It’s one thing when politicians and their backers call each
other opportunists and flip-floppers and panderers and hypocrites
and pinkos and fascists and even baby-killers. These are all common
campaign-season insults.
But when the rhetoric becomes bullying, intimidating and
possibly life-threatening during what is ordinarily a political
off-season, when recalls are threatened as a strong-arm tactic to
keep legislators in line, then political speech has descended to
possibly dangerous levels.
It’s one thing when politicians and their backers call each other opportunists and flip-floppers and panderers and hypocrites and pinkos and fascists and even baby-killers. These are all common campaign-season insults.
But when the rhetoric becomes bullying, intimidating and possibly life-threatening during what is ordinarily a political off-season, when recalls are threatened as a strong-arm tactic to keep legislators in line, then political speech has descended to possibly dangerous levels.
This winter would normally be an off-season, with the next primary election not due until June of next year. But you’d never know it from the heat of recent rhetoric, almost all spawned by the long-running deadlock over filling a projected $42 billion two-year budget hole.
“This is war! War!” shouted influential conservative talk show hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou over Los Angeles radio station KFI, which can be heard in most of California, when a few Republican legislators mentioned the possibility of a compromise including some sort of tax increase. “We’re going to get these heads on a stick. Heads on a stick!”
Their Web site featured the same “heads on a stick” exhortation with names and pictures of four Republican lawmakers. Do these words have power beyond mere rhetoric? Maybe. The strong signal of their station gives John and Ken a large audience that at times has swamped local governments with mail and other forms of protest.
Their call for “heads on a stick” tactics against Republicans who deviate from the party line evoked images of the medieval Transylvanian warlord known as Vlad the Impaler, who once lined a Balkan highway with the heads of hundreds of Turkish soldiers displayed on lances. This proud descendant of Attila the Hun and model for the literary Dracula was known for eating some of his opponents and drinking their blood. Not exactly a civilized allusion, and there’s little excuse for it no matter how hard the times and feelings.
Meanwhile, significant special interest groups also have threatened “heads on a stick” tactics, even if they don’t use the term.
As Republican lawmakers quietly tried to force significant labor law changes on Democrats in exchange for possibly okaying a tax increase, union leaders responded with recall threats. State Attorney General Jerry Brown, a staunch labor ally, also said he’ll investigate whether the GOP gambit amounts to illegal vote trading.
“These takeaways have nothing to do with stimulating the economy or solving budget deficits, as the Republicans claim,” said Art Pulaski, chief of the California Labor Federation. “They want to eliminate overtime pay when days extend beyond eight hours, they want to eliminate the requirement for meal breaks. It’s all geared to make things more flexible for employers and more burdensome for workers.”
So he threatened recalls against any legislator who votes for such takeaways, especially Democrats who might depart from the union line. Added Chuck Mack, a Teamster’s Union leader, “Making this kind of thing the price of a budget is nothing short of extortion. We can’t allow these kinds of takeaways to happen, so we are sending a message that there will be consequences if it happens. If we have to marshal our forces and perhaps stage multiple recalls, we’ll do it.”
No powerful interest group had ever before bullied quite so baldly in modern California history. Nor has a political party ever been so blatant in threatening its members as the state GOP soon might become. Its upcoming state convention will consider imposing automatic censure on Republican legislators who vote for any tax increase, no matter what they might win in exchange for their votes.
The California Teachers Assn. was almost as threatening in opposing a plan to give local school districts flexibility in spending state-provided money. The teachers union sees this as a threat to the class size reduction program begun in the 1990s, which has helped improve academic performance at the same time it meant fuller employment for teachers.
“Eliminating the requirement that money be spent for class size reduction is a line that cannot be crossed,” said David Sanchez, president of the 340,000-member CTA. “It would be like chopping off your arm because you have a broken leg.”
Sanchez would not echo the explicit recall threats of Mack and Pulaski. He said only that “We must take the bull by the horns. This governor and Legislature are constantly taking away from schools and we can’t let that go on.”
Taken together, it’s a descent into direct intimidation previously unseen in modern California history. Even if it increases radio ratings or makes some people and interest groups feel better, this kind of rhetoric can only divide Californians – and it also just might encourage direct physical violence.
Elias is author of the current book “The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It,” now available in an updated second edition. His email address is td*****@*ol.com
