Three views of California politics-as-unusual: I Don’t
Recall
By Carol
Fondiller
California’s been the
butt of jokes since late night talk shows have discovered land west of the
Rockies.
Of course Californians have
contributed to the fun by promoting mood rings, pyramid power, hot tubs, Esalen,
macrobiotic diets, and roller-skating for adults.
But the fun, the sheer joy, of California
has been politics.
But now the
political process has been transmogrified from populist idea into a plaything
for the elite.
Of course I’m speaking
of ballot initiatives and the comparatively easy recall
method.
The ballot initiative was
instituted by a reform minded governor, Hiram Johnson, in the early part of the
twentieth century as a method to fight corrupt and giant entities, to make the
process of instituting laws for and by the people more accessible to the voters.
Fellow Californicators, we’ve
been had. We are the victims of a gigantic shell
game.
While we are told to watch the
candidate for the steroid manufacturing companies, the moneybags are busily
deconstructing the underpinnings of California democracy. We are being
transformed from a democratic republic form of government to a
mobocracy.
Because of the swiftness of
modern communication many people are called upon to make instant decisions. We
are treated to a thirty-second commercial where a candidate announces that
he/she is for clean government, good schools, lower taxes, and a chance for
everyone to be on a reality show.
I
myself always vote the pro-crime pro-pedophile
candidate.
One person announced his
candidacy for California governor on the Jay Leno
show.
The punditocracy was shocked.
Why, he’s turned the whole process into a
circus.
Oh, as
if!
No it hasn’t been turned into
a circus; it’s been turned into a giant carnival where the aforementioned
shell game gives us poor rubes the illusion of having some say about our
government.
And it hasn’t been
turned into a carney game by Arnold; he’s just an opportunist taking
advantage of a very silly
situation.
Darrell Issa took advantage
of the floundering recall Gray Davis movement. He pumped money into the recall
movement, and with the help of paid volunteers (is that an oxymoron?) revived it
and got it into high gear.
At last
Darrell Issa has created something even more useless, pernicious, and annoying
than his car alarm—and they said it couldn’t be
done!!
So, thanks to Darrell Issa,
millionaire creator of the car alarm, the rightfully elected governor of
California is in danger of being cancelled on account of money and the politics
of perversion.
As someone said,
“They talk about Governor Davis the way liberals talk about Saddam
Hussein: ‘He’s a terrible guy, but we shouldn’t invade his
country—he’s a lousy governor but it’s not fair to drum him
out of office.’”
Well hey
we’re not talking about some floor sweeper being fired because he/she
didn’t get the dust bunnies under the bed; we’re talking about a
governor of the state that has the sixth largest economy in the world. Also, if
he did something traitorous or fraudulent or evil he should be
recalled.
But he didn’t. If we
stopped the world, the constant dot-com drum of e-mail paranoia, the instant
perennial gossip and manufacturing of candidates, and just thought, Davis
hasn’t been a bad governor. He hasn’t been perfect, but he’s
instituted and signed off on some fairly decent
legislation.
He’s being framed by
con artists of the highest order.
Blame
Governor Beige for the energy fiasco and the billions he wasted on making sure
California had its lights on.
The con
is of course while the Gov. is being nailed to the wall for this, it was Darrell
Issa's neo-con buddies Enron, Halliburton, et al who are squirreling away the
booty.
It was the “privatize
necessary services such as schools, jails, electricity—deregulate and
allow monopolies and duopolies to control essential services” that caused
the artificial energy crisis. Exactly what was Davis supposed to do when the
power crunch came down?
It might have
been nobler for him to stand firm and say “Not another penny to you
usurers, you black mailers—we’ll go without electricity. Let a
thousand candles burn, a billion toilets go unflushed, let us have a state
filled with wild-eyed desperate TV and computer junkies deprived of their fixes,
gas pumps that are unpumpable, emergency rooms lit by gasoline lanterns, ice
mochas melting—no air-conditioning in buildings whose windows don’t
open, I’m taking the moral high ground and the next plane to
Nevada!”
Only parts of California
would have survived—those parts that use the Department of Water and
Power. Los Angeles might have been immune, but not Santa Monica or parts of
Culver City. So Davis sucked it up and did the right, very unpopular, but
sensible thing. He caved to Halliburton, et al.
Davis has made affordable housing more
of a reality. He has re-instituted the tax rebate for low-income
renters—renters get a rebate on the taxes they indirectly pay to their
landlords. He’s signed off on sane legislation regarding schools, the
environment, and has been supportive of the Coastal Commission. For all you
Californians who were living here in the 1980s—remember Deukmejian and
Wilson who promised to destroy the Coastal
Commission?
Meanwhile, the only things
the opponent on the other side has, is that he enjoyed group sex, and smoked a
lot of hash and grass during his youth, but can’t remember it now. I
suppose he also forgot that he was on some president’s fitness promotion,
while smoking illicit Cuban cigars—well, short-term memory loss will do
that to you.
He also got a measure
(Proposition 49) on the ballot in the last gubernatorial election, that is for
after-school programs but takes away money from established programs such as
Head Start.
Larry Flynt has a
comparable record except for the Prop 49 thing and the fact that he believes in
the first amendment. But Larry remembers what he did and is not ashamed.
Arianna, oh what can I say about the
coiner of the phrase ‘compassionate conservative,’ and former buddy
of the former Speaker of the House, bodacious adulterer and promulgator of the
return of orphanages, Newt Gingrich?
If
the wind blows from a different direction will this weather cocquette do a
different turn?
I did like her book on
Picasso.
Well, I’m voting no on
the recall even though it might be fun to have a steroid crazed muscleman for
Gov., so different from the bland Governor Beige, but I’m having
difficulty choosing from the other 135
candidates.
Maybe I’ll vote for
Bustamante. He looks reassuring—like President Taft without all the facial
hair, and California was stolen from Mexico. It might be time for a Latino as
Gov.
Or maybe Larry Flynt, at least
we’ll know we’ve been
SCREWED.
P.S. Vote No on 54, please!
Wouldn’t you like to know which ethnic group is more susceptible to
different kinds of cancer and why? Wouldn’t you like to know which group
has fewer heart attacks and
why?
That’s the shell
game—the pea under the shell from which the neo-cons are distracting
us.
The reactionaries who instituted
the recall are also sliding in this very dangerous piece of
legislation.
They’re hoping that
the disaffected and angry minority of previously non-voters will vote for the
recall, vote in Arnold or arch-reactionary McClintock and vote for Prop 54. Fool
them! Show the country we lead in thinking!
Posted: Mon - September 1, 2003 at 04:45 PM