Regarding your editorial on the recall effort (“Recall
effort only distracts state leaders,” July 28), though you
are correct in your characterization of Darrell Issa as engaging in
political opportunism, there are many leaps of logic in your
condemnation of the Davis recall that must be brought into
question.
Most glaringly, you say that this entire process is a result of
“a few right-wing activists who can’t accept election
results.” Yet over 1.3 million signatures prove
otherwise.
Out here in the real world, there are far more opinions than the
progressively liberal that seems wholly to dominate academia. In
California, we have regular people, mostly moderate liberal, who
are not so blinded by party loyalty that they refuse to acknowledge
a change is needed.
You also accuse the architects of the recall as being controlled
by special interests. While it is true that Darrell Issa does have
his eyes on the governorship and helped to fund the recall, the
effort was begun by angry Californians who just wanted the
incompetent politician out. Furthermore, the effort was garnering
media attention and gaining popularity long before Issa began
contributing.
You correctly claim that “progressives in 1911 created the
recall to provide voters with a way to remove politicians who were
manipulated by the special interests of big railroad and oil
companies.” However you fail to realize that big companies
are not the only special interests. You seem to forget Davis closed
California’s best prisons because they were private prisons,
hence not unionized, hence not giving large amounts of money to the
governor. Unions are often just as negative of a political
influence as big companies.
And let’s not forget that because of corporate favoritism
and bad planning, Davis let his pocketbook lead us to the energy
crisis. It seems to me that Davis is a word-for-word definition of
the type of person the law was meant to recall.
Lastly, you claim that the recall costs money and will keep the
government from doing its job. It does cost money to hold an
election, but this amount of money is far less than what the
inefficient Davis government spends in one day. California will
barely feel this pinch to its already gigantic deficit (I believe
caused by Davis).
And you are just wrong about keeping politicians from doing
their jobs. Isn’t it surprising that the Legislature had been
deadlocked on a budget until it was clear that the recall was going
forward? The truth is that this recall is a much needed balance to
our dwindling state government. They are finally doing their jobs
““ because they know they can now lose them.
Contrary to your editorial, the only reason to oppose getting
this flagrant failure out of office is a political agenda of the
left ““ one that sees any threat to radical leftism as a
negative to be stopped at all costs, even at the cost of California
falling into bankruptcy and seeing all its citizens suffer.
Joel Schwartz
Alumni and former Viewpoint columnist