The Recall Failed: Now What?
The “recall Newsom” vote of Sept, 14 failed drastically. “No” won by a big margin, about 62% versus 38%. Curiously, some counties considered conservative voted to keep Newsom in the job. This is the case of Orange County, long considered a conservative stronghold in the state.
Fresno voted to support the recall by 51.41% to 48.59%, with a few votes left to be counted, which means Fresno joins Kern, Kings and several other counties in rejecting Newsom.
Governor Newsom considered this victory as a win for his handling of the pandemic and liberal issues, and it ensures the nation’s most populous state will remain in Democratic control.
“‘No’ is not the only thing that was expressed tonight,” Newsom said during his victory speech on Sept. 14. “I want to focus on what we said ‘yes’ to as a state: We said yes to science, we said yes to vaccines, we said yes to ending this pandemic.”
In Fresno, Republicans are bragging about the results (really?). Considering that Fresno has more people registered as Democrats than Republicans, it could be considered a good vote for the conservatives. However, it’s too early to make this type of conclusion. The Central Valley is still a conservative place, and Fresno is no exception. But changes are happening, even slowly.
Overall, California left its Republican past well behind. The disastrous days of Pete Wilson and his Prop 187 are behind us, as is the perverse assault on the Superior Court by George Deukmejian.
Although the handling of the pandemic isn’t perfect in California, compared to what is going on in Florida, Texas and other Republican-led states, we should consider ourselves lucky. Or better said, we should consider ourselves intelligent for voting candidates with vision, social sensibility and a sense of justice.
Yet there is a lot to be done, particularly in Fresno County. While the city is getting somehow better, the county is still dominated by empty-brain characters—not to mention our neighboring counties.
With more and more young people coming back to the Valley after studying in big league colleges around the state, and more open-minded people running for office in different cities, there is hope that change isn’t a fantasy.
Until next month.
