The California recall and the Republican strategists behind it remind me of the kid at recess that wiffs at the kickball and then bawls “Do over!”
The progressive-era recall provisions in California’s state constitution were meant to allow the people to rise up in indignation and cast out the oligarchs and fat cats that ran off with the state’s spoils.
Imagine the Joad family from “Grapes of Wrath” arriving in California and finding out they could legally remove the oppressive politicos who dominated their life. Well, at least, that was the idea when the recall was put in place.
The only other state to have a recall go through was North Dakota, where farmers got fed up with grain taxes or some other pressing issue and threw out their socialist governor.
Fact is, California is not going through a recall in the manner that its forebears would recognize. But it should be all too clear to anyone of our political life and times.
Basically, the California recall is a giant, cynical Republican power grab. It is a way to try to regain control of its 54 electoral-college votes. It’s a way to show America that the most traditionally liberal state can undergo an ideological makeover and come out on the other side. It’s an enormous mockery of democracy.
First, how did it start? You might be thinking, “That jerk who invented car alarms and got himself elected to Congress and then paid $1 a signature to volunteers to work malls and airports and delude nearly a million Californians into signing a petition so that he could run the state.” You would be close.
You might add, “And cried like a baby when he announced that he wouldn’t run for the office he spent so much of his hard-earned money to steal.” That jerk would be Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Calif.), who did spend over $1 million of his own money to collect 2.1 million signatures of real Californians. Real mad Californians. Or at least, that’s what he’d like you to believe.
Unfortunately, this seems less and less to be the case. The latest poll by the Los Angeles Times has people dead split on the recall issue. Voters were split 52 to 47 over whether they would vote “yes” or “no” on the recall with a 3 percent margin of error. In other words, it’s a toss-up. And those numbers have been going down consistently since this whole shenanigan began.
No, the actual beginning of this was back in 2000, when Bush couldn’t win his election outright and had to circumvent the laws of this country in order to get his job. Bush and his political guru Karl Rove (also known as “Bush’s Brain”) know that they didn’t really win the election the first time, so they had better build in some cushion this time.
That’s why Texas is holding an unprecedented vote to redistrict the state in order to get more Republicans into the House. They would rather disenfranchise Latino and black voters (Democrats, mainly) than, oh, say, uphold the laws of their state and country in a fair and legal manner. That’s why 11 Texas state senators are holed up in New Mexico, so that the Texas Legislature can’t take a vote on the issue. Now that’s democracy!
Californian voters seem to be cooling to the prospect of the recall. Remember, Californians are very conscious of style and perception, and the circus that blew up around this seemed to embarrass even them.
Interestingly, Arnold is not leading in the polls, contrary to my conservative counterpoint’s assertion. Mr. Schwarzenegger is at 25 percent, with Mr. Bustamante at 30 percent and Republican State Sen. Tom McClintock at 18 percent.
What concerns many Republicans is what has recently become known as the “RINO” effect. RINO means “Republican in name only,” and it is used to disparage conservatives who don’t toe an exceptionally doctrinaire line when it comes to Republican politics.
Mr. Schwarzenegger is just that sort of RINO. He supports gay partnerships, he is in mild support of medical marijuana, he groped a news anchor on English television, he used performance-enhancing drugs in the 1970s and made a series of incredibly violent movies. But, hey, he won’t raise taxes!
State Sen. Tom McClintock is going after Ah-nold and claiming that he is the true conservative and not the rock-jawed movie star.
There are no winners in the California recall. This isn’t democracy; it’s naked manipulation. There is no excuse for the Republicans to subvert the democratic process in this manner.
My prediction? No recall. Second prediction: if there is a recall, it will be a crushing defeat for the partisans who began it and a victory for Latinos everywhere when the governor of California is finally one of their own.
Rob Deters ([email protected]) is a second-year law student.
