The Empty Promise of the Republican Recall in California
There is no degree of separation between the wannabe candidates for the top job in the Golden State and the moral filth at the core of today’s Republican Party.
Over the next six months or so, California’s “We’re Not Like Them” Republicans will be trying to sell voters on the premise we’d somehow be better off with them in charge.
The question of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recall will almost certainly be on a special election ballot, along with a list of candidates who’d like to succeed him.
Political power -- whether it’s gained through incumbency or wealth -- tends to warp reality for those who attain it. A lack of empathy and a belief in one’s infallibility are the most obvious symptoms; institutional rationales for self preservation (i.e., racism and patriarchy) provide pathways for acting out these failings.
To the extent this maxim is true, vanity, corruption, and cruelty are non-partisan afflictions. While California’s Governor is not an exception in terms of his behavior, the alternative being offered at the next election involves a political party so tainted that these aberrations have been elevated to virtues.
Standing up for the public good is a quality not to be found in former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, businessman John Cox, or former Congressman Doug Ose.
What exactly is it that any of these men can actually do?
Make showing proof of vaccination or COVID-19 test results to attend public events a suggestion rather than a requirement? Order school districts to open and then not back them when they get sued for being unable to provide safe conditions (due to old infrastructure)?
Reduce taxes by fiat? Get rid of homeless humans by throwing them all in jail? Put everybody in jail?
What are any of these candidates going to do if the pandemic has been suppressed through vaccinations by November?
Honestly, when you look at the makeup of the legislature and local governmental entities representing the vast majority of California’s population, about the only thing a GOP Governor elected in these circumstances could do would be to host press conferences.
Take away the veneer of the variants on Make California Great Again and all that’s left is the kind of nihilism that substitutes culture wars for restorative justice and wants people to believe authoritarian oligarchy is in their best interest.
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Attention: County Supervisor Jim Desmond and KUSI!
In San Diego, the Reopen or Bust advocates should be made to answer for the now-verified increase in deaths from COVID-19 resulting from the 25-day reopening of businesses last summer.
A study by scientists in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York encompassing just the five Scripps health campuses in the county found the ill-advised relaxation of pandemic restrictions cost an average of nearly two lives each day.
The researchers say the results reinforce the health benefits of social distancing while offering cautionary evidence to public officials who face ongoing pressure to ease restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of the disease, as new and faster-spreading variants of the coronavirus threaten to reverse the progress made in recent weeks to rein in the virus.
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Republicans see the recall campaign as a pathway to relevance, both in California and nationally. The fact that it’s just another example of the party of “no” and plays into narratives endangering public health is of no consequence.
From Politico:
The beleaguered California Republican Party sees an opportunity to end its yearslong exile from statewide office — the party has been shut out since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's reelection in 2006 — and to build on a successful 2020 cycle in which Republicans clawed back four House seats. Party chair Jessica Millan Patterson predicted “a lot of surprising money” flowing in from enthused allies.
“When you can be a turning point and a beacon of hope in a very blue state like California, that shows there is hope for the rest of the country,” Patterson said. “We always said 2020 was about turning the tables so we could bring back balance in 2022. I don’t think we realized the opportunity was going to come in 2021.”
Broaden the picture to look at what’s left of the GOP political infrastructure nationwide and you’ll see nothing more than a culture of scams, grift, and fear mongering.
The best example of this cesspool came via the New York Times investigation of the Former Leader’s fundraising operation.
The 2020 Trump campaign accounted for up to 3% of all credit card fraud claims in the entire country. the New York Times reports. They did this by essentially hiding consent forms that made what appeared to be one time donations into recurring contributions.
The sheer magnitude of the money involved is staggering for politics. In the final two and a half months of 2020, the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and their shared accounts issued more than 530,000 refunds worth $64.3 million to online donors. All campaigns make refunds for various reasons, including to people who give more than the legal limit. But the sum the Trump operation refunded dwarfed that of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign and his equivalent Democratic committees, which made 37,000 online refunds totaling $5.6 million in that time.
The recurring donations swelled Mr. Trump’s treasury in September and October, just as his finances were deteriorating. He was then able to use tens of millions of dollars he raised after the election, under the guise of fighting his unfounded fraud claims, to help cover the refunds he owed.
In effect, the money that Mr. Trump eventually had to refund amounted to an interest-free loan from unwitting supporters at the most important juncture of the 2020 race.
So whether or not anybody in the former President’s campaign believed there was voter fraud or other illegal acts, the Stop the Steal fundraising was used to pay all the refunds after the election was over.
And it wasn’t limited to one campaign:
It wasn't just the Trump campaign that did this. GOP candidates who used WinRed all used the same tactics including the Republicans in two Senate runoff campaigns in Georgia. There were many many requests for refunds of donations to both Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, the Times reported.
For his part, Trump is still doing it. He's been telling his supporters not to send money to the RNC and to send it to his Save America PAC where he can do pretty much anything he wants with the money. The PAC uses WinRed. Anyone who decides they want to throw money into that black hole should read the fine print very carefully. They could be signing up to give the billionaire Donald Trump a weekly donation for life.
Stop the Steal morphed into the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday indicates that a concerted effort by GOP leaders to push false and misleading accounts downplaying the event that left five dead and scores of others wounded have been successful.
About half of Republicans surveyed believe the siege was largely a non-violent protest or was the handiwork of left-wing activists “trying to make Trump look bad,” with six in 10 Republicans buying into the false claim about the presidential election “was stolen” from him due to widespread voter fraud.
Follow the money from the rally and you’ll wander into Florida’s political swamp.
The majority of the money paid to organize the rally preceding the assault on Congress was Publix heiress Julie Jenkins Fancelli. Although the company has denied direct involvement with the event, it has a long history of political giving and support for reactionary causes.
Publix is now at the center of a scandal allegations involving pay to play contributions totalling $100,000 to Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign war chest in return for the exclusivity as the only retailer authorized to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine in the state.
Vaccine distribution in Florida, according to 60 Minutes, was handled in a manner leaving little doubt about access to inoculations being seen as a benefit for DeSantis wealthy, white supporters.
It’s impossible to talk about Florida without mentioning its now most infamous Congressman, namely Matt Gaetz, who until recently was among the former president’s most visible cheerleaders.
For all the GOP’s concerns about drugs, trafficking, and fraudulent humans voting, the silence is certainly deafening when it comes to the allegations about one of their own checking off all three boxes.
In Montana, Governor Greg Gianforte has signed a bill purporting to ban sanctuary cities in the state, even though there are no such localities, based on the completely false premise about higher crime rates in other parts of the country.
This sort of action fits into the GOP’s game plan in that it’s based on fear mongering and encourages marginalization of any minorities who happen to get in the way of their electoral dreams.
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Here’s one very weird little ray of hope on the right side of the aisle, and it comes from an originalist GOP whack-a-doodle: Sarah Palin.
The former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential candidate caught the COVID, is still having long-term issues, and has seen the light when it comes to wearing masks, according to People Magazine:
Palin tells PEOPLE that COVID-19 can "really knock you down," encouraging everyone to remain vigilant about public health amid the ongoing pandemic.
"I strongly encourage everyone to use common sense to avoid spreading this and every other virus out there," she says in her statement. "There are more viruses than there are stars in the sky, meaning we'll never avoid every source of illness or danger ... But please be vigilant, don't be frightened, and I advise reprioritizing some personal time and resources to ensure as healthy a lifestyle as you can create so when viruses do hit, you have at least some armor to fight it..."
...In a plea to others to continue wearing masks in public, Palin joked about her surprise appearance on The Masked Singer last year. (Mask-wearing has become a divisive issue among leading conservatives — a skepticism first fueled by former President Donald Trump.)
"Through it all, I view wearing that cumbersome mask indoors in a crowd as not only allowing the newfound luxury of being incognito, but trust it's better than doing nothing to slow the spread," Palin says. "And history will show we Masked Singer visitors were masked before being masked was cool."
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Yeah, I’m a Trekkie.
https://twitter.com/AtomicAnalyst/status/1379078035828318208?s=20
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