It is better to have tried and failed than to have not tried at all. So goes the old adage. But is it always true? Does that maxim apply when trying something nefarious? Something undemocratic? Something that hurts the people you’re charged with protecting?
That’s our reality in California, where our Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom has spent the last few months trying and – thankfully – failing to subvert the will of the people, usurp direct democracy for personal political gain, and protect public policies that have led our state to lawlessness and degeneration.
A far cry from the "shining city on a hill" he proclaims it to be while jet-setting about the country on his presidential exploratory tour masquerading as a Joe Biden campaign cheerleader. California is in the throes of a colossal crime wave that has frayed the very seams of our society.
SACRAMENTO CITY ATTORNEY REPORTEDLY THREATENED TO FINE TARGET STORE FOR REPORTING THEFT CRIMES
Crime in California continues to cause widespread distress for those of us in big city neighborhoods and small towns, though not for those like Newsom, who reside in ivory towers and sprawling coastal vineyards.
Each year, more than 5,000 Californians die from fentanyl poisoning. Californians are 36% more likely to become victims of violent crime than the U.S. average and 45% more likely to fall victim to property crime. Our unsheltered homeless population represents about half the U.S. total and Newsom’s policies have made resolving any of these issues impossible by hamstringing police and prosecutors throughout our state.
It has become such a flashpoint that this year a million Californians signed a petition to put public safety reform on the ballot in November. Enter Newsom, so attached to the soft-on-crime policies he ran on and so afraid to admit he was wrong, he immediately launched a full-frontal assault against the people’s crime-stopping initiative.
Under the pretense of his self-proclaimed equitable social justice values, he first took aim at a package of bipartisan legislative proposals meant to crack down on serial thieves and fentanyl dealers, inserting poison pills that ensured if the voters approved their ballot initiative, these other improvements to public safety would be completely repealed.
That attempt received strong public backlash and objection from legislative Republicans and Democrats alike. It is very unusual in this day and age when both Republicans and Democrats land on the same policy agreement.
When he failed to gain support even within his own party for that transparently hostile endeavor, he introduced a competing ballot measure aimed at splitting the vote on Election Day and keeping his criminal-coddling policy in place. It even went so far as to explicitly state that if his new ballot measure passed with more votes, the citizen’s initiative would be voided entirely.
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He tried, but failed again.
It should be a cause for celebration. Newsom tried, and failed, to obstruct the voters’ ability to take control of their own destiny and enact real and much-needed public safety reforms. And it is, but it’s also chillingly disturbing.
The simple fact he tried these ethically bankrupt, undemocratic tricks against the people he represents in the first place is hair-raising.
The cause for terror is twofold – at least. First off, he’s demonstrated his willingness to do whatever it takes to get his way, everyday citizens be damned. He’ll no doubt try again and likely figure out new and creative ways to exert his will on the people. This recent assault on the will of everyday Californians illustrates his desire for complete dictatorial control.
Second, but no less dread-inducing, he’s no longer content doing this only to Californians. No, he wants to do it to Floridians, Texans, New Yorkers, Ohioans ... to all Americans. Newsom is after all, at this very moment, out vying for support for a presidential run despite his masquerading as a mere surrogate for a president unwilling – or unable – to appear publicly on his own behalf.
Newsom failed to interfere in this coming California election. He failed to dilute the democratic processes outlined in our state constitution. He failed to achieve complete totalitarian rule over his subjects. But he tried, and he’s not done. And this is one case where we’d all certainly be a little better off and a lot less scared if he simply never tried.
