The McClintock forces (dominated as they were by radical Christian Reconstructionists) also formed an unholy alliance with the left by urging a "No" vote on the recall itself — placing both McClintock and Bustamante in the odd position of running in an election they opposed "in principle." I think California voters demonstrated that they are capable of seeing past such shenanigans.
As I noted previously, Lou Sheldon's outfit (the name of which tends to whitewash ancient history) went all out to stop Schwarzenegger:
born-again Christian conservatives are mortified by the actor's liberal views on abortion and homosexuality and wary about allegations of drug use, infidelity and juvenile sexual antics. The Rev. Louis Sheldon, head of the ultra-right Traditional Values Coalition, warned in a statement last week of a "moral vacuum" in Sacramento. "It is hard to imagine a worse governor than Gray Davis," Sheldon said, "but Mr. Schwarzenegger would be it."Naturally, this made me love Arnold all the more, and I think it brought the guy a lot of voter sympathy.Sheldon's group has launched an anti-Arnie project called Californians for Moral Government. James Lafferty, a consultant for the group, said its work is just the first rumbling of an earthquake to come.
NOTE: Readers having difficulty getting the entire Salon article cited above can read the rest of the text here.
In other words, a voter backlash.
Such a phenomenon is nothing new; the Democrats have tried to capitalize on it for years. What is truly remarkable is that here, the same voter backlash helped elect a Republican. It is equally remarkable that even a double digit McClintock vote failed to thwart the overall will of the voters — something which must strike terror into the hearts of people whose arrogant assumption has long been along the lines of: "Republicans can't win with us, but we'll show them they can't win without us!"
In the future, the Democrats cannot count on automatically getting the votes of ordinary voters who fear political dominance by religious theocrats. These voters are smart enough to spot a con game by either side.
Article comments
1 - Al Barger
Actually, the religious right probably isn't nearly so troublesome to the Republicans as black groups are to the Democrats. The religious right generally are not necessarily more moderate than the black groups, but considerably more pragmatic.
Black interest groups, having gotten pretty much every possible reasonable concession, have gone to demanding reparations, and other such utter nonsense.
Religious conservatives on the other hand are content to get half a loaf. They will be well satisfied with the widely popular partial birth abortion ban, and not push at this point for an overall legislative or constitutional ban on all abortions, for example.
2 - Dan
It's always seemed to me that Democrats are hell bent on having the biggest tent, and less concerned with stuff like principle, integrity, or Constitutional adherance. Naturally they would have more uneasy alliances than the Repubs.
I do love those log cabiners. (in a strictly generalized way of course) They seem principled just for resisting the shameless divisive pandering of the left. Same goes for conservative minorities.
In my fantasy Country, the Republicans win the pandering battle, the Democratic Party dries up. All the ultra-lefties move to France. Then a rainbow coalition of Constitutionally enlightened constituents challenges the Republicans for the allegiance of all the folks who have had to hold their nose while they voted Republican.
Now that would be progressive! Or in a sense, regressive.
3 - Hal Pawluk
I and many other Californians did not see the recall issues as choices of gay or Gray or Jesus.
The major issues were the fiscal crisis and the pay-for-play state Democrats. Gray was recallable so he was recalled. In the next election, we'll work on the equally-culpable Democratic legislature (which will be tougher because of the 2001 redistricting pact between the Dems and the Reps).
Arnold was the second-best outcome for us, but a step in the direction of the fiscal conservatism McClintock represented, with no ties to special interests (yet).
Although Arnie's decision to investigate himself on the groping charges is making me start to wonder:
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, did I grope anyone at all?" :-)