Welcome to California where the American Nazi Party formerly known as the Republican Party have taken advantage of our absurdly lenient recall rules to attempt to undo the results of an overwhelming victory by Gavin Newsom in the last gubernatorial election. 

I got my ballot today. That’s the way we roll here in the Golden State. No standing in line at the polling station, no wondering if the boss will give you time off to go vote, no muss, no fuss. The ballot arrives in the mail (much to Louis DeJoy’s consternation), you fill it out and then can either mail it back in, drop it off at an official ballot collection box which are located in about 20 places throughout the county, or bring it to ANY polling location on election day. Or you can do it the old fashioned way and make use of your local polling location to mark your ballot or press the lever.

Civic engagement made simple. 

Prior to COVID, several counties, mine being one of them, implemented this system for balloting. During last year’s elections the state adopted it for every county. We did not even have a suggestion of any ballot irregularities. In fact a non partisan commission determined there was no advantage gained by either party from full mail in balloting. There is even a system for tracking your ballot from the moment it is mailed to you until the moment it is counted. You get emails and/or texts alerting you to it’s status. It looks like this is the future of voting in California.

That is as long as Gavin Newsom remains governor. If he is recalled and any of the non-entities listed on the ballot take power all bets are off. The recall law is absolutely screwy. Just about anyone who can marshal enough signatures and can pay the filing fee can get their name on the ballot. The only person who can’t be on the ballot? Gavin Newsom.

24 of the 46 names on the ballot identify as Repugnicant while only 8 identify as Democrat. A couple are the usual Libertarian, Green, etc. and the rest have no party affiliation. Only one of the 46 has any governmental experience and that was as a member of the Board of Equalization (that’s the sales tax board). Several list their occupations as “entertainer”. Lots of former cops. And of course Caitlyn Jenner because we need to add a they to the hims and hers. Even the serious Repugnicant candidates for next year’s governors race didn’t get involved in this. 

And yet polls show this as a dead heat race, with an energized Nazi, er, I mean, Repugnicant base rallying around the hope Democrats will forget to send the ballot back in. So first let me scream at Democratic voters. SEND THE FUCKING BALLOT BACK IN YOU WANKERS. OK, now let me scream at the Nazi scum who are behind this bullshit recall. YOU ARE NOT TRUE AMERICANS AND HAVE NO IDEA WHAT ONE MAN ONE VOTE REALLY MEANS. 

OK, now that that is out of my system, let’s turn to the recall process itself. I’ve written before about how absurdly easy it is to get a recall on the ballot. That must change and it must change immediately.

Recalls served a purpose once upon a time when the legislature was so corrupt and filled with incompetent yes men sent by the likes of San Francisco’s Boss Abe Ruef. Impeaching a corrupt or criminal member or governor was not likely and here was a proletarian way for the people to make their feelings known. Me personally, I think elections are a great way for people to make their feelings known so long as they are the planned for and legal ones held every two years (or four in the case of the governor). Recalls that require what amounts to less than ten percent of the voting age population to agree to having them are ludicrously under representative. Like in any election the threshold needs to be fifty percent. Even if you make it fifty percent of the people who voted in the last election I’d be okay with that. But to allow a tiny minority of the population to dictate who would be in charge of the fifth largest economy in the world is just asking for trouble.

And if by some chance a recall election were to get to the ballot stage and the sitting governor were to be dismissed than the new governor should have to meet the same fifty percent threshold, ie, somebody has to get fifty percent of the vote. As it stands a couple of thousand people could end up deciding who the new governor is. That is more than insane, it is nothing less than a coup d’etat, the kind of crap that brought fascists to power throughout history.

But then again that’s the only way Nazis, sorry there I go again, Repugnicants think they can get into power. Forget having programs that voters will approve of. Forget doing what is in the best interest of the state as a whole. Forget trying to actually talk to the citizens of the state about what concerns them and what they want for the future. Forget all that because their big money backers know they can’t be straight with the people and say “we don’t want to clean up the environment we polluted, we don’t want to pay a fair wage, we don’t want to do anything that might mean us having to take less profit or lower our asset value”. 

That’s what this recall election is all about. It’s not about whether Gavin Newsom saved your life by making you wear a mask or get a vaccine. It’s about whether or not we here in the goldenest state of all will fall prey to the Nazi scourge. 

Meanwhile I’m off to drop my ballot in the box. That’s the secure box with the camera built in that operates 24/7 to discourage anyone from messing with it. Because we take ballot integrity serious in these parts. 

Hey Adrastos I think that’s you in the second row!

 

Shapiro Out