It’s been difficult to refrain from commenting on it thus far, but with the Joe Biden administration’s ideologues and incompetents seemingly having succeeded in ruining the American federal government’s domestic and international reputations during his short time
in office, it’s an appropriate time to examine the recall effort in my former home state of California.
Lots of people are weighing in on the push to vote out Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom and replacing him with a Republican (there aren’t any Democrats on the ballot should state residents give their elitist governor the boot by a 50 percent +1 margin), radio talk show host Larry Elder being the most likely winner. Some off the critics, no doubt, have personal familiarity with the state, but I grew up there and make regular return trips, so I feel qualified to express a knowledge-based opinion.
Simply put, there’s never been a better case for switching horses in the middle of a proverbial ride, and here’s hoping California’s voters are wise enough to make it happen.
Not everyone is wild about the prospect. Liberal Fox News host and frequent foil of all things common sense, liberty-loving and Republican, Juan Williams, wrote the other day at The Hill:
“California Republicans want to blow up state politics because they are losing time and again. Their prime explosive is the recall push against the governor. They want to render the state government dysfunctional and chaotic to humiliate Democrats. This is the face of angry, extreme political subversion.
“It is the same face we saw in the Jan. 6 insurrection against Congress. In that case, the far right stormed the U.S. Capitol to prevent Biden from being certified as the winner. The same fury on the right has led many Republican governors to allow their states to become breeding grounds for COVID.
“Republican governors in Florida, Texas and beyond feel compelled to turn their back on vaccine mandates and masking out of fear of upsetting the right-wing media. Far-right subversion is similarly at work across the nation in efforts to suppress Democratic voter turnout.”
There’s more, but you get the picture. Incidentally, Williams isn’t from California and probably hasn’t spent appreciable time there, so who’s he to lecture those with experience in the state on what they should and should not do about their politics? The governors Juan alluded to, in the Sunshine and Lone Star states, are doing well despite being besieged by illegal aliens, the same ones the Biden administration ignores when they jump the border.
At least it can be argued that California took a long time to get as bad as it is today. Joe Biden’s done remarkably fast work on America’s decline. The Golden State took decades to hit bottom, if indeed it has reached the floor at all.
My own story illustrates the difference between then and now: I was sitting at an outdoor table with law school friends enjoying the stunning bluer than blue ocean view of the perfectly located hillside campus of Pepperdine law school (in Malibu, California) in the fall of 1992, when I announced that I was contemplating leaving my birthplace and home state after graduation a couple years’ hence. I recall it was a typical southern California day -- sunny, warm, but not hot, and the beauty of the surroundings was barely exceeded by any locale, anywhere.
My classmates looked at me like I was nuts. With quizzical faces and crinkled eyebrows, they wondered… Why would you do such a thing?
It was simple to explain then and just as easy now, though I’ve subsequently discovered that no place is perfect, and that demographic trends certainly indicate that just about anywhere could become the next Democrat stronghold if enough liberal-voting blue state transplants end up consolidating in one spot. But California was just beginning its downhill slide at that time, and the mudslides, raging wild fires and earthquakes during my three years learning to become a lawyer (non-practicing!) were natural metaphors for the impending political implosion.
Bill Clinton had just taken California’s electoral votes, the first time in my lifetime that the Golden State had gone to a liberal Democrat. In that same election, voters also sent ultra-liberal and obnoxious feminist abortion loving hag Barbara Boxer to represent us in the U.S. senate. Californians weren’t necessarily averse to electing abhorrent people to the upper chamber -- anti-nuke communist nutjob Alan Cranston had served four terms as Boxer’s predecessor, after all -- but the politics of the region were noticeably transforming. Changing too fast for this conservative Ronald Reagan admirer to bear.
It took me a few years to finally decide to leave California for good, particularly spurred on by the race-instigated Rodney King riots and the absurd witch hunt of the incident’s arresting officers and then the O.J. Simpson farce trial and acquittal -- but I’ve never regretted my decision. Regular visits from parents and the ability to frequently return to my former home helped make California a great place to be from and see again when the occasion called for it.
Over the years, the standard of living decline for “normal” people has been remarkable there.
On my most recent trip this summer I saw some shocking things. Foremost among them was the emergence of tents and homeless camps along main thoroughfares in the San Fernando Valley (yes, I’m an original “Valley dude”), sightings that would’ve been unthinkable in my formative years and weren’t nearly as prevalent just a few years ago. My dad relayed stories of hearing about certain individuals who’d established “residences” along the avenues, including one elderly woman who’d occupied a prominent space until she passed away recently. The police had apparently warned her to move a number of times, but nature took care of her plight.
I haven’t been to downtown L.A. in a couple decades, but I have a family member that still works near City Hall. National news reports of the deplorable condition of the once proud city center are all true. Tens of thousands of homeless individuals -- basically, squatters -- have erected tents or makeshift shelters of the crudest kind to live their days beyond the reach of government authorities, or much else, for that matter.
It cracks me up to think of Governor Newsom and his dictatorial edicts regarding COVID -- mask mandates, rumors of vaccine passport requirements and draconian lockdown policies -- since there’re thousands of people dwelling out in the open in the worst possible third-world-type living conditions who blatantly disregard anything the elected fools order them to do. According to firsthand accounts, there’re needles lying everywhere, piles of excrement are a common sight and the smell matches the visions one gets from imagining a post-apocalyptic dystopia.
Name the poorest of third world countries and I bet it’s not much worse than what you see in downtown Los Angeles, just a stone’s throw away from Beverly Hills, one of the most famous enclaves of wealthy snobs you’ll find anywhere. I worked a few summers in a building close to City Hall in the early nineties, and while there were multitudes of homeless people back then, too, it wasn’t anything like it is now.
Imagine the health hazards from living amidst the filth. These people are at tons more risk to their life and limb from the disgusting environment and out-of-control crime than they are from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP, or Wuhan, if you prefer) virus. The incompetent local elected leadership is probably even worse than the state’s executive officers, and that’s saying a lot. Try an experiment, if you will -- walk along the sidewalk and distribute masks to save the bums from COVID-19. Any takers?
Here’s thinking the homeless transients don’t care much about Gavin Newsom’s efforts to control the spread of disease or to combat climate change, but the business owners and millions of people who inhabit the region would sure appreciate a government that addresses the day-to-day issues and leaves controlling the earth’s atmosphere to a more measured approach.
If indeed former President Trump did suggest that America shouldn’t accept as many immigrants from “sh-thole” countries, sadly, we should probably add the state of California to that “no fly-type” list. Yet the stampede of the middle class out of the Golden State continues with no sign of abatement. Ronald Reagan’s home and final resting place is now like one of those pre-modern foreign nations.
Take it from someone who grew up there and makes regular visits -- Californians would do well to leave Gavin Newsom as a distant memory and start fresh with a conservative realist like Larry Elder. No one man is capable of bringing the one-time paradise back from the brink, but whatever Elder accomplishes would be better than the status quo.
It’s time to do something smart for a change, Californians.
Gavin Newsom recall
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Gavin Newsom at restaurant
Nancy Pelosi event with no masks
2022 Elections
California homeless