By Steve Baldwin
California is in the news again, this time for qualifying a recall of its uber-woke governor, Gavin Newson, and for transgender former Olympian “Caitlyn” Jenner filing to be one of the multitude of candidates running to replace him.
But let’s not allow the media to decide for us who should win this race. Of course, they are turning the sexually confused Jenner into some kind of hero for engaging in the psychologically damaging activity of pretending to be a sex opposite of how he was born. What is bizarre is how some conservatives are promoting Jenner. Fox News’ Sean Hannity devoted an entire show to him as if he were a conquering hero, but has devoted little time to a number of other credible candidates in the race. Kelsey Bolar of the Federalist said Jenner was an example of the GOP’s “tolerance” as if that means we should accept anyone. Perhaps when a polygamist runs for office in the future, Bolar can lecture us how “tolerant” we are if we support him.
Not to be outdone, pollsters are trying to manipulate Californians into believing that Jenner is the “leading” candidate in the recall election, but this is doubtful. Social conservatives are at least 40% of the Republican Party base in California and are notorious for not speaking with pollsters. As a former California politician and organizer of conservatives for 40 years, I don’t know any social conservative who plans to vote for Jenner. Social conservatives simply aren’t motivated to support someone whose supports the gender chaos that is today undermining traditional male/female roles and relationships, which are the backbone of civilization.
Mutilating one’s body and/or using drugs to block hormones is not natural or normal, no matter how often the liberal media push that narrative. Nor will the vast majority of conservatives vote for a person who could end up serving as a “role model” for our children, which, in our troubled culture, is the last thing they need.
We should also not forget that the transgender community is a subsection of the gay community, which is currently engaged in a full-scale assault on American institutions such as the family unit, our churches and our faith-based institutions. There are at least a dozen legal groups today that are frantically defending our religious freedoms from this assault on the First Amendment, a constitutional right we all assumed would be unassailable. We were wrong.
Private Christian schools, churches and faith-based organizations are under full attack by gay legal groups and liberal politicians as they demand they hire teachers or leaders based on sexual orientation and allow transgendered men to used girls’ bathrooms. Private adoption agencies are being force by progressive politicians to place children with gay and transgender couples. Christian businessmen, such as florists and bakers, or being forced to do business with gays/transgenders even if creating floral arrangements or a cake for a same-sex wedding violates their Christian beliefs. Needless to say, our founders wrote the First Amendment to protect our right to live out our faith in all aspects of our lives.
This movement even desires to force pastors to stop preaching sermons that reflect negatively on homosexual behavior, despite the Bible’s clear condemnation of such behavior in over a dozen places. This unprecedented legal battle has already affected youth groups such as the Boy Scouts, which, after being pressured to accept homosexual Scout leaders, are now the subject of over 300 lawsuits from parents whose children were molested by these leaders. The Boy Scouts were forced to file for bankruptcy and will likely cease to exist. Make no mistake: The gay/transgender movement is plowing right through America’s traditional norms and institutions with the intention of destroying everything they touch.
Sure, Jenner says he opposes transgendered males participating in women’s sports, but he is a former Olympian who understands how unfair it is to allow biological men to compete against women. However, on all the other gay-related issues mentioned above, no one has any idea where Jenner stands. No one has bothered to ask him. Not to mention Jenner favors a “path for citizenship” for illegal aliens, which means an amnesty program of some kind that will, of course, cause millions more migrants to trek northward for the next amnesty.
In any case, the election of Jenner as governor would signal the acceptance of a radical gender ideology by the GOP. Such a trend could also lead to a mass exodus of social conservatives from the Republican Party, especially in the working-class states in the Midwest, which, without them, the GOP will never again win the White House. In other words, the GOP will lose far more supporters than it will ever gain by buying in to the transgender movement and promoting its “stars” such as Jenner.
The last thing the GOP needs is to empower yet another phony “oppressed” group and strengthen the gender chaos movement by making one of them the governor of California. The Democrats are surely laughing their heads off, as the California GOP attempts to become the Democratic Party light.
As for the recall itself, we all need to understand the limitations of this exercise. Despite massive and inaccurate coverage from all the networks, including Fox News, the recall election will not fundamentally change California, and any conservative group or media outlet that says this is creating false hope about the state’s future.
Of course, I signed the recall petition and will vote to recall Newsom, but there is no evidence a successful recall will save California from the decline that socialism, lawlessness and cultural chaos has created in the Golden State.
First, the GOP is not as disciplined as the Democrats are, so while the Republicans will file three to five serious candidates, the Democrats will file one or two serious candidates, and based on math alone, this guarantee a Democratic victory. We also should not forget that Newsom commands massive grassroots armies of highly organized leftist ideologues, including union members, open border advocates, illegal aliens, gays and state government workers, and they will all turn out in large numbers to save Newsom. Indeed, there are far more Democrats voting today than when former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won election in 2003 when Gov. Gray Davis was recalled.
Secondly, even if a Republican were to win, he will be a lame duck governor right off the bat. Both legislative houses have enough Democrats to override the governor’s veto, so a Republican will NOT be able to stop the passage of liberal legislation, and he will NOT have the votes needed to pass any legislation he sponsors. The Democrats have the power to shut a Republican governor down, and they will.
Lastly, a powerless GOP governor would face the normal election cycle just two years later, in which the Democrat turnout will, as usual, massively dwarf the GOP turnout and will undoubtedly throw a Republican governor out of office. Remember, a Republican hasn’t won a statewide election in California in over a decade.
Sure, a Republican governor might be able to appoint a few judges, but appellate justices have to be confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments – controlled by liberals – and Superior Court judges can only be appointed by the governor if there’s a vacancy. If he’s lucky, he might get to appoint a few judges during his two years in office, but that will not do much to change the liberal dominance of California’s judicial system.
The bottom line is that Republicans should be careful not to oversell the recall as being a transformative event that will save the state. Electing a lame-duck governor unable to stop the liberal agenda and who is removed two years later will not save the state or the GOP. The only good thing that might come out of the recall if Gov. Newsom is removed is it will probably doom his chances to ever run for president. But would the spending of millions of dollars by the state and national GOP on the recall election worth it? I doubt it.
We must all realize that California has moved steadily to the left, and we now have more liberals voting than when Arnold was governor – and he was unable to do accomplish much of anything 18 years ago. The state is even more liberal today. California’s conservative/GOP activists should consider instead spending money on legal challenges and sue whenever the legislature passes unconstitutional laws, such as attacks on the Second Amendment, sanctuary city policies, illegal tax hikes, transgender “rights” etc., We may have more success in the courts than a Republican governor would ever have. Californians can also form or contribute to PACS that have been specifically formed to assist in the key congressional races across the country that we must win to recapture the House and shut down Biden’s destructive legislative agenda. If we can do that, we might be able to save the rest of the country from following California’s fate.
Steve Baldwin is the former executive director of the Council for National Policy and a former California state legislator who has written about gender chaos and the homosexual movement for over 30 years.
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