August 24, 2003 by lonbud

California Recall 2003

In a Democracy, the People get the government they deserve.
                      -Adlai Stevenson

Has it become surreal enough for you, Mr. & Ms. Jones? Clearly, there’s something happening here and you don’t know what it is.

The true interests in play are, as ever, difficult to put a thumb on, but powerful forces are now working overtime, spinning two seemingly contradictory messages: everything is under control; yet, threats to our security and our way of life are so imminent and so severe we must abdicate virtually every social contract we’ve relied on to define that way of life up to this present moment of indecision.

I guess you’ve got to hand it to the GOP. With dogged determination to write the rules of not only private but also public discourse and commerce, in less than forty years they have engineered the nearly complete erosion of government’s ability to educate, nourish, protect, or inspire the masses of its people.

Now, just as always have the powerful, the elite, the privileged, and the few –the masses have a hatred of government.

Here in California we’re having a special election to decide whether to recall the governor we elected less than a year ago. It’s not as if the man has proved any worse a chief executive than he promised to be (or showed himself capable of being) before the election, but should the ever-fickle will of the people be to banish him from Sacramento, there is a cast of some 135 would-be leaders waiting in the wings for their very own chance to be recalled next year.

The whole thing is being done with a sense of disgust. Those who would never consider voting in any election are disgusted, yet again, with the entire business –give them a keg of Bud and a booty call; they could care less who governs.

Those who know the best choice is to stick with the man they chose in the general election are disgusted; their original choice was unfulfilling and is not likely to become any less so in finishing his term –give them a Big Mac and another teen-angel-slut to ogle; they will forget who’s governing by Thanksgiving.

Those who believe this is an opportunity to put a better executive in office, one who can chart a course to deficit reductions and a stable, secure standard of living for all the people of California are just out of it completely –give them the smelling salts.

What’s happening here is the Republican Party is trying to do in California, the 5th largest economy on the planet, what it did in the United States (the 1st largest economy) in 2000: disabuse people of the notion they have any right to elect an executive who might fail to serve the interests of the Republican Party. This blatant abuse of electoral politics may even succeed, though I suspect the success of the Republican Party and the success of Arnold Schwarzenegger will take separate tacks before long.

In the end, it doesn’t matter whether Gray Davis beats the recall or Cruz Bustamonte, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arianna Huffington, or Gary Coleman gets the job. None of them will prove up to the task because the structures of government have been so diminished and so many people have become convinced that government is their enemy.

There is no government any more, just a large bureaucracy playing host to parasitic special interests who guarantee that wealth remains the province of the wealthy, and to hell with everybody else.

But there are larger forces at work, forces which know no class or party allegience. Look to the night sky in the coming days and notice the big bright light that is not the moon. That will be Mars. For those of you not up on your zodiaca or your ancient greek mythology, all this war stuff, terrorism, and anger, and fear, and hatred, and greed -it’s all related to and rooted in the cosmic forces, in the energy of Mars. Take a good look because Mars will not be closer to Earth in a longer time than you can imagine, much less live.

Which means now, just at the moment we feel our very survival is most threatened, when all the forces of Evil and Darkness and Fear and Oppression seem to have the upper hand, we are actually closer to the end point of our despair than we’ve been in 60,000 years. The pendulum is getting ready to swing the other way, this week, in fact. Wednesday will mark the apex of the influence of all things bad and stupid and fearful.

Of course this change in the direction of interstellar energy may not become apparant to the naked eye for quite some time, so it makes sense to recognize the opportunism, dirty tricks, and naked greed of the Republicans. The recall should be denied and the arduous task of restoring people’s faith in their right to govern themselves should be taken up.

Then again, we could just pop another cold one and look for something else on TV. Either way, Adlai Stevenson will prove to have been correct.