Do You Recall?
I recently wrote a piece at Chapel Furnace entitled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Recall”.
I’m reposting it here for anyone who’s interested. Click the link below to read it. I’m turning off comments for this post, because this site isn’t really about political discussion. But if you’re interested in discussing it (or just in telling me how wrong I am), I encourage you to head over to the Furnace.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Recall
In general discussion regarding the California recall election, there are those who do not understand how it ever got this far. There seems to be a general feeling of unease with this process, which seems to fly in the face of our well-oiled democratic machine. It is for this reason that I share the reason why I voted in favor of the recall, despite my own initial discomfort with the movement.
The recall, at its conception, was a politically-motivated power grab by a gubernatorial wannabe, namely Darrell Issa. It is for this reason that I did not sign the recall petitions, because the whole thing stunk of sour grapes. Issa’s “of the people, for the people” facade was transparent and slimy. However, with the help of large sums of money, the petition was successful without me and the recall was staged. So the argument then became: If the Governor was fairly re-elected only months before, how can the people, in good conscience, stage a recall already?
This is a valid point, and warrants introspection on the part of every Californian. If we hate the guy so much, why did we vote for him again? Feeding on the growing disapproval of the Governor Davis’s administration, Republicans took for granted the 2002 election. They assumed that Davis would never garner the support from disenfranchised voters necessary to succeed to a second term. In their giddiness, they then proceeded to nominate the most conservative guy they could find - Bill Simon. Simon is against gun control, he does not support environmental issues if they so much as create an inconvenience for anyone, he does not support market regulation, the list goes on and on… Californians, as a whole, do not want this kind of government. Even President Bush was reluctant to take a picture with the guy for fear that a little bit of Simon might tarnish his own image. And yet we were almost willing to elect even this total right-winger we didn’t trust over Davis. The final results: Davis 48%, Simon 42%. This result can be explained with the old saying, “it is better to work with the devil you know, than with the devil you don’t know.” The fact is any moderate could have beaten Gray Davis. But Republicans took a chance and lost fair and square. Then, almost immediately, the bombs started dropping.
Shortly after the election, Governor Davis informed the state that we were over $35 billion in the red. The books had been cooked to slide him through the election. Davis waited until after the 2002 election to push through massive spending increases at the cost of taxpayers. Additionally, Davis never informed us of his plans to raise taxes in his second term. Then Davis flip-flopped on issues he had previously vetoed. One is the tripling of the automobile registration fee (which is already among the highest in the nation). Another is the issue of driver’s licenses being granted to illegal, undocumented immigrants. Davis lied about the condition of our state’s economy, and he misrepresented himself to the people of California. In short, he is no longer the man we elected. He lied to us, and we called him on it.
So California now has the nation’s attention, and with that has come criticism and outright ridicule from people all over the country. Californians are now the confused sheep who cannot make up our minds, and are lead by whoever can spend the most money. Or are we the radicals who break the rules and misinterpret our own Constitution arbitrarily to avoid paying more to register our cars? Or are we the star-struck knuckleheads who jumped on the Arnold bandwagon for front row tickets to the show?
It’s not just about the car registration fee hike. It’s not just about driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. It’s not just about the mass emigration of businesses from our state. It is about honesty and accountability. As contributors to the fifth largest economy in the world, there is no excuse for the pathetic state of our schools, the business environment, our roads, and our infrastructure. Business as usual is pissing us off. We deserve better, and we’re willing to do what it takes to get it. And as usual, we don’t particularly care what anyone else has to say about that.