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Hurt by Lockdowns, California’s Small Businesses Push to Recall Newsom
- ceilingcorner 6y agoI haven’t really followed Newsom’s term as governor, but I do remember him being a frequent guest on Bill Maher a few years ago. He was frequently touted as a future Big Deal since he “even looks presidential.” It’s interesting how many political careers COVID has sunk.
- notsureaboutpg 6y agoNot just COVID has sunk his career, I think the extreme social shift leftward of the American left has also become a liability for many formerly stable Democratic politicians.
- michaelbrave 6y agoGray Davis thought he was on a similar path to the presidency before he was recalled as well. I stayed in southern California the first few months of Covid and Newsom took every opportunity to get on camera, and almost never did he say anything that needed to be said by him, it was all fluff, and what wasn't fluff was rambling of what should have been two sentences turned into what felt like an hour of him talking. I think he may have failed even without covid.
- sneak 6y ago> Alexandra and Daniela Del Gaudio had never been to a political rally before, let alone one to protest a coronavirus lockdown and recall Gov. Gavin Newsom. But things had changed in the sisters’ lives since they opened the Wild Plum, a yoga and wellness space, in 2018. > The Wild Plum, in California’s San Fernando Valley, closed in March when Mr. Newsom issued pandemic stay-at-home orders for the state. It's a special kind of "wellness" that wants to expose a bunch of people in close quarters in an enclosed space to a deadly virus. Probably not a representative sample, but the NYT photo of the recall protest shows precisely zero wearing masks.
- sjwalter 6y agoIt's not nearly as deadly as we feared when we initially started this lockdown insanity. Survival rate is what, 99.7% now? Back in March the fear was another 1918 (CFR of like 2-4%). It's by basically every country's estimates an order of magnitude less deadly than we feared. Yet here we are, many folks scared so much they're praising their jailers and starting to love their cages.
- dawnerd 6y agoThe nearly 500k dead Americans would like to think otherwise.
- throwaway3699 6y agoI'll bet a good chunk of that 500k also disagree with locking people in their homes and ruining the prospects of multiple future generations. Being anti-lockdown does not mean being pro-death. Now we know more about the virus the lockdown measures must be re-evaluated.
- dawnerd 6y agoDude there’s been no lockdowns in this country. Stay at home orders haven’t even been enforced, and people like yourself make them useless anyways.
- throwaway3699 6y agoThanks for generalising. I don't break the restrictions just because I'm arguing against them. Nor am I an American. What I do know is my American friends are suffering for the same reasons my local community are, and it's abhorrent to continue supporting these policies when it's destroying so many lives. I'm sick of hearing stories about children trying to commit suicide, people getting fat and lazy, domestic abuse reports skyrocketing, small businesses going under and taking generational wealth out of the working class. This isn't worth it, and we need a better solution.
- mStreamTeam 6y agoThis governor hasn't been following his own rules. I don't blame small businesses for being angry with him https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-18/gavin-newsom-california-legislators-covid-19-cases-french-laundry-hawaii-trip-analysis https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-18/gavin-ne...
- AdrianB1 6y agoThe result of the election, if there will be one, will depend more on political affiliations than for the merits of the recall. In the past century some of the worst people on the left or right of the political spectrum were elected and were popular with their electorate at that time, no matter what the outcome was. It is one of the cases were democracy can fail and transform in a mob rule.
- pbourke 6y ago“Small-business owners have also been an engine behind the effort, said Randy Economy, the spokesman for the Recall Gavin Newsom campaign.” Economy decidedly un-randy, declares Randy Economy.
- underseacables 6y agoThis really blew up when people realized that the governor and many of the politicians of California we’re not only ignoring their own rules, but doing so blatantly.
- johnohara 6y agoIt doesn't help that their behavior leads to the public asking "what do they know that I don't?" or to wanton disregard in general. Clandestine salon visits, maskless restaurant gatherings, trips to Cancun during a statewide crisis, calling your broker after an intelligence briefing, public ridicule of scientific experts, and more. All of these set very poor examples for the majority of citizens who are being asked to endure extremely difficult circumstances for months at a time.
- cheriot 6y agoHot take: California's recall rules are anti-democratic. It takes 12% of the voters in the last election to to demand a recall. Has there ever been a politician with less than 12% of voters strongly against them? A recall happens whenever someone rich enough wants one. Those 1,495,709 signatures aren't cheap. https://ballotpedia.org/California_ballot_initiative_petition_signature_costs https://ballotpedia.org/California_ballot_initiative_petitio...
- notsureaboutpg 6y agoHotter take: It's very democratic, and too much democracy is bad for efficient, practical rule California's recall rules are democratic (a recall is just calling an election thus there's sense in keeping the signature level low, winning/losing the recall is completely democratic). BUT, democratic isn't always better. The ability of the people to call elections whenever they want to puts a strain on the finances of the ruling party. Unforeseen elections also sow doubt and discord among the populace. In addition, most voters aren't educated on the issues and might recall a sitting leader without really considering whether it's merited or not. That can lead to long-term problems when governance is constantly doing and undoing policies rather than committing to long-term strategic plans.
- dragonwriter 6y agoThe rules for the replacement election (FPTP with no primary, held on the same ballot as the yes/no on the recall) are particularly perverse and chaotic, and are both the main reason we don’t see more recalls with how easy they are (because even if you know you can recall the target, the replacement selection process is both poorly representative and unpredictable even with a solid knowledge of popular preferences) and the main motivation for factions that are convinced they can't compete in regular elections to seek them. > Those 1,495,709 signatures aren't cheap. 20 years ago I remember valid signatures on California recall or ballot petitions were pretty consistently about $1/signature in signature gathering expenditures; even if that's gone up since then, it's not that expensive, especially considering the potential impact.
- cheriot 6y ago
- spamizbad 6y agoSeems like there's a growing trend in American politics where the petite bourgeoisie is permanently angry; a deep fear of proletarianization.
- anm89 6y agoWhat's the need to frame American socio politics in the specific language of a German theorist from the 1800's whose ideas have failed miserably and caused widespread famine, abuse, genocide, and atrocities every time they've been tested out?
- rglover 6y agoSuperiority complex.
- anm89 6y agoYeah mixing in those french words sure makes it sounds smart!
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- underseacables 6y agoAmerican politicians seem to have the mindset of “do as we say not as we do” compounded by a view that they as the elected class, are superior in their thinking, and to back down or give in to the will of the people, is to somehow admit fault, defeat, or error. Dare I say that the sign of a good politician is someone who can admit when they are wrong, and admit that perhaps the path they have chosen is not the best path. What we see in America today is the complete opposite, where politicians steadfastly refused to admit a decision was made an error, and a rigid adherence to continuing that path.
- MilnerRoute 6y agoIf the recall is successful, the governor gets replaced by whoever has the highest plurality of votes. In other words, it creates a special scenario where you can be elected governor with much less than 50% of the vote. I've always thought this is part of why California seems headed for its second recall election in just 16 years.
- dragonwriter 6y agoCalifornia haa effectively had no lockdowns, since state and county public health orders are enforced by county sheriffs and most have not only not done so but also announced policies of not doing so. Small businesses may have been hurt by people voluntarily taking steps to protect themselves or their community despite the absence of lockdowns, but a recall isn't going to effect that. OTOH, nothing here indicates that this is a general sentiment among small business owners, just “some”, which in a state with 4.1 million small businesses is going to be true of support for (or opposition to) almost any idea imaginable.