Reading about washed-up actors, two-bit comedians, ex-baseball commissioners and porn queens running for the highest office in California may seem like an amusing joke to those unaffected, but to a majority of Californians, this recall election represents a golden opportunity to sack the person who has most damaged their state, governor Gray Davis. Mr. Barton’s premise seems to be that citizens who aren’t established politicians need not apply to political office, and if they do, the state is doomed to failure. I can only ask how any actor or comedian could do any more damage than the “established politicians” have already done. California currently has a debt of $38 billion, due mostly to incredible increases in government spending. Under Davis’ watch, it seems that any program is worthy of the citizen’s tax dollars. The citizens of California are simply fed up. The extravagant welfare state, the oppressive environmental regulations and the taxes yoked upon the citizens to pay for these programs are causing citizens and businesses alike to flee the state in record numbers. Low skilled, mostly illegal, immigrants who come to California to take more than give are replacing those citizens and businesses. That in turn limits the opportunities for legal immigrants to get jobs and make a better life for themselves. The end result of these policies is a state that has a decreasing ability to prosper. Davis’ lackadaisical attitude towards illegal immigration has created an environment where businesses meet needless difficulty in creating economic growth.Another special interest that has Davis’s ear is the environmentalist lobby, whose policies have dictated that no new power plants can be built, else the environment be irreparably damaged. California’s growing population, coupled with this abject refusal to produce power to keep up with that growth, has resulted in “rolling blackouts” which force the people of California to deal with the fact that their power will occasionally switch off for unknown periods of time. Again, California has but one man to blame, Gray Davis.Granted, people of any political stripe can hold that Arnold Schwarzenegger has been negligent in providing specific details of what he would do if elected. However, contrary to Mr. Barton’s assertion, Mr. Schwarzenegger, if elected, would not treat the Governor’s mansion like a movie set. That claim is as ridiculous as it is demonstrably false. Did Clint Eastwood act like Dirty Harry when he was mayor of Carmel, Calif.? Did Jesse Ventura act like “The Body” when he was governor of Minnesota? No, they did not. They acted like professionals whose responsibility was to govern the people in their constituency. If elected, Mr. Schwarzenegger would act no differently. At a minimum, any of the current candidates for the governorship of California could do no worse than its current tenant, and at a maximum, could do much better. For these reasons, I fail to understand how this process can be labeled a “joke.”
Les StanalandLetter to the Editor