California Governor Newsom is facing a credible recall campaign. The petition has reached the required number of verified signatures. So why, just now, would he announce the release of tens of thousands of felons, including some serving life sentences? Surely the majority of voters will find this objectionable, even alarming. What can explain this seemingly self-destructive behavior?
Does Newsom spend his days talking to construction workers, truck drivers, retail store owners, or other ordinary citizens? No, like most progressives, he talks to other progressives. He eats lunch and dinner with them. He goes out to restaurants with them – even during the lockdown he ordered. He reads the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times (but I repeat myself).
He listens to National Public Radio and watches ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN. From the time he gets up in the morning until he watches late-night TV before going to sleep, he hears nothing to contradict progressive dogma. So he imagines that most voters would approve of dangerous criminals being released from prison – thereby mitigating “mass incarceration.”
Newsom has no idea that the reason California has so many people in prison is that so many people commit crimes. He has no notion that this is a function of what these people did, not some vaguely defined societal malfunctions. He has no inkling that his early release blunder may sink his chances of withstanding recall.
In effect, Governor Newsom of California doesn’t really live in California. He doesn’t even know California. He lives on Planet Left with other progressives. They are happy there. Why wouldn’t they be? They are immune from the bad effects of their actions. Homeless people don’t set up camp in their gated communities. Criminals rarely come to their upscale neighborhoods. Their businesses aren’t going broke because of a year of lockdown.
The rest of us, who actually live and work in California and raise our children here, are less fortunate. So we tend to see things a bit differently. Gosh, Gavin, thought you knew that.
•