The Los Angeles Times has taken time out of its busy schedule to let the folks in our fair flyover state know that they know better than we do when it comes to recall elections.
In an opinion run this week, the paper notes that the 2003 recall in California that sent Gray Davis home and the Governator out of the maid’s pants and into the state house was a bad outcome. They also note that:
Recallsmake it nearly impossible for state leaders to get anything done because they go into campaign mode rather than legislating mode. They worsen partisanship and, Davis’ recall notwithstanding, they are usually a waste of time and money.
SNIP
Elections have consequences, and sometimes your side loses. Recalls are a useful tool when a politician commits misconduct, but that’s not the case in Wisconsin. Democrats should accept that and move on.
In other words, from a sample of one, the folks in L.A. have determined that recalls are a bad idea and that Wisconsin should just let Governor Deadeyes do as he sees fit. Move along, Democrats. Nothing to see here. Please disperse.
Allow me to retort.
Yes, elections have consequences and we know that. It doesn’t take the Almighty Gods of Journalism ™ to tell us that. We’re dealing with the consequences of an election right now. Thanks for reminding us.
And the line about recalls making it impossible for state leaders to get anything done is really stupid. When someone is doing something that does nothing but create damage, you probably want to stop him. Or are you the type of folks who let your kid jump out of a moving car or shove a firecracker in a cat’s ass because you don’t want to curtail his sense of self-expression?
It’s also refreshing to know that the L.A. Times views the only area in which a recall should be used is during the case of misconduct. I wonder where the editorial board draws that line. Is it fucking the maid? Is it being an alcoholic? Is it dropping the “N” word on someone? Seems like these are the things that draw the most attention from the media when someone in some position of authority does them.
Or is it malfeasance of an epic level? Is it an attempt to plow under the other political party through actions that are so egregious that they merit lawsuits and massive protests? Is crushing public workers as you pad the pockets of the rich? Is it pulling off the election version of bait-and-switch, in which you appear to stand for vanilla politics to win and then decide to go all rocky road on our asses? Seems to me these things are precisely what a recall should be used for. It also seems to me these things fit Scott Walker to a T.
Just because you fucked up and elected an action movie hero with ZERO political experience as backlash against an OMG MEEEN TAXY DEM AND HIS CAR TAX, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t recall this nub-head. That your piece fails use sources or research to provide a deep argument smacks of an arrogance bred from a paternal sense of massive egotism. In other words, “We know better. We did that once.”
It is offensive that the Times felt it necessary to “set us straight.”
But it is not nearly as offensive as Scott Walker has been to the state of Wisconsin.
Or is it malfeasance of an epic level? Is it an attempt to plow under the other political party through actions that are so egregious that they merit lawsuits and massive protests? Is crushing public workers as you pad the pockets of the rich? Is it pulling off the election version of bait-and-switch, in which you appear to stand for vanilla politics to win and then decide to go all rocky road on our asses? Seems to me these things are precisely what a recall should be used for. It also seems to me these things fit Scott Walker to a T.
That. What you said.
also,
Recalls make it nearly impossible for state leaders to get anything done because they go into campaign mode rather than legislating mode. They worsen partisanship and, Davis’ recall notwithstanding, they are usually a waste of time and money.
So do/are elections, so does/is a two-party system, so does/is cable media, so do/are a lot of things. Of all the things in that causal chain, an informed electorate taking access of remedies allowed them by their state constitution is probably the least harmful.
So, STFU, LAT
great, now I’ve unleashed the italic monster…
I closed those tags, dammit.
Absolutely clean, straight and correct. Great post. (I pay very few compliments.)
I would think even the slow witted child legislators mired of the pig ignorant backwater provinces would have had enough sense to narrowly define recalls as being specifically reserved for “when a politician commits misconduct” if that had been their intent.
Well, just remember the L.A. Times is just part of the Corporate MSM, which ALWAYS favors the “status quo”…largely because it’s always so good for them…and they don’t want to be forced to get out of their comfort zone…that’s why,in their superior wisdom, they tell the little people to shut up and be happy, even as they’re getting royally fucked over…
I’m in LA. The LATimes has been pathetic on the Gropinator subject since way back when. To be fair, they published the reports of his groping before his first election. But they didn’t really follow up. And when he got elected and started the, “Here, I vill help. I vill yoos the resources of the State to get to the bottom [I know, haha] off your story” the LATimes dropped the whole thing like a hot potato. And they’ve been all he said-she said ever since.
I’m not a resident of Wisconsin, so my opinion doesn’t matter very much, but there is a lesson in the “elections have consequences” line of thought. Specifically, it is about time folks started paying attention to who they are electing, especially at the state level. It is a matter of political credibility, and I think it escapes a lot of people. Walker epitomizes the current thinking of the Republican right-wing, and I hope his behavior gives more folks a glimpse behind the flag-draped curtain into what these people are really trying to do as a national group.
That’s why these recall elections in Wisconsin are important, from my outside perspective. Now, I may disagree with the tactical decisions – I question the visuals of risking a lot on a recall with such a high chance of losing – but that’s not my decision to make. I’m hoping that all the organizing before the general will get more people motivated to participate down the road. I’m hoping a whole slate of progress-prone candidates from the other side are gearing up right now to compete in all of the statewide elections, because when it comes to that, the right isn’t going to be able to throw so many resources into those races, as challenges across the board may stretch the field.
That being said, Wisconsin remains the “Helmsdeep” of involved western liberal governance. Louisiana has zero viable non-Republican candidates running for any statewide office, and both Louisiana and Georgia’s state legislatures have redrawn the districts (state and national) to favor as many GOP safe seats as possible.
So, knowing that the LAT reporters are avid students of history, they were able to point at a recall election that they said had bad effects. Are they unable to think of even one recall that had good effects?
The thing about Davis and the reduction of the Vehicle Registration Fee is that when he went to reduce it (because the state was running surpluses), he knew that if he simply reduced it, Prop 13 would prevent him from raising it again when the surpluses disappeared (as everybody knew they would, sooner or later).
So instead, he made the reduction a ‘rebate’; so that when the time came, he could simply not give the rebate the next year, and not run afoul of Prop 13. And he told everybody as clearly and plainly as he possibly could that that was what he was doing, and what he would be doing when the surpluses were gone.
So one difference is that Davis was as up-front as he could have been, while Walker was…not so much.
(And putting the VRF back to its previous level was/is estimated to raise an additional $4 billion a year – there are a lot of nice cars in CA. $4 billion a year times the eight or nine years since would just about completely take care of California’s debt. But, hey…Schwarzenegger!)
sometimes a recall is WARRANTED.
If the LAT had done any journalmamism at the time there would not have been a recall of Gray Davis, but hey, why let work get in the way of a good paycheck, plus reckless smearing and encouraging to set up a hot reality show, “Terminator vs the State” right?
Bite me, LAT. Too bad we can’t recall them.