Recall No! Democracy Yes!


With the October 7th recall election a go and The Terminator seemingly gaining in the polls, it's definitely time to gather the troops and try to defeat this thing. MoveOn.org is organizing their "Recall No! Democracy Yes!" campaign, which is an effort to get 300,000 California voters to make two pledges...


  1. Vote NO on the recall.
  2. Convince at least one friend or family member to do the same.

According to MoveOn.org, if 300,000 California voters can each move at least one person to vote no on the recall, then we'll defeat the recall, stop Schwarzenegger, and score a victory for democracy. I've taken the pledge, and I hope you'll do the same.

I'm not a big fan of Gray Davis or anything, it's just that I think the backers of the recall are lying to us when they tell us that their reason for wanting the recall is the condition of the California economy. I believe that this is merely a convenient excuse for getting the chance to toss a democratically elected governor out of office and insert GOP leadership in his place. I feel this way for a couple of reasons:
  1. The recall movement was instigated by GOP leadership, not by a bipartisan group.
  2. The recall organizers aren't the least bit concerned about the condition of the national economy or the Federal deficit, which dwarfs California's.

Basically I just don't like lying sore losers. I also think that allowing the recall to go through sets a dangerous precedent. After all, what's to stop a recall of the next governor as well? And the one after that? This could potentially lead to a chain of recall/counter-recall's that would prevent any form of effective government in California.

Already there are new bills sitting neglected on the Governor's desk because he's busy campaigning against the recall. There's a strong chance that some proposals may pass into law simply by going unattended by the Governor. If this recall goes through and a new Governor takes office, and then there's a counter-recall of the new Governor, the end result could well be a whole slate of new undesirable legislation and a deepening of the state's problems.

Why take that chance? Why not let the normal democratic process run its course and elect a new Governor when the current person's term is complete? Our current form of government has gotten along just fine for 200+ years without recalls or redistricting. Vote NO on the recall and YES on democracy!


Posted: Tue - September 30, 2003 at 01:52 PM          

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