Filner in 2013 after announcement of resignation. "I always assumed these encounters were consensual."

Former Mayor Bob Filner, who was forced to resign from office after a short stay, has written a self-published book, Trumping Trump: Making Democrats Progressive Again. It is available on Amazon.

One irony is that President Trump is barely mentioned. The main focus of the book is his plan for progressives to regain political power. He confesses that his years in office (including city council, Congress and the mayoralty) "had made me arrogant and drunk with power." He thought his positions "exempted me from the rules."

"I never stole money, but I did abuse my power as an elected official to convince women to sleep with me," writes Filner, who had not admitted his many sexual adventures before."My arrogance blinded me to the demeaning way that I had treated women." He was having casual relationships and considered then "one of the perks of office...I always assumed these encounters were consensual." His sexual encounters became addictive — "I had to have more and more conquests." Writes Filner, "Now I see it wasn't the sex I was after; it was the power." He doesn't mention it, but Filner had a reputation as a womanizer when he was in Congress.

In the days leading up to his resignation, women said that he had come on strong to them. But there was no discussion of whether he had succeeded. Now he has come clean.

He says he became a progressive at age 13, when he met Martin Luther King, who was in his 20s. His father told him King would become a great man.

He relates how he attended Tea Party and Trump rallies to see how the opposition works. He saw white supremacists, but also middle-class people who wanted jobs and money for their children's education. He praises Republican Newt Gingrich for his ability to get things through the House when Republicans had been out of power for decades.

He supports solar systems on public buildings and realizes San Diego Gas & Electric will fight that. He deplores the maneuver by which the California Public Utilities Commission permitted the costs of San Onofre's decommissioning to be shifted to ratepayers. He attacks corporate welfare, particularly how billionaire sports team owners fleece citizens to pay for stadiums. These are not just progressive ideas; conservatives should join in, too — and have. He discusses how corrupt lawyers have taken advantage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

He realizes he made mistakes while mayor of San Diego. For instance, he initially wanted to approve every contract personally. But that slowed things down. He now realizes he should have hired a director of purchasing to do the job for him.

In his last chapter, he discusses how the language has changed. Immigrants are no longer a source of economic strength for the nation, "but they are the explanation for all our problems," he writes. Peace is no longer mankind's universal hope, but is "the result of weakness and appeasement." And "corporations" have been turned into "people."