Re: YES to the Recall of Davis, Vote Camejo for Governor!

["Eli Stephens" <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Frontlines says this:

> We, at Frontlines newspaper and in the Left Party, called for all left
> organizations to unite in a common left electoral front.

and then (well, actually earlier in the article) says this:
----
The Peace and Freedom Party which placed a candidate on the ballot, C.T.
Weber, is calling for a NO on the recall, thus rendering useless all its
rhetoric about being an alternative to both Democrats and Republicans;  the
International Socialist Organization (ISO) is abstaining on the recall,
reflecting the pressure on the organization of their main constituency, soft
liberal students on campuses.

The same abstentionist position is taken by the Workers World Party (WWP)
that, hiding behind radical rhetoric, is afraid of breaking with liberals,
neo-liberals and union bureaucrats at a time of crisis and turmoil,
preferring to present themselves as the ?left critics? of the bi-partisan
political regime.

All these left groups, either with their explicit support for Davis or their
abstentionist positions, are capitulating to the Democratic party.
----

Gee, why am I not surprised that when Frontlines offers up rhetoric like
this, they couldn't get those same forces to "unite in a common left
electoral front." Here's a tip, Armand. If you want to pave the way for left
unity, you aren't going to get anywhere until you recognize that your
"opponents" on the left are actually on the same side as you, and start from
more or less the same position. Strangely enough, the party you speak most
highly about on a daily basis, the Green Party, is arguably the one which is
the most guilty of "capitulating to the Democratic party." But we've been
over that ground already.

As far as the recall itself, Frontlines thinks we should vote "yes" because:
---
Governor Gray Davis should be recalled because of his neo-liberal economic
measures, his disregard for the civil rights of minorities, his inability to
deal with the energy crisis last year and  his attempts to impose regressive
taxation on workers  (i.e. the new car tax).

This governor chose prisons over education, raised college tuitions,
bankrupted the State budget, did not move a finger to confront Washington?s
abuses of power such as the Patriot Act, and supported the war and
occupation of Iraq?
----
This is a rather strange proposition. Like their adopted candidate Peter
Camejo, Frontlines doesn't once mention the capitalist economic crisis in
this country (a.k.a. the jobloss recovery and the fact that nearly every
other state in the country is in an economic crisis), nor do they mention
the role that capitalist vultures like Enron had in putting California in
the position it is in. Instead, just like Schwarzenegger (and Camejo), they
imply that all the problems of California are problems caused by a single
inept bourgeois politician. The suggestion that Davis should be recalled
because of this litany of specific sins implies that in some way any other
bourgeois politician is a preferable alternative. To imply that in general
would be wrong; to imply it when the specific alternative is Arnold
Schwarzenegger is even more preposterous.

If a progressive independent candidate like Camejo, or C.T. Weber, or John
Britton, or Arianna Huffington had any chance whatsoever of winning, I would
vote for the recall. But, as in virtually all bourgeois elections, they
don't, which mean that objectively, a vote for the recall is a vote to put
Schwarzenegger in office. Now, if there were a two-person general election
between Davis and Schwarzenegger, with no alternative candidates, I would
simply abstain, since there is no way I would support either. But that isn't
what we are faced with. Unlike the country as a whole, California actually
has a legally elected Governor, which is Davis. Of course I didn't vote for
him. And it's not that I oppose recalls on general principle; I support
them. And not just for cases of criminal malfeasance or whatever; if someone
misled the voters in his election (e.g., presented himself as a
"compassionate" conservative when he was nothing of the sort), or changed
his position after the election on a very serious issue (e.g., got elected
promising to get the U.S. out of Vietnam and then instead plunged the
country more deeply into war), then a recall election would be entirely
appropriate.

But this situation is nothing of the sort. Davis was elected "just as he is"
less than a year ago. There haven't been any "surprises" or anything of the
sort. Instead, we are asked to support the totally undemocratic situation
where someone could be legitimately elected, as Davis was, with 47% (or
whatever it was) of the vote (i.e., less than 50%), and then immediately
recalled because to stay in office he needs more than 50%.

Imagine if this recall election had gone differently, and Schwarzenegger
hadn't been in the race, and the Republicans had continued to field Simon
and McClintock and Ueberroth, and somehow Camejo's campaign caught on fire
and he was elected with 15% of the vote. Then, if you accept the principle
that someone can be recalled for essentially no reason at all, then Camejo
would last exactly as long as it took to collect signatures and schedule the
next election. Is that democratic?

For me, then, there is no legitimate reason to vote for the recall, and
since there isn't, voting for the recall becomes objectively a vote for
Schwarzenegger, just as if I had voted for him over Davis in a two-man race.
I'll be voting against the recall. I already voted against Davis last year
(well, technically speaking, FOR Camejo). I don't need to do so again this
year.

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