Sept. 10, 2021
XTRA 106.3FM – The California recall election of Governor Gavin Newsom on September 14th offers voters outside of the state a “blueprint” illustrating how the two major parties plan on running their candidates in the 2022 house and senate midterm elections.
Currently, Larry Elder is the leading Republican challenger opposing Governor Newsom. He’s running on a reform platform aimed at making housing more affordable, dismantling restrictive COVID regulations adversely affecting small businesses, getting children back in school for in-person instruction, building back a middle class in decline, reforming poor state land management practices, and reducing rising California crime rates. Unquestionably all are important subjects to the voters of California and Elder is pitching his plans on how to improve them all.
Governor Gavin Newsom is running with a strategy to reach the voter from a different angle. It’s one that’s laser focused on a singular message built to rally his base and net him the requisite votes to avoid booking a U-Haul for a quick move. Simply, Gavin Newsom’s plan is to call Larry Elder a “black Trump”.
At a recent campaign appearance Newsom revealed this strategy declaring, “Either we reject this recall or we have someone to the right of Donald Trump as the next governor of the state of California. The damage he could do would be pronounced.”
Once again, Newsom and his supporters will spin fairy tales of the “bad orange man” and all of the plagues that will befall the state if they elect the “bad Republican” with similar political beliefs. Yes, “brown is the new orange” in this recall race and it’s the centerpiece of Gavin Newsom’s recall election platform.
But what is Elder proposing that would be so harmful to California? The topics Elder addresses at his public appearances are important for the proper operation of the state, for the creation of an agreeable environment for the middle class, and for businesses to rebuild from the damage COVID caused them. Moreover, Elder believes these reforms should strengthen individual rights, respect property rights, and seek free market solutions over government ones whenever possible.
From the Newsom camp, the response is the same no matter the issue. It all boils down to a simple philosophy of “Brown man bad like orange man bad”!
Don’t look for counter arguments from Newsom and his supporters to Elder’s California reform proposals. That’s a snipe hunt and a waste of time. Newsom will not take a counter position on any of the issues Elder is addressing because he simply can’t!
If Newsom were to acknowledge Elder and the reforms he wants to implement, he’d be on the hook to defend the democrat policies that have California in the dilapidated state it currently finds itself in.
Newsom would have to come up with answers for the homeless tent cities across the state that have turned iconic locations like Venice Beach into hell holes of drug addiction, the plague of wildfires that can be traced to mismanagement by the state’s department of natural resources, and the filth of human fecal matter littering the streets and sidewalks of cities like San Francisco.
However, Newsom and California Democrats prefer to stick their fingers in their collective ears and shout “Brown man bad like orange man” over and over again before acknowledging these and other failures of Newsome’s tenure as governor.
Expect more of the same electoral tactics nationwide from the Democrats when they and the Republicans start earnestly slinging mud in the 2022 elections.
Wherever Republicans pose a serious electoral challenge, Democrats will cast aspersions in lieu of counter proposals. They will fire off accusations of Trumpism, racism, sexism, and every other pangendertransphobemondohateism they can think of to dodge questions their policies and party have no answers for.
Truthfully, it’s much easier to hide poor political performance behind character assassination of your opponent than it is to defend a position in a debate with that opponent.
For example, why would a democrat senator or house representative debate the economic policies they helped enact that have led to the highest rate of inflation since August 2008 when they can simply assault their opponent’s “Trumpist beliefs” instead?
Are any Democrat representatives ready to debate the merits of “defunding the police” for the communities they represent?
Surely there’s a Democrat house rep looking to defend policies that have left their local chunk of the southern border with Mexico wide open to anyone who chooses to skip across it while singing “Zippedy Doo Dah”. No?
How about the Democrats looking to spar over policies that have led to rising food, energy, housing and transportation costs nationwide over the last year? No takers?
Of course not!
Come election time, “Orange man bad” will be the tactic Democrat politicians bank on to keep them in office and enable them to maintain power in Washington D.C.. They, like Governor Gavin Newsom know that running on failed legislative records in 2022 is not an option.
They can only run from those!
