Malfunctioning Legislature now works against good governing and the will of the people

By Katy Grimes, September 3, 2024 8:44 am

https://californiaglobe.com/articles/californias-legislature-has-turned-on-the-people/

California State Assembly Chamber. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for California Globe)

Have you ever been stabbed in the back by a friend? You trusted them, supported them, and they turned on you. You never saw it coming. And you ask “what happened?”

California’s Supermajority Democrat lawmakers now work against governing the state, and work against the will of the people. Did you see it coming, or were you caught off guard?

These are just a few of their most recent policies that no voter ever asked for:

Criminal justice “reforms.”

Escalating crime, retail theft, sex trafficking, violent crime.

Hundreds of thousands of homeless drug-addicted vagrants living on California streets.

Reparations: granting preferential treatment and taxpayer-funded cash payments based on race.

Overturning the ban on affirmative action policies and practices despite voters reaffirming the ban in 2020.

Oil and gas ban.

State proposed takeover of oil and gas industry.

Price controls of oil and gas industry.

California to become the first state to ban natural gas heaters, water heaters, and furnaces by 2030.

All-Electric grid, electric appliances, electric car mandates, “carbon-free buildings” – that means all-electric.

Newsom administration saddles ratepayers with another $300 annually in electricity costs despite California’s highest electricity rates in the country.

Allow “worst of the worse” criminals serving a sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole to apply for early release.

Ballot measure in November to change the state Constitution to ban the practice of forced labor in jails and prisons,” calling it “slavery.”

New categories of grievances: Racial wealth gap. Racial terror. Racial trauma. Race-based traumatic stress.

Democrats plan to give “payback optional” $150k loans, funded by California taxpayers, to illegal immigrants for a downpayment on a home purchase.

University of California system to hire illegal immigrant students.

Employment Development Department to provide illegal immigrants unemployment benefits if they lose their job.

Prohibit local governments from requiring voters to show ID at polling places.

Climate change hysterics.

Insurance crisis.

These policies are evidence of elected lawmakers working for special interest groups, against governing for the people who actually elected them. This isn’t about running a state any longer, this is the willful betrayal of our Democracy.

Probably the most blatant policy issue aside from Gov. Newsom’s Venezuela-like State proposed takeover of California’s oil and gas industry, is the ballot initiative to amend Prop. 47, California Proposition 36, the Increase Drug and Theft Penalties and Reduce Homelessness Initiative. Prop. 36 will be on the November 2024 ballot, despite Democrats in the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s attempts to kill it… and despite the important legal fixes Prop. 36 will make to California’s outrageous crime problems.

The Governor even threatened to place his own competing voter initiative on the ballot, despite the more than 900,000 signatures collected to place the initiative on the November ballot. Newsom recanted that idea under a lot of really bad press.

This is a failure of government when the people have to place so many policy initiatives on the ballot to correct detrimental laws.

Over the weekend the dysfunctional California Legislature met late into Saturday night, passing bills rapid fire. As Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Corona) correctly noted, this year’s session began in January. “There is zero reason Sacramento dems should have waited until last night’s constitutional deadline to pass hundreds of bills. It’s all by design to rush through terrible bills without public scrutiny. You get it yet?”

But it got worse. As reporters covering the late night session described, Democrats limited debate on each bill to 30 seconds, which was no actual debate at all. And then, according to a Capitol staffer, the Assembly Speaker cut off their mics even before the 30-seconds was up if they opposed the bill about to be voted on.

 The Capitol staffer told the Globe that Democrats were even violating their own rules, which they had illegally passed that night by making new rules on the spot. 

They also cut off Assemblyman Essayli when he made a counter motion pointing out their errors.

“The California Assembly silenced me and the 500k Californians I represent tonight! They would not let me debate or speak. These people are the enemy of democracy!”

Essayli Tweeted.

With 62 Democrats and 17 Republicans in the Assembly (one vacant seat), the dangerous imbalance of one-party rule has lead to Democrats making up the rules as they go, while kicking voters to the curb.

This is no laughing matter. This is not representation.

One-party states include North Korea, China, the Soviet Union, Eritrea, Cuba, and the Nazi Party in Germany.

 What is happening in California is horrific. And it is deliberate. Just think about what could happen to the rest of the country if California collapses.

 Katy Grimes

Katy Grimes, the Editor in Chief of the California Globe, is a long-time Investigative Journalist covering the California State Capitol, and the co-author of California’s War Against Donald Trump: Who Wins? Who Loses?