CA: Voters' whim no way to run state - Revamping budget process, Recall laws are better changes

Mercury News ^ | 8/10/03 | Op/Ed

[NormsRevenge]

Now that Saturday's 5 p.m. deadline has passed, Californians should revisit the isle of sanity.

While only about a fourth of the 500 people who had picked up filing papers actually turned them in, this ballot will still have more than a hundred candidates. Democrats ended up with only one prominent name on the ballot, improving their chances of holding the office against the four well-known Republicans.

[NormsRevenge]

nibbling away at the people's will ... 'Rats Ping

[BenLurkin]

Those pesky voters. Why, they should know better than to think they can get what they vote for!

[NEWwoman]

If Davis is recalled, the new governor will be whichever of the many candidates receives the most votes. It is virtually certain the winner will be backed by only a fraction of the voters.

For president, neither Clinton, Bush, or Lincoln won with the majority (over 50%)of votes. (I know the system is different - electoral college. But we didn't revamp that because we did not like the outcome.)

[Kuksool]

{Elections are supposed to represent the will, not the whim, of the electorate.}

Whim, will, what's the difference? Oh yeah, liberal elites know best.

[umgud]

Kinda makes it sound like we've been abusing the recall mechanism, even though it's never come to fruition here on a sitting guv. Use it once and we're whimsical? What B.S.

[BenLurkin]

They'll take what we feed them and they'll like it:

[TheDon]

"Elections are supposed to represent the will, not the whim, of the electorate."

Demorats just hate democracy. Mob rule! LOL! They prefer the least democratic branch of the government, the judiciary.

[Montfort]

I am suprised some Imams in black robes (American Judges) have not struck down the law because it isn't what they would have written if they had been legislators.

[liberallarry]

Demorats just hate democracy. Mob rule!

The article stinks...but so does your comment. How many threads have I seen on FR emphasizing that this is a Republic, not a Democracy. Nor rule by mob.

Whether advocated by Republican or Democratic, Conservative or Liberal, the motivation is the same; the voters have done - or are proposing to do - something the partisans don't like.

[TheDon]

About as many threads that I have seen on FR emphasizing that we have a Republican form of democracy, not pure democracy. Sigh....
(so many statements of the obvious, so little time to respond to them)

[DoughtyOne]

Visiting the Isle of Sanity, as this op/ed instructed, one sees a state in desperate need of new leadership. Even the op/ed admitted, "The shortcomings of Gov. Gray Davis are undeniable. The candidates to replace him, the top tier at any rate, are credible. The anger and despair Californians feel about state government are justified."  But don't let that confuse you, this recall is a "bad thing" according to them.  LOL  Isn't that the democrats and their apologists we've come to know and love (NOT hardly).

Whatever the infraction of a democrat, it NEVER reaches the level of incompetency or the need for removal.  No matter what they've done or have failed to do, it's never as bad as what those evil seekers of removal have been up to.  Degeneracy in office, transmission of state secrets, cash payments from rogue states, subornation of perjury, obstruction of justice, perjury, malfeasance in office, nothing trumps a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.  If you are trying to remove a democrat from office, you've committed the one unpardonable sin, nothing else matters.

So today we are faced with a real calamity in the State of California.  One would think it might be that $47 billion dollar deficit that we'll have next July 1.  No, that's not the problem.  The problem is that Californians are about to hold a recall election "on a whim".  All of a sudden recall elections are too easy to hold.  This is a travesty of justice.  People manipulated the system.  Someone bought the signatures.  Only one-tenth of registered voters brought this about.  Notice a pattern here?  Following the prescribed laws of the state is a major offense.  Running a budget deficit in violation of the state constitution doesn't matter.  So what?

Does this op/ed instruct us to look forward to new leadership and a repaired fiscal breach?  No, the best we can hope for at this point (according to the op/ed) is the repair of the recall process, so this type of thing never happens again.

And so it goes in the nether world solely inhabited by socialists and their apologists.  More goolish demons you'll never see.

[poet]

"The question is how that person can restore the luster the Golden State has worked so hard to lose."

Until the electorate decides that there is no free lunch and until the feds close our borders, nothing will change except the names. The decline will continue whether there's an R or D after their names.

Repeat after me: No More RINOs, No More RINOS, No More RINOs and no more stupid "candidates"!!!

Go Tom! you have my vote.

[MightyMouseToSaveThe Day]

Geez, i get so mad at editorialists like this. They try to make it sound like it was such a small minority who's hijacked the state with the recall. Well, if the overwhelming majority disagree with the recall, they can vote to keep Davis in office. It's as simple as that.

The real reason for the unanimous gnashing of the teeth among the press is that "The People" are not taking it lying down and are exerting their power. Haven't witnessed this much of an outcry since the days of Prop 13. That tells me we're on the right track!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks!

How come the Democratic Party doesn't seem to care for real Democracy in Action?

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[fella]

If democracy is the root word of Democrat, why are they so opposed to it? This is pure democracy in action.Why don't they sitback and enjoy the workigs of the peoples will?

[capt. norm]

"Elections are supposed to represent the will, not the whim, of the electorate.

These are the very same people who objected to the decision of the College of Electors who gave GWB the win.

New extremes in hypocrasy are being reached by the Democrats , on a daily basis.

[rottweiller_inc]

The one thing i see missing is the praise for democracy at work. Sucks when poll and media driven hype work against the proponants of direct democracy as opposed to a contitutional republic.

[Political Junkie Too]

A recall is too easy to qualify.

Nonsense.

If that were true, then why is this the first gubernatorial recall to succeed in the 86 years since the recall law was established?

The reason this recall succeeded is that the turnout for the 2002 Davis/Simon campaign was so low. I believe that the low turnout was a strategic decision by the Davis camp that was the result of an extremely negative and nasty campaign designed to turn off voters and keep them away from the polls.

If you don't want to trigger a recall, run a more uplifting campaign that encourages voters to turn out at the polls, don't change the laws to make it even harder for the people to get the attention of their representatives.

-PJ

[bert]

How many threads have I seen......

Correcto... There is cause to wonder, just how is the current state of affairs different than the rule by riff raff that destroyed Athens? How is the recall effort different than the many, many referenda on specific issues?

Is California a republic or some democratic mutant state that is neither republic or democracy? The answer is yes.

However, the state does provide the voters with a means to present a greviance against the governor. The current recall is the first time it will be anywhere near successful. So far it is merely a determined effort.

It is however, a partisan effort. The outs have mobilized against the ins to pick at, and then enlarge a weakness. The weakness is the result of failure and failure demands redress. It should be perfectly ok to wound and then kill that which is weakened beyond surviveability. That is the law of the jungle. The slowest gazalle must out run the fastest lion or perish.

Poor ol gray will soon run out of breath and be gobbled up.