Hi,

I am curious to see some arguments on this important issue going on in California. I am against it because I believe that it is dangerous to our government to let someone recall the governor this easily, and that an elected official shouldn't be able to be kicked out of office expect if he commits a serious crime. Thanks,

LedZep

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a rather large number of electrons were somewhat inconvenienced."
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I don't believe that the recall attempt is complete as of yet. I think there is going to be a vote on that in a couple weeks along with a vote for who would replace Davis if the recall passes. Since it takes a democratic process to get this recall through and not just a bunch of names on a document, I'd say this recall process is legitimate and is healthy for our democracy. I am for the recall.

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(Ezek 30:10 NRSV) Thus says the Lord GOD: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt, by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.

What's going on in California?

California law allows the citizens to vote on a recall of the governor if 12% (I think) sign a petition to do so. There's two questions on the ballot. 1) Should the current governor be recalled? (or basically, removed from office) and 2) If he is recalled, who should replace him?

I am against recall becuase it doesn't hold the voter accountable. The voter goes to the polls and selects people to represent them for a certain period of time. With recall, if the voters make a mistake and decide that they elected the wrong person, they can fix the problem. However, the knowledge that they could fix the problem makes it much more likely that the voter will not take the time to be educated about the candidates and the issues because they know that if they make a mistake, they can fix it at any time.

However, I am in favor of this recall going forward, simply because the recall is allowed and the people have followed the rules to proceed with it.

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--Jim

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. - John Adams

Ronald Regan: A man who, sadly, does not remember that he once was President. However, on the bright side, he doesn't remember that Bill Clinton was ever President either.

If you can't be a part of the solution, don't become another part of the problem.

Only a very small group of people are going to head into the voting box thinking that they could recall whoever they vote for therefore they shouldn't research this decision properly. I think the #1 reason for people to not research the canidates properly is because they are lazy and there is no law saying they have to be knowledgable of the election which they are casting a vote for.

Anyways just based on the horrific state that California is in I think we have to be thankful that such a recall can take place if the situation gets to the level that it is at today. I would had to see the current trend last for another 3 years which it would have if this recall didn't happen. Even if Davis wins now he will have to focus on getting that state in order or face the possibility of another recall election.

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(Ezek 30:10 NRSV) Thus says the Lord GOD: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt, by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/...oll/index.html

It would seem as if Schwarzenegger is going to win the California race even if McClintock doesn't drop out. If someone would have told me a year ago that a Republican would even have a shot at winning govenorship of California, I wouldn't have believed it. If Schwarzenegger can do it even with another strong GOP canadiate running against him, then he must really have a lot of support!

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(Ezek 30:10 NRSV) Thus says the Lord GOD: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt, by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.

That's exactly my problem. Under which system is the voter likely to be more lazy? Under which system is the voter likely to decide to give a candidate they don't necessarily agree with "a shot?"

__________________
--Jim

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. - John Adams

Ronald Regan: A man who, sadly, does not remember that he once was President. However, on the bright side, he doesn't remember that Bill Clinton was ever President either.

If you can't be a part of the solution, don't become another part of the problem.

If you want to complain about voters giving canidates a shot, just look at the Bush-Gore election. Did you actually believe either one of them should have been president at the time? Of the people I know who voted, probably 50% of them voted for one or the other because they were the lesser of two evils. Talk about just giving a person a shot. I'm glad Bush got elected but back then I didn't believe either one of them deserved to be president. Next election doesn't look much more promising either.

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(Ezek 30:10 NRSV) Thus says the Lord GOD: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt, by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.

Why do you need to recall the Governor? Is his/her warranty up?

He ran the California economy into the ground. He still had another 3 years left in office before another election would have occurred but fortunantly the California people were able to get together and demand a recall. It looks like the recall will be successful as well and now the Terminator may be the new govenor

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(Ezek 30:10 NRSV) Thus says the Lord GOD: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt, by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.

One other thing that I thought of in response to this, what do you think about people who are registered Republicans or Democrats? They are going to more often than not vote straight one way or the other regardless of the issues and situations. That is lazy and it hurts democracy in my opinion!

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(Ezek 30:10 NRSV) Thus says the Lord GOD: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt, by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.

Can you still do that? I thought that straight ticket voting was eliminated because of the fraud it could produce.

Regardless, I wouldn't necessarily say registered Republicans or Democrats. Not all registered to a party vote straight ticket. I am registered a Republican, only because my state requires registration to a particular party. However, I am planning to vote for the Democratic candidate for governor in this year's election.

However, I do agree that straight-ticket voting is lazy.

__________________
--Jim

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. - John Adams

Ronald Regan: A man who, sadly, does not remember that he once was President. However, on the bright side, he doesn't remember that Bill Clinton was ever President either.

If you can't be a part of the solution, don't become another part of the problem.

The first time I voted I went straight Democrat. I didn't even know who anyone was except Gore but regardless I just voted for them. I can't say for sure that my vote was counted although throwing it out would be undemocratic because maybe there is someone who genuinally wants all democrats or republicans in office for good reasons!

Not all but doesn't it promote laziness to some? Isn't that much worse than having people thinking they can just recall everyone they don't like? Heck even recalling requires people to keep up to date with what each person is doing all the time so they can determine whether they want to recall them or not. Voting straight one way or the other requires nothing.

Then how can you use the argument that recalling makes people lazy when there are far more obvious facts of this taking place? Heck, I'd even accuse almost every politician of being lazy about researching something. I bet most of them will just vote along party lines almost regardless so what is there to know about a specific issue? That is a far worse problem than even the voting laziness problems.

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(Ezek 30:10 NRSV) Thus says the Lord GOD: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt, by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.

I thought that the entire nation had eliminated straight-party voting, but maybe it was just Illinois.

There's a difference between being registered to a party and voting straight.

But wouldn't it have been better to determine that this candidate didn't have the right stances prior to the election, so they wouldn't have to take the time and money to recall him?

Because recalling does make people lazy. I agree that there are other examples and that some of them may be worse. But we are not debating whether we should eliminate recall or eliminate straight-ticket voting. We are debating whether or not we should eliminate recall. Period.

__________________
--Jim

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. - John Adams

Ronald Regan: A man who, sadly, does not remember that he once was President. However, on the bright side, he doesn't remember that Bill Clinton was ever President either.

If you can't be a part of the solution, don't become another part of the problem.

I bet we could find a correlation between those who vote straight for one party and what party they are registered for. One doesn't cause the other but allowing people to pledge allegiance to one party over the other doesn't make it less likely that straight voting and laziness will occur.

I'm basically saying that if people are politically lazy then they are not going to be part of a recall process either. So doesn't that solve this debate?

As I stated before, the amount of people that will be made lazy by this is maybe noticeable if you use a microscope. The count is going to be very low. It will be so much lower than the laziness caused by the party system that it won't even be noticeable when the two are compared.

The recall serve many more functions than just causing laziness. It allows us to get people like Davis out of office and that is worth billions, literally! Try to debate that fact.

__________________
(Ezek 30:10 NRSV) Thus says the Lord GOD: I will put an end to the hordes of Egypt, by the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon.