Here's yet another in the long list of things that bother me about the California recall…
An awful lot of our political discourse in this country is driven, I am convinced, by folks who fan flames for monetary gain. I don't think there's much chance of Hillary Clinton running for president in 2004 but a number of groups have found that spreading that notion as probable is a dandy way to shake donations loose. Or here's a better example: In my quest to read political views of all stripes, I wound up on some right-wing spam lists. During the latter months of Hillary's husband's presidency, I was bombarded with e-mail that claimed to have uncovered Bill's plan to cancel the 2000 elections, declare some sort of martial law in the country, and remain in the White House indefinitely. He was not only going to not leave, he was going to sit there and pass all sorts of ultra-liberal edicts, and we had to all donate money to this group to save the U.S. from him and all the rules he was going to put in place making abortion and homosexuality mandatory.
Stuff like that. And yes, some on the left do similar things though they've never had boogeymen quite as potent for this purpose as the Clintons. I also get spam urging me to fork over bucks for groups that promise they will sue to reverse evil legislation. I suspect many of these appeals are employing the Springtime for Hitler business model: They find a hot-button issue that will generate donations, collect a few million in the cause of righting that wrong, spend a small amount to lose the case, then keep the rest.
Anyway, I smell a new opportunity here if the recall succeeds. People get very emotional when they lose elections. They're mad, they're frustrated, and they're always vowing "this isn't over" and "we'll be back." I love it when propositions lose 80% to 20% and the TV cameras go to the "victory party" of the 20% side. You see otherwise intelligent individuals treating it as a minor setback and swearing to start gathering signatures the very next day. It's always an amazing view of the human capacity for outright denial of reality.
And with the concept of recalling someone like Gray Davis comes an even greater means of denying it's over when it's over. Losers are emotionally vulnerable and there will be those who will seek to exploit that vulnerability. Every time someone loses an election, we'll see some opportunistic cash-raiser declaring that the so-called winner is, at best, only momentarily legitimate. They'll say this as they pass the hat to fund the recall. It could become very lucrative to treat duly-elected officials as temps.
We're already partway to this mindset. About twenty seconds after Bill Clinton first won the presidency, some of his detractors were talking of impeachment. This was long before Ms. Lewinsky assumed a kneeling position. They just assumed that if they kept at it long enough, they'd find some means of aborting a Clinton presidency. A pretty large percentage of Bush opponents still say he didn't win the election, and some of them are bandying about the "i" word.
That's the new trend in politics: You never really lose an election. You always have some group claiming the voting machines were rigged. Now, you'll have others taking blood oaths to oust the alleged winner before he takes the oath of office. No more will you hear, "Well, I didn't support him but now that he's going to be our senator [or governor or mayor or president or whatever], let's all rally behind him and support him and hope he succeeds because if he does, we all win."
No more of that. Now it'll be, "I didn't support him and I don't recognize his right to govern. The recall drive has already started."
Don't believe me? Wait 'til the evening of October 7. I don't know if Davis will retain his office or if not, who will take over, but I'll bet you there will be those who will be denying it's over…especially if we wind up with a winner who gets 40% or less, which seems likely. Before that vote is even certified, people will be gathering signatures and soliciting donations for a sequel which may or may not happen. And denying that whoever is governor is legitimate. Yeah, that'll help straighten things out in Sacramento.