Thoughts on the Recall

I’d stick a cliché here, but they’ve all been used

by Patrick J. Shanahan
10/01/03

The California gubernatorial recall election is just a marvelous spectacle! This is mainly because nobody can quite figure out what kind of critter it is. It is different from just about any political event we have seen in our generation, but has a depressing ring of what our political future may look like. Because everybody feels the urge to get involved, if we pay close attention we can learn some interesting things about the nature and direction of contemporary politics.

The first question that conservatives must answer - and which divides us to some degree - is whether or not the recall is a good idea. Despite the hard Left’s cries of “undoing an election” and “disenfranchising the voters” it is clearly constitutional. In fact it would be hard to find a more explicitly constitutional process. The procedures are hard-wired into the California constitution. But just because something is constitutional does not mean it is wise. The question of whether the recall is wise has split conservatives.

On one side, luminaries such as George Will worry that the recall is yet one more factor that will hasten the erosion of predictability and stability in our political process. The importance of this ought not to be downplayed. If one seeks to define what it is that distinguishes the success of the American political process from the failure of so many other countries’ political processes, one finds that the process is structured to ensure stability and predictability. The reliance on two major parties, the primary process, the constitutional regularity of elections all help to provide a sense of confidence that the periodic change of power will be predictable, peaceful and just. To interrupt this with a recall election is to inject an element of chaos and uncertainty that is at least as damaging to the process as was the Florida 2000 chaos instigated by the Democrats. Too much more of this sort of thing and we may start to see our process damaged beyond repair.

On the other side, pundits such as Hugh Hewitt see a state careening towards complete disaster. If California’s economy collapses because of the mismanagement and incompetence of the Davis Administration, it will drag the rest of the country with it. The risk of irreparable damage is simply too high to risk waiting it out until the next election. And, apparently, a whole bunch of Californians agree.

The answer that one comes up with after applying this calculus can vary. This is clearly an issue on which conservatives (and even liberals) can honorably disagree. I personally think it unwise. If I had my druthers, I would like to see the California constitution changed to remove the recall provision. A political system which has a built-in electoral “mulligan” is one which rewards laziness and risk taking. We already have too many voters going to the polls with no actual clue as to what they are doing. Give them a free “out” in case they make a mistake, and we reward this behavior. Gross incompetence and malfeasance can be remedied with impeachment. Anything less than that falls into the category of “the people deserve the leaders they elect.”

Another aspect of the recall that strikes one is the continuing hardening of the hard left and its associated institutions. Somebody has got to do something about the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Split it up, impeach some judges, do something. It is perhaps the single biggest barrier to republican democracy in the land today. And yet, the prospect of getting slam-dunked by the Supreme Court moved the Court of Appeals to the right of the ACLU. This is unfortunately not very difficult, as the ACLU appears to have abandoned all pretense of neutrality and become a willing and enthusiastic puppet of the hard left.

Recall politics may also force to the surface the thorny issue of “Indian” gaming. The quotation marks are required because many if not most of the people involved in running the casinos have only theoretical links to Indian ancestry. “The Tribes” have become a major corrupting influence in California politics, and their cynical attempts to buy the election for Cruz Bustamante (by, among other things, buying a millions dollars worth of air time for Tom McClintock in order to eat into Arnold’s base) is probably going to force the federal government to rethink some things. How, for example, can an Indian reservation be exempt from federal laws regarding gambling, yet at the same time use the proceeds of that exemption to influence elections? The entire notion of Indian quasi-sovereignty is a joke. I doubt if our compassionate President has the stomach for it, but if we do not change our policy in the near future to view Indians as fully integrated American citizens, with all the rights, obligations and limitations that entails, then the tension between money and quasi-sovereignty will create major issues over the next several decades.

The other interesting aspect of all this is the perpetual agony of conservatives over whom to vote for, the theoretically “electable” moderate conservative (in the case Arnold) or the theoretically “unelectable” true-blue right winger (Tom McClintock). Although I agree in principle with Bill Buckley’s exhortation to vote for the most conservative candidate that can be elected, I believe that many “moderate” and half-hearted Republicans do not believe that anybody to the right of Gerald Ford is electable, by definition. In fact, there is a telling disproportion in electability analyses. It is almost impossible for a Democrat to be considered too far left to be elected. Howard Dean doesn’t even get tagged as unelectable - except by a few conservatives. The media thinks he is just electable as all get out. Yet these same people, and those on the near right who are seduced by their clever words, assert that McClintock is too far right to be elected.

Well, they can think what they want. But when I heard him in the gubernatorial debates, he had by far the most sensible and clear answers to some of the most important questions posed. And I think thy will resonate with the people of California. If I were Californian, I’d wish Arnold the best of luck and pull the lever for McClintock.

As we watch the recall effort come down to the wire, we have a unique chance to look, listen, and learn. The results will tell us much about who we are and where we are going.