October 2, 2003 (Ira Pilgrim)
If the "three strikes and you're out" law applied to politicians, Gov. Gray Davis and the entire California Legislature -- lawmakers of both parties -- would be facing life behind bars for habitual dereliction of fiscal duty.
Dan Walters, 2003
History is full of instances of governmental insanity. However, the current situation in California would stand pretty much at the top of the list. I am not sure that insanity is the right word; goofiness might be more appropriate. The Hollywood cartoon world has become the current reality. Daffy Duck and Mickey Mouse are the stars. Political cartoonists are having a ball.
There will be an election to recall Gray Davis and when it is all over, we may have a new body in the governor's seat, but nothing of any consequence will change. The state will still be in a financial mess.
Anyone familiar with our government in Washington knows that it vacillates between being idiotic and insane. However, there is at least an illusion of order. Not so in California. The state has gone completely bananas.
What keeps our federal government in some kind of order is the constitution. It is a short, reasonable document that lays down the rules for the government to follow. It was created by reasonable men. There is a Supreme Court which, although it now contains one madman and one complete fool, is mostly peopled by reasonable intelligent people. In contrast, the California constitution is an immense document which is largely unintelligible because it is written in legalese; a language that no one understands. The state Supreme Court doesn't do a damn thing and is apparently peopled by incompetents. At a time when some sanity was called for, the court chose to do nothing. Fortunately, the court has nothing to do with earthquake relief, fighting forest fires, farming or food distribution, or anything else that really matters.
What passes for wisdom in California is the acceptance of the fact that it doesn't matter who the governor of the state is, nor who the people in the legislature are. Nor does it matter how finances are managed. In short, it is a miniature model of our federal government, only it is worse. Children usually resemble their parents, only they are often flakier. While our federal government is ridiculous, the state of California is ridiculous to the point of being totally insane.
Voting to recall Davis without voting to recall the legislature makes no sense to me.
How am I going to vote? I don't know, but I am looking for a coin to toss that has 135 sides. The idea of Arnold Schwartzeneger (a man who is muscles from head to toe, who can't act, but can memorize his lines; who invented a ridiculous explanations to avoid the fact that somewhere in his distant ancestry, there was a black man) as governor makes me say, "stop the boat, I want to get off."
How am I going to vote? I don't know, and if I knew I wouldn't say, because no matter how I vote it will be wrong.
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