Stealing Our Voting Rights from Us
One of the most annoying aspects of our modern political discussions is how Democrats or their media mouthpieces are constantly pointing out that our Democracy is in danger. This came on the heels of The Washington Post’s immensely stupid new slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Once again Democrats in California are actively attempting to take voters’ rights away. This time they are asking voters to do it themselves.
California’s overwhelming Democrat Legislature in 2017 passed the Taxpayer Transparency and Fairness Act. Jerry Brown, then Governor and the great protector of people’s rights, signed it into law. This had as much to do with transparency and fairness as The Inflation Reduction Act has to do with inflation. The bill stole rights away from Californians.
The Board of Equalization (BOE) has five elected members. This bill emasculated their responsibilities and gave them to career bureaucrats. The BOE previously handled reviews of any sales tax and income tax appeals. The Office of Tax Appeals (OTA) now hears all those appeals. Of the twenty-four appointed judges, just five were not government employees prior to setting up this new structure. Instead of being responsible to the people of California as the elected officials are, these people are responsible to the governmental structure of the state. Since so many factors are subjective, it seems clear your rights were emasculated unless you think that career government workers are ruling more in the favor of the residents of the state.
A new taking of the right of voters is on the ballot in November. Los Angeles County — which by population would be the seventh largest state in the union — has five elected county supervisors that control the county. The residents have been able to elect the County Sheriff. The current county sheriff is Alex Villanueva, and the Board of Supervisors has been in a constant battle with him. This is even though Mr. Villanueva is a Democrat. Though the Board of Supervisors is a nonpartisan position, four of the five are Left-wing Democrats. Only one is not.
Currently, the county residents have the right to recall the Sheriff if they do not like the job he (or she) is doing. That is not good enough for the County Supervisors. They initiated a motion that directs County Counsel to draft an ordinance for a special election that will allow voters to decide on an amendment to the County Charter that would grant the Board of Supervisors the authority to remove a Sheriff who violates the law or abuses power by a four-fifths vote.
Notice that four-fifths vote. If you did not have any idea of what goes on with the LA County Board of Supervisors, you might say that is a tall hurdle. I dare you to find a meaningful vote by the Board in the last eight years that did not have at least four (the upset left-wing Democrats) voting for it. These people vote in lockstep with each other. As expected, the vote to put this taking of voters’ rights was passed by 4-1 with Supervisor Kathryn Barger dissenting.
If Mr. Villanueva were to win his reelection, how long do you think it would take for the Board of Supervisors to yank him from office? They will find any excuse since they have frequently battled the last few years and especially since the woke movement castrated L.A. law enforcement.
You can easily see a dispute happening between the Supervisors and the reelected sheriff. They drum up a phony process to exorcise Villanueva. Then they would have to replace him with someone. Who would that be? Since all of them endorsed Villanueva’s opponent, Robert Luna, lo and behold who would they pick to be the new sheriff?
This is not just for this election and this dispute; this initiative is forever. In twelve years when there would be two completely different sheriff candidates, who would they be more beholden to – the residents of the county or the members of the Board of Supervisors? My money is on the supervisors.
We would have to be out of our minds to approve this initiative and give our rights away. Talk about being undemocratic. Where are all those Dems now talking about the “danger to our democracy”? They are not around because they are the danger.
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This article was published in Flash Report and is reproduced with permission from the author.
