... he rather weakens his case by citing the California recall right up front as an example (worthy of special note, even) of Republican voter treachery. It had NOTHING to do with voter treachery on anyone's behalf (though I can think of a lot of diehard, closed-minded Democrat-or-death-first liberals who insist differently), and everything to do with California voters standing up to a crooked, corrupt, incompetent, lying incumbent governor and saying "FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE!"
Gray Davis anally raped California and every Californian who pays an electric bill, bankrupted California, broke every campaign promise he ever made, and let his buddies in the power industry write laws on power billing that enabled them to rob Californians blind. In return, Californians chose to recall him and put Arnold Schwarzenegger in his place. End of story. A hell of a lot of liberals who'd rather be robbed blind by a fellow liberal than treated honestly by a conservative screamed that the recall was "invalidating the mandate of the people", but the truth is, every word of it was nothing but sore-loser sour-grapes. The people voted Davis in, sure, but then the people got to see him in action, the people felt his fitness for office where it hurts, and the people voted his ass right back OUT again.
And you know what? I remember how Arnie was talking during the campaign.
"You go to Sacramento," he said, "you do your job, you do it well, you do it for the people, or you're out. Hasta la vista, baby."
I can get behind that. I don't know how much of his promise to "clean up Sacramento" he can actually achieve singlehandedly, as Democrat and RINO dominated as the California legislature is, but at least he went to bat to try.
Note: This should not be taken as invalidating any of the commentary on the dirty campaign shenanigans the Republicans are pulling -- destroying Democrat voter registrations, for example -- but, hey, let's be honest here: the Democrats pulled their fair share of dirt during the last election too. (Who else remembers the inch-thick manuals circulated to Democrat counting-room staff in Florida by the Gore campaign's lawyers on all the possible ways of using trivial technicalities to invalidate military absentee ballots, presumed to be mostly Republican voters?) Does anyone really think there is such a thing as a clean, honest election in America any more? ALL American politics is dirty. It's not the exception, it's the rule. We need UN election observers as badly as Iraq does.
But trying to tar the California recall with the same brush is just sheer whining stupidity. The California recall was a rare example of the system working the way it was supposed to work.
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Date: 2004-10-22 03:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-22 03:33 pm (UTC)I'll bring the ka-booms if you bring the music!
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Date: 2004-10-22 03:49 pm (UTC)To be fair ....
Date: 2004-10-22 08:38 pm (UTC)Gray Davis anally raped California and every Californian who pays an electric bill, bankrupted California, broke every campaign promise he ever made, and let his buddies in the power industry write laws on power billing that enabled them to rob Californians blind. In return, Californians chose to recall him and put Arnold Schwarzenegger in his place. End of story. A hell of a lot of liberals who'd rather be robbed blind by a fellow liberal than treated honestly by a conservative screamed that the recall was "invalidating the mandate of the people", but the truth is, every word of it was nothing but sore-loser sour-grapes. The people voted Davis in, sure, but then the people got to see him in action, the people felt his fitness for office where it hurts, and the people voted his ass right back OUT again.
And you know what? I remember how Arnie was talking during the campaign.
"You go to Sacramento," he said, "you do your job, you do it well, you do it for the people, or you're out. Hasta la vista, baby."
I can get behind that. I don't know how much of his promise to "clean up Sacramento" he can actually achieve singlehandedly, as Democrat and RINO dominated as the California legislature is, but at least he went to bat to try.
Note: This should not be taken as invalidating any of the commentary on the dirty campaign shenanigans the Republicans are pulling -- destroying Democrat voter registrations, for example -- but, hey, let's be honest here: the Democrats pulled their fair share of dirt during the last election too. (Who else remembers the inch-thick manuals circulated to Democrat counting-room staff in Florida by the Gore campaign's lawyers on all the possible ways of using trivial technicalities to invalidate military absentee ballots, presumed to be mostly Republican voters?)
Does anyone really think there is such a thing as a clean, honest election in America any more? ALL American politics is dirty. It's not the exception, it's the rule. We need UN election observers as badly as Iraq does.
But trying to tar the California recall with the same brush is just sheer whining stupidity. The California recall was a rare example of the system working the way it was supposed to work.