime-solving rate is being held over his head and that the public has a clear interest in knowing if their sheriff’s department is effective, that it would motivate the sheriff to figure out his actual solve-rate. 

“We could eventually get it,” he answered. “It’s not an easy get because we have 17, we actually have 18 because we have 17 contract cities and then we have county areas. And we have to go back and cross-reference. […] We have to hand search it. So to be very, very honest with you, do I want to waste employees’ time to go and do that several employees weeks if not months to sift through all of that data?” 

We moved on to the sheriff’s ambitious tax policy. He is promising to abolish the state’s income tax and perhaps even the property tax. Given that income taxes overwhelmingly pay for things like education, children’s health care, senior services, and care for children and adults with disabilities, I asked how he would pay for these or if he would cut funding for them. 

“We’re going to put government back to what government is supposed to be. Government is not supposed to be a social program.” After explaining his conception of the proper role of government and blaming reporters for not investigating failed progressive policies, he continued, “Socialism is what you’re talking about. And we are not in China. We are not in Russia. We are not in Cuba.” 

Overextended social programs are certainly legitimate targets for scrutiny but the sheriff’s response appeared to suggest that it’s beyond the scope of the government to care for senior citizens and disabled children. Do with that what you will.

His most hysterical moments came when I asked about the extent of his envisioned cooperation with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. I asked if he would cooperate with ICE only when they target violent criminals. 

“It’s criminals. It’s criminals. Let me tell you something about violent criminals. Is DUI a violent crime? You’re going to say it’s not. You’re going to say it’s not because you’re going to say DUI is a misdemeanor,” he preempted, frustrated that he was dealing with just another crazy lib. 

“That is the stupidest argument I have ever heard. You are victimizing us. […] That is absolutely asinine because you can burglarize a house all day long and those are not violent crimes. But what happens when the person inside the house confronts you and you end up killing them? It’s asinine. Stop that argument. It’s a horrible argument. Stop it. It seriously is asinine,” he yelled, as if he were reprimanding an insubordinate deputy. 

Burglaries, robberies, and even DUIs are certainly crimes that we would want to deport illegal immigrants for.  I wanted to clarify with him whether he would cooperate with ICE on locating non-criminal immigrants outside of prison but I felt that the sheriff was stressed out enough. 

I started feeling for the sheriff as I asked him about his fellow Republican candidate Steve Hilton calling him BLM Bianco for kneeling during a BLM rally in 2020. I asked him why he knelt, to which he responded exhausted and annoyed, “So do you not know? Do you not care? Are you not paying attention?” 

Manifesting all of the stoicism of Marcus Aurelius, I replied, “I want you to clarify your position.”

I give him credit for sending an email afterwards apologizing for his behavior but if he can’t even handle answering a few simple questions from a lowly opinion columnist over video call without resorting to yelling out of frustration, what would we expect of his performance under the pressure of managing the most populous state in the country and the 5th largest economy in the world? 

Despite the fact that we don’t necessarily have an abundance of philosopher-kings to choose from, it would perhaps be unwise to settle for someone who has trouble controlling their emotions in low-pressure situations.

Bianco has done so much with what God gave him and he should be proud, but this is as far as he should get.

Rafael Perez is a columnist for the Southern California News Group. He is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Rochester. You can reach him at rafaelperezocregister@gmail.com.