There are essentially two kinds of politicians: Those who admit to failings and tell the voters they are sorry, and they will fix it. That is rare. The more frequent ones are those who, when they are flailing, point fingers at a bogeyman and focus on something other than the true issues causing failure. Gavin Newsom, who wants to be president, is a perfect example of the latter. He deflects.
I ran into a perfect example of deflection recently. Britain made a failed attempt to solve the world’s energy crisis. The Telegraph had a story on September 30th: “Britain is paying the highest electricity prices in the world as net zero costs rise.” The Liberals, the current party in power, have a 15% approval rating largely based on this issue. Their Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, told the Guardian “The truth is the reason why people’s living standards are stuck, why growth has been so low and public services are on their knees is trickle-down economics from the 80’s.” Blaming Maggie Thatcher from 45 years ago – sure, that will work.
Gallivanting Gavin got lucky and has his favorite foil back in office — Donald Trump. It is too warm, blame Trump. It is too cold, blame Trump. Trump wants to enforce our national immigration laws and places the National Guard in Los Angeles to protect federal facilities that the depleted LAPD cannot defend, blame Trump. And, of course, name call — authoritarian, Nazi, totalitarian. I could go on.
Newsom’s master deflection is having a statewide election on one issue – redistricting. This is despite being a staunch supporter of the supposed “independent commission” for reapportionment. He and his team have a fascinating take on the entire matter naming the ballot initiative, AUTHORIZES TEMPORARY CHANGES TO CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT MAPS IN RESPONSE TO TEXAS’ PARTISAN REDISTRICTING. LEGISLATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. That is a master deflection attempt. With a $20 billion budget deficit, the state is spending $282 million on this most urgent matter.
The real focus is the issues Newsom is neglecting. Dan Walters, the dean of columnists covering California, had a fascinating and accurate take on the issue of Gallivanting Gavin’s deflection. His recent column, California’s glaring issues have little to do with Trump | Opinion addresses this issue.
While defining that this might be all good for Newsom playing to his base, Walters scribed a brilliant paragraph about what Newsom truly faces. Speaking of Trump, Walters writes “He had nothing to do with California’s high rates of homelessness, poverty, and unemployment, it’s very high living costs, its shortage of housing, its long-standing water supply conundrum, the shortcomings of its public school system or the multi-billion dollar deficits in its state budget.”
Walters clarifies that many of these issues existed prior to Newsom, but he has been Governor for seven years and what exactly has he done to lessen these crises? You can draw your own conclusions on that, but it appears he gets a failing grade across the board on these issues. Remember though, Trump is a Pooh-pooh head and Newsom says that is where your focus should be.
Newsom has a new crisis. California has the second highest gasoline prices in the United States. Yes, Washington (California North) is higher. He has gone all in on saving the planet with EVs. He did not think through the entire process and didn’t provide for the infrastructure to supply electricity to all these EVs, and the market has not really gone for EVs. Now without federal subsidies the market is collapsing.
In the meantime, he has urinated on the oil industry here causing a shutdown in oil production and the refineries to produce the special California gasoline blend needed. The number of refineries has shrunk from 40 in 1983 to nine today. Two more are scheduled to close soon and Gavin is now pleading with them to stay open. He has also started encouraging oil drillers to get back to work In California. There are about 2,000 million proven barrels of oil in California and that is without fracking which would certainly greatly increase the number. Certainly, there are also significant natural gas reserves. If you were in the business, would you come back to California and trust this snake oil salesman?
When you vote on this initiative, Prop 50, one that acknowledges in its title it is about retribution, remember if you vote Yes, you are encouraging Newsom and his cohorts to deflect instead of confronting and mitigating the real challenges facing Californians. Teach him a lesson and vote NO.
