It’s On: Recall Mania!

Recall! RECALL!! Where is the great Paul Dooley when you really need him? (Film buffs will get the connection. That’s why he’s the thumbnail pic for this post.)

Paul has made notice below that the recall of Gov. Gruesom appears to be on, barring some last minute shenanigans to disqualify the petitions. We’ve seen this movie before, and it ended with a hunky movie star getting elected governor out of a field of 135 candidates. Anyone can run—heck, I might even put up the filing fee just so I can tell my grandkids some day that I ran for governor of California. This time we might conceivably end up with a . . . hunky (sort of), movie star (sort of) in the person of Caitlyn Jenner.

I’m all for the Jenner candidacy, and may well support Jenner (unless I run myself), for the simple enjoyment of watching the cognitive dissonance on the left. Already the thought of Jenner running as a Republican has outraged the identity-politics left (just check out the Twitter sewer), and it is a sure bet that while Jenner may wish to speak about California’s serious problems, 95 percent of the media questions to Jenner will be “how can you possibly run for office as a transgender person as a Republican?” This will be useful in exposing that the identity politics agenda is much more about conformity to leftism than it is a genuine concern for people with various dysphoriae.

I think recalls like this are actually counterproductive and don’t do much to correct our decay, though, like term limits (another defective idea), I will enthusiastically vote in favor of recalling Newsom simply because you should always take the opportunity to deliver an insult to the ruling class when you can. This Thursday at 12:50 pm Pacific time, I’ll be on a panel at the Public Law and Policy Program at Berkeley to kick around the recall, along with Tom Del Beccaro, former chair of the California GOP who has been spearheading the recall drive; and David Carrillo of Berkeley Law, who will speak against the recall. I’m going to make the case that as much as I enjoy the heartburn this recall, like the last one, gives to Democrats, it actually dilutes political accountability and ideological clarity in the long run. I also don’t think the recall campaign helps the chances of the former Republican mayor of San Diego, Kevin Faulconer, who would be a strong candidate against Newsom next year in a conventional election contest. A recall jungle ballot is just too unpredictable.

Here’s the poster for the event, which is open to all comers—no registration required (link below the poster):

You can watch the webinar at this link.

Meanwhile, the perfect campaign poster:

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