Governor Gavin New­som, The GOP, And A Complete Waste Of Time


GOP, Stop Wasting Our D*mn Time


On the remote chance you might have missed it (hard to do, but possible), Governor Gavin New­som survived the GOP’s recall vote. California will continue to be a blue state for a while yet, anyway.(1)

In retrospect, there doesn’t seem to have been a whole lot of contest here. At first, it looked as if complacent or unmotivated Democrats might allow the Republicans an easy victory. But, then, the GOP picked as its candidate to take Newsom’s place Larry Elder, a libertarian and conservative talk show host who has never missed a chance to say something incendiary (or simply stupid) in public. Among many, many other things he has been anti-feminist to the point of burst veins in the forehead, and — even though he is himself an African-American — has had the occasional kind word to share about antebellum slaveholders.(2)


These were statements guaranteed to resonate with his audiences, but probably not very successful in generating votes among liberals, centrists, people of color, and women. 


What, then, did the recall election achieve? Well, it stirred up and perhaps energized the more lunatic of the Republican base. But, then, it also frightened and so even more thoroughly energized Democrats and Independents, so basically break even there.


Otherwise…honestly…it did nothing, except to waste time, energy, and, of course, the dollars donated by well-meaning but misled Republicans from across the nation. Or, to put it another way, it was nothing but a great black hole, consuming the resources that are desperately needed elsewhere to deal with things like Covid, foreign military threats, and our ever deepening social divisions.


But, then, why should we be surprised?


Waste and disaster seem to be what the Republican Party does best these days.


Alas.


~Michael Jay Tucker



Please visit my webpage here: https://www.michaeljaytucker.com/


Copyright©2021 Michael Jay Tucker



Sources: 


1. “California Gov. Gavin Newsom defeats the recall effort to remove him from office,” by By Scott Wilson and David Weigel, Washington Post, Sep 15, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/california-recall/2021/09/14/068d35b6-15a0-11ec-b8c6-b166729f2f3b_story.html

 

2. See “Recall candidate Larry Elder has history of provocative statements,” By CNN.com Wire Service August 19, 2021 https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/08/19/recall-candidate-elder-has-history-of-provocative-statements/ and “Larry Elder argues slave owners are ‘owed reparations’ during appearance on Candace Owens’ show,” by Jaelen Ogadhoh, Yahoo News,  September 5, 2021, https://www.yahoo.com/now/larry-elder-argues-slave-owners-000601872.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Building, as an act of faith or from a dying dream to a multicultural reality

Image
 Crete: place of dreams and wonders Special note: Today we are doing something different. Instead of just talking about politics, we will begin a new series by the talented Colette Hartwich. In it, Ms. Hartwich will discuss her current project of finding a new home on the island of Crete. Stay tuned for more about her adventures in Greece.   By Colette Hartwich As a family, we consider Crete (Greece) our second motherland. With its magical diet, Crete is linked to longevity, fabulous jewelry techniques and of course olive trees. Crete, embedded in Minoan culture, is also the birthplace of the labyrinth and the Minotaur, or at least the legend of it.   For seven long years now, we have been looking for the ideal spot for a house: close enough to the sea as there is nothing better than a fresh morning dive straight from your porch; close enough to a village, so that, in recent years the frequent forest fires, at least to a part one could rely on some sort of fire brigade; with a few oliv
Read more

Michael Flynn…Satanist? Naaaw. But let’s giggle anyway.

Image
This is not Michael Flynn... From the department of Cry-Me-A-River, I've recently learned that none other than Michael Flynn (remember him?) has run afoul of the QAnon movement and is accused of being a Lucifer-worshipping Satanist. Wait. What? No. Really.   Flynn was Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser, among other things. Following a wee bit of legal difficulty arising from his being an unregistered foreign agent for God knows who, he got a presidential pardon and set out for a new career as a Trump apologist and general crackpot. This included embracing the QAnon fantasy and cultivating QAnon militants. For a time, he was among the movement’s heroes. But in September 2021, Flynn was a guest at a right wing church in Nebraska. While there, he led the congregation in a very strange prayer which included terms and phrases apparently copied from a weird Christian sect that flourished in the 1990s. These included references to God’s “sevenfold rays” and His legions of archangel
Read more

Christian Nationalism, and other contradictions in terms

Image
Very powerful piece over on Vice that everyone should read, " Christian Nationalism Drove These People Out of Their Churches " by Tess Owen. In it, Owen looks at how Christian Nationalism...an ideology which is surely a contradiction in terms...has begun to overwhelm churches across the country. The idea that Jesus, who preached against such things, should be used to support racism, nationalism, and dictatorship is, of course, grotesque. But, it is important for us to know what is happening in the world of right-wing churches. This is, in other words, what we're up against. Forewarned is forearmed... This has nothing to do with Christ.
Read more