|
Republican Recall Attempt in California is Attack on Majority Rule
A
BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY
by
Michael Shellenberger of Defend Majority Rule
Do you remember where you were when the Republicans stole the presidency?
I remember shopping for Christmas presents and seeing the newspaper headlines about the Florida vote fight. I said to my wife, “We really ought to do something about this.”
We didn’t. And I still regret it.
We should have taken the next plane to Florida to help organize a statewide recount. After Florida I vowed, “Never again.”
Yet here we are. Again.
Don’t get me wrong. Governor Gray Davis wouldn’t be my first choice as Governor. His support for (and from) the prison and logging industries is plain wrong. But he is our Governor and a majority of Californians voted to reelect him not more than a year ago.
The Republicans in California are today making a naked grab for power. They spent over $1.5 million to truck in out-of-state, paid signature gatherers to force a fall recall of Davis. The next Governor of California may be elected with less than half the votes that elected Davis just one year ago.
Here they go again. It’s the same minority party that stole the election in Florida when a majority of Floridians voted for Al Gore. The same minority party that has paralyzed the State of California by refusing to vote for a budget that will protect our schools, the poor and disabled from crippling budget cuts. The same minority party that rigged our election system so that a minority of voters in a local election can prevent the majority from voting to improve their schools or expand mass transit or build a new fire station.
Now they are preparing to oust a democratically elected Governor from office and replace him with a right-wing ideologue who could be elected with as little as fifteen percent of the overall vote.
Enough is enough. Since when do we overturn legitimate democratic elections in this country? Since when does fifty percent plus one not decide an election? Since when can a minority party tell the majority that they can’t invest in schools or Headstart programs or help for the disabled? Since when can thirty-four percent tell sixty-six percent that they can’t fix their schools? And since when could fifteen percent of California voters elect the next Governor of the state?
These manipulations of democratic processes undermine the very bedrock of American democracy.
They must be stopped.
And they can be -- if we can build a grassroots movement to stop the recall, pass a fair budget to invest in our children, our schools, and our families, and stop a minority of legislators and voters from preventing the rest of us from building the kind of California we want to live in.
Some progressives want to use the recall as a chance to support candidate Arianna Huffington for Governor. We can do both. The recall allows us to vote no on the recall AND vote for whomever we like for Governor.
Either way, the stakes are too high for us to stand by again and watch as Republicans attack our democracy.
A BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY
* * *
Michael Shellenberger is the co-founder of Defend Majority Rule, a campaign fighting the Republican recall campaign in California. He can be reached at Click Here to Contact.
Articles in the BuzzFlash Contributor section are posted as-is. Given the timeliness of some Contributor articles, BuzzFlash cannot verify or guarantee the accuracy of every word. We strive to correct inaccuracies when they are brought to our attention.
