Wednesday, September 15, 2021

I generally try to stay out of other states’ business here. Apart from the South, I figure the rest of the country has enough representation that I ain’t helping anyone out. The South is, of course, the South, and no matter how much we wish it otherwise, Mississippi’s fate is tangled in with Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and all the rest.

So it’s National politics with Mississippi politics and a touch of Regional politics. That being said, I think it’s time we discussed the recent attempt in California to recall Governor Gavin Newsom because it does have greater implications for the national scene. Plus, it’s a good insight into how the national political media does its job. Or, in this case, does it badly. Giving away the game there, I know, but bear with me.

Anyhow. The recall attempt failed with “No” getting 64% of the vote. How it worked is, people voted either “Yes” or “No” on the question of recalling Newsom and kicking him out in favor of one of some 46 other hopefuls, most of which you never heard of. Caitlyn Jenner was an early newsmaker but it became quickly apparent she wasn’t putting much effort into the whole deal. About three months ago, right-wing radio host and professional butthole Larry Elder threw his hat into the ring and became what many feel was Newsom’s greatest challenge.

Something like 20 states in the union have recall processes for elected officials. They’re not all the same and, for the most part, rarely put into action. In fact, only two governors in U.S. history have been successfully recalled: one guy in 1921 and the 2003 example when Grey Davis was booted out of Sacramento in favor of Arnold Schwarzenegger. For what it’s worth, Arnie didn’t do a half-bad job in the spot and people were actually talking serious about changing the Constitution so he could run for U.S. President. That’s almost charmingly naïve in retrospect.

The national press got a serious hard-on once Elder got into the game. California is a contentious state in American politics, probably the most divisive among the punters and super-geniuses that make up the American electorate. Large blue cities, mostly red rural areas, San Francisco and Orange County, and bad-tempered middle-aged libertarian stoners in the North. For the record, I like California. I like Frisco and Mendocino and Bakersfield and Fresno. Nice people, gorgeous country, and everything is expensive as shit. They have both the fifth-largest economy in the world and problems making sure everyone’s lights stay on, but if you want me to believe most of the appropriation it gets from folks is in good faith, I ain’t got the time.

Still, that resentment for California is pretty much what Elder ran on. A wingnut intelligencia B-lister best known for occasionally sitting in for Rush Limbaugh, he nevertheless lit a fire under the national press. In their never-ending search for printing stories without having to do much actual reporting work, they said Elder represented a serious threat to Newsom, who’d come under fire for reasons that I still don’t quite get. People aren’t happy with how he’s handled COVID-19, which just proves Florida isn’t one of the states with a recall process. One reason was that he went to a fancy part back in November when we were all supposed to be social distancing. Okay, then.

Things got sort of weird just before the election. For one, Elder started complaining that the election was rigged against him almost 48 hours before the first votes were cast. This has become the new Republican go-to whenever a GOP candidate loses an election. You’re going to be hearing this a lot in 2024, so buckle down. And naturally, he’s presented no evidence to back up his claims. It’s already taken as gospel by conservative media, to the surprise of absolutely no one.

When the dust settled, Elder won 46.8% of the votes for those who chose “Yes.” That sounds impressive until you remember that “No” won 63.9% of the vote. I’m not going to do the math, but that’s basically 15-20% of the state, which in the real world is an ass-kicking. Again, California is a blue state and despite conservative nattering, it’s probably going to stay one for the time being. The last time it voted for a Republican President was Ronald Reagan’s curb-stomping of Walter Mondale back in 1984.

However, the national press didn’t like this idea of an apple falling from a tree and tried to pass the election off as a squeaker for Newsom or some sort of moral pyrrhic victory for Trumpism. Newly hired CNN deep thinker Kassie Hunt had a particularly silly take that got her dragged on Twitter all day, eventually taking on a life of its own. If nothing else, the election showed how Californians aren’t particularly ready to go full Trump regardless of what they think of Newsom. And for the most part, they’re fine with Newsom.

One thing that made this a national worry is had Elder (or some other Republican) won, they would’ve been in a position to replace any California congressional representative who died or retired. The most popular suspect was Senator Dianne Feinstein, who’ll be well into her 90s once re-election time comes around. It should be noted, though, that she’s made no mention of quitting before then, but you never know.

Now that it’s all said and done, Elder is hinting ominously at something down the line and California Democrats are looking to do something to make the recall process not quite as vulnerable to clownery as this. It should be noted that while there really was no one to rally around, the recall vote was a bit tighter against Newsom before Elder jumped in and reminded everyone how bad an idea it would be. It was nevertheless ugly enough, with an egging attack laced with racial epithets from some douchebag making the news.

Circling back, whatever the good people of California want to do with how they run their state government is their business, but I must admit, I’m with folks who’re saying this whole recall process has become needlessly political. Meaning, it’s used as a cudgel against the duly elected governor more than anything else and not everyone’s going to be as suited to it as Arnie turned out to be. Furthermore, it seems to suggest that beyond all the hoopla and weirdness coming from the pro-COVID forces that seem to be running the GOP these days, most people are fairly comfortable with the way people like Newsom and, for that matter, Joe Biden is handling the pandemic. California is among the states best dealing with the current Delta surge, with .28 deaths per 100,000

This is compared to – just out of a hat – Mississippi’s rate, which is 306 deaths for every 100,000 residents. And we ain’t got quite as many 100,000 residents as California, neither. So, yeah, let them do how they see fit while our governor pretends to care about civil liberties. He’s trying for a cabinet post or a VP nod in 2024, y’all, and is going to be a very sad little boy on Christmas morning.