September 17, 2021
Dear Everyone:
California is one of 19 states which allow the
recall of a governor. The
idea is that, if a state governor appears to be doing a really bad job,
he or she can be “fired” by the state’s citizens before the next
election cycle. It has
happened, but only in rare instances and only in two states so far, the
other one being North Dakota.
18 years ago, enough people were fed up with
California Governor Gray Davis, a Democrat, to sign petitions to have
him recalled. That took a
lot of going door-to-door to convince people to sign.
After that, enough people voted in favor of the Recall and the
state got body-builder-turned-movie-action-hero Arnold Schwarzenegger as
a new, Republican, Governor.
This time, again with a Democratic Governor in
place, one Gavin Newsom, the Republican Party hired a lot of unemployed
people to stand outside of supermarkets with clipboards to collect the
requisite number of signatures.
One wonders how many of those people even knew what they were
signing.
In any case, the Recall Election was on, again.
This time, nearly 50 people thought they were qualified to be
Governor, including Caitlyn Jenner who, as Bruce Jenner, had won an
Olympic gold medal in the Decathlon.
How winning a track-and-field race, and changing genders,
qualifies a person to run a state the size of California is anybody’s
guess.
There were plenty of other candidates, not all
of them Republicans. There
was one Democrat whose “qualifications” included creating content for
YouTube. Another was still a
college student who also happened to be an Immigrant.
And then there was an “actor, screenwriter and producer”, which
assumed that being currently unemployed meant that he could manage an
economy larger that many small countries.
In any case, the Recall Election of 2021 was
going strong.
Newsom, and the Democratic Party, framed it as
“the Republican Recall”, hoping that it would galvanize a sufficient
number of Democrats and Independents to vote against the Recall on
general grounds. Then
Somebody gave Newsom and the Democrats a gift in the form of one, Larry
Elder.
Elder, a conservative radio talk show host, was
on the “record” as saying many objectionable things.
In the strain of Rush Limbaugh, who regularly called women
“feminazis” and considered poor people “lazy”, Elder basically said
anything that could get him higher ratings.
Also, during the actual election, Elder played the
“if-I-don’t-win-it’s-because-somebody-cheated” card so popular with
former President Donald Trump.
One can only imagine little Donny Trump
flinging the Chutes-and-Ladders board across the room the first time he
lost a game, crying, “This game is rigged!”
Naturally, anything that doesn’t automatically favor little Donny
must be unfair.
Elder’s “open-mouth-insert-foot” approach
disenchanted many Californians.
Next up was John H Cox, who has run for every
political position from President of the United States on down to dog
catcher. He used the
approach of “Beauty and the Beast”, dismissing Newsom as “just another
pretty face”, whereas Cox was the “Beast” who would somehow “fix
everything” just by being himself.
He also included a California Golden Bear in his advertisements,
to symbolize his “beastliness”, thus becoming known as “the guy who’s
tormenting that poor bear”.
To paraphrase a popular sentiment, “With
enemies like these, who needs friends?”
The Recall went down in flames and Newsom is
still in office.
In the meantime, the Republican Party continues
to shoot itself in the foot.
Every state legislature controlled by
Republicans is busily redrawing voting districts to ensure their
candidates are “safe”. In
addition, having realized that they just don’t have enough voters on
their side, some states are passing laws to “protect the vote” by making
it nearly impossible for many people to vote, in the course of which
they are
actively alienating as many potential voters as
possible.
Will this “Dog in the Manger” approach turn
around and bite the Republicans in the butt?
Only time, and next year’s midterm election will tell.
In the meantime, it is fun to watch.
Except for the Bear, of course.
Love, as always,
Pete
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