Rambling 5: The Recall of Gray Davis

Ah California. Such wonders within its borders; The Golden Gate Bridge, Yosemite Valley, Big Sur, The Santa Cruz Mystery Spot, and of course, The 405. A state where, gasp! The voters have the power to change the laws through some process called "referendum", and have the power to remove the officials they've elected, called "recall". How this process works is rather simple (well…simple to explain in a silly internet ramble): You get a certain amount of signatures (I believe the number is somewhere between in the 500k-1 million range) and if you are able to get enough signatures in on time, you turn them in to the state electorate board, and viola, you get your issue on the ballot! These amazing revelations came about 100 years ago in a series of "progressive" reforms. Of course today, like…..well….everything, the original intention of those reforms has been perverted. Along the line, some genius thought up the idea of paid signature gatherers to get hair-brained ideas on the ballot, with the hopes they can convince other hair-brains to vote on it. Which means for Californians like myself, we get to be pestered on our way out of the supermarket by some moron who gets paid by the signature, and wants us to help contribute to an issue which I'm sure is of vital importance (to someone at least). An issue which of course, the signature gatherer has no knowledge of whatsoever. This also means to the Constitution of California, that pretty much every major election, we get to break out the magic marker and write in the new laws, thus giving us an incredibly long, complicated, and contradictory document.

So enter the election of 2002: Another battle between tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber, Bill Simon, republican, and Gray Davis, democrat and incumbent governor. Now don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily operate under the assumption that the two party labels actually mean anything anymore; its clear that for a long time, there has been one ruling party in America, which is why these electoral "battles" are becoming more and more of a sham. Anyway, as I recall correctly, Bill Simon was running on the tired but true platform of "I'm rich, I'm republican, elect me!" where as Davis was basing his platform on "don't elect Bill Simon, he's rich, he's republican, elect me!" Now, California is normally painted as some whacked-out hippie state, but of course, California having some of the wealthiest regions in the world, we have our fair share of die-hard conservatives. Some of the craziest ideas in modern conservative ideology have come from here; for example, Proposition 187, and Congressman Bob Dornan. Davis was re-elected in November 2002 literally by the skin of his teeth, to a guy that basically ran a bonehead campaign.

Now why, so soon after we elected Davis, are we ready to kick him out? Well, admittedly, Davis was never a popular person to begin with, but until 2000, most people as saw him doing an okay job. What happened in 2000 to give Davis a bad reputation? Well, for those living in the dark, the supposed "power crisis". Now, the blame for this crisis has been shared by many, from the power companies themselves (PG&E, So-Cal Edison) to the energy companies in Texas (Enron) to the California Legislature for deregulating the power companies back in 1996. Of course, the citizens of California (and the entire southwest) are mainly themselves to blame for such a crisis; the millions of people living in this state love to consume, and love to make their habitats in places where it makes little sense to, like the desert southwest. (The power "crisis" can be traced back to a coal slurry operation in Arizona, where Black Mesa threatens to be literally destroyed for the purposes of generating power. This might be just a bit of a tangent, but necessary for demonstrating just how we operate out here in the wild, wild west).

Now, regardless of who actually should take the blame, Gray Davis was assigned most of it; and granted, his handling of the crisis was poor at best. But no matter how much Davis has tried to spin the situation, the crisis looms over him like a dark storm cloud. Coupled with this, the fact that the economy went down the toilet at the same time, and the huge power bills racked up by out of state power companies capitalizing on our problems, the state was suddenly in a world of hurt.

But, all of this happened before the infamous 2002 election. The voters, well, the powers that be, and the so-called "opposition" had their chance to make their changes, and they didn't. So, a genius out there thought up a second chance at ousting Davis: Recall! But, in spite of the follies of Gray Davis, the voters of California have already chosen to retain him, for whatever reasons (well, because he's perceived as the "least common denominator"). So why recall him? Two simple words: sour grapes. Yes, the conservative whack-jobs (and some of the liberal ones) have decided that since they didn't get their way in November, they would have their way no matter what! And since our government only works when you throw tons of money at it, they were able to get a few rich whack-jobs to throw millions of dollars at it, like some Car-Alarm guy who's worth millions of dollars (and also an elected official). After saturating Safeway's, Albertson's, Wal-Marts, and Targets with the aforementioned paid signature gatherers all across this great state, they were able to provide the needed signatures to get this thing put to a vote.

And from there, it snowballed. Davis, already an unpopular governor, who's reputation is getting worse by the day due to the government's inability to pass a budget as of this day, is now in serious danger of being thrown out. And really, for what reasons? Because he's inept? Well, we already knew that when we re-elected him last year! This is why I oppose the current recall campaign. Now, should Davis do something between now and October, when the vote is slated to happen, I will gleefully change my mind. But what's the point in plunging an already chaotic state further into a bottomless pit? If you are serious about changing the government, march to Sacramento and do something about it. Don't throw a bunch of cash at people whoring themselves in front of Wal-Mart so you can make some silly grab at power, which really won't make much of a difference; and don't waste the time of the already cash-strapped counties of this state with having to organize an election (well, in all likely hood two elections) on such short notice.

A Link to a horribly written Washington Post story