'Never Trumper' Gleans Lessons From Failed California Recall Election
Steve Schmidt calls GOP voters "extremists"
This week's failed recall of California Gov Gavin Newsom (D) was driven by “vandalism” and “nonsense” on the part of the Republican Party, according to a former top Republican strategist who today is a prominent “Never Trumper.”
Further, Democrats now must understand that they are doing battle against some of the worst “public immorality and irresponsibility” in the history of the nation, added Steve Schmidt.
California's voters rejected the attempt to recall, or just from office, their incumbent governor by an overwhelming, nearly 30-point margin.
It was a stunning repudiation for Republicans, including their leading candidate running to replace Newsom, conservative radio host Larry Elder.
“Well, this has always been a project of extremists from Day One. It’s been a meld of reality show theatrics with Caitlyn Jenner all the way to Larry Elder,” said Schmidt, who worked on high-profile campaigns for President George W. Bush, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arizona Sen John McCain before breaking with his party over support for Donald Trump. “And what we know about this is this is an abuse of part of California’s unique system of government that came into being during the progressive era where the state was fabulously corrupt and the people needed a mechanism to be able to recall the governor who was too deeply in the pockets of the substantial special interests that ran the state. And so the threshold for the number of signatures you need to get to start this are astonishingly low. And that’s something that should be redressed now that we know what the outcome of this is.
“But, at any rate, this was an act of vandalism. This had nothing to do with the public good. This had nothing to do with any legitimate complaint or act of misconduct or act of corruption. It was all about nonsense, and it was the province of this blend of Trump extremism,” Schmidt said of the attempted recall. “It was an incursion into the bluest state in the country with a population of 38 million people to see if they could arouse enough apathy on the Democratic side to turn out against the fanaticism of the Trump side which would certainly in the name of their leader, in the name of its vessel, Larry Elder in this case, swarm to the polls to depose Gavin Newsom.
“What we found out was the Democratic vote was not apathetic and it showed up and turned out to repudiate this. There was no swarm. There was no constituency [for Trumpism],” he said. “What you have is a minority of the vote that though it has fanaticism on its side, through much of the country and certainly in the state of California is an abject minority by view of the total population.
“That sets up this contest. Talking about it’s not about Democrats trying to portray Republicans as Trump loving extremists as to assign them a quality that doesn’t otherwise exist. They are Trump loving extremists. That’s what Larry Elder was and why he went down in flames in the still Golden State of California,” Schmidt added.
“A bidding war to the bottom of stupidity”
Democrats also have to understand that they are no longer working with an opposition party working in good faith, he said.
“I think what Democrats need to understand this is zero sum. They are not debating opponents who have good faith ideas that are just different than theirs,” Schmidt said. “What we’re witnessing in the states is some of the greatest acts of public immorality and irresponsibility in the entirety of the history of the country including indifference to what will be the children’s pandemic, the suffering of children who otherwise wouldn’t die, wouldn’t get this disease, wouldn’t wind up on respirators if there was any sense of responsibility.
“A bidding war you might see play out in Saudi Arabia where the princes compete to see who will be the crown prince and named successor, the heir to the magna empire. And the two leading candidates right now in a bidding war to the bottom of stupidity -- of irresponsibility — are the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, and the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott,” Schmidt said. “They have built this culture of extremism not to gain majority opinion but to excite, entice and to intoxicate the fantasies of the extremists who dominate the GOP money game, the early stages of the activist game. What they hope is [Donald] Trump will pick them to be vice president when he certainly runs again, if he becomes the nominee or should he fall down on not make the race they could be the successor themselves. That’s what this is all about.
“We’re just not used to seeing such outright immorality and indifference expressed by people who swear oaths to protect, preserve and are charged with life and death decisions of public responsibility,” he added.