Newsbusters has a post this morning comparing the national media's treatment of the Wisconsin recall election, which wraps up on Tuesday, with the 2003 campaign to recall Governor Gray Davis of California. As might be expected, the major media, who served as Davis' palace guards, trying mightily to hold off the barbarians at the gate, are much more sympathetic to the gaggle of union thugs seeking to protect their perks by removing Scott Walker from the state house in Madison. Of course leftists would no doubt point to conservative media figures whose inconsistency runs in the opposite direction. One exception is the always-refreshing Jonah Goldberg who was opposed to the California recall despite being a conservative at odds with the left-wing Davis.
Jonah's reasoning was that recalls devalue the significance of scheduled elections. He figures voters should take their responsibilities seriously and not be afforded a "do-over" if they realize they made a mistake. In Goldberg's inimitable phrasing, "[T]he people of California elected Gray Davis and now they must be punished." Of course I don't view retaining Scott Walker in office as a punishment for the people of Wisconsin. I don't even really think of it as punishment for the public sector employees who are screaming the loudest about Walker's reforms. But Jonah's larger point is still valid.
As I argued in this space two weeks ago, American citizens have come to see their franchise as a property right to be used for personal advantage, not as a public trust to be exercised with due regard for the rights of fellow citizens and the rule of law. What we need is to revive a spirit of public spiritedness and respect for constitutional government. When voters take their responsibilities seriously the recall election will become a vestigial relic much like Congress' power to grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal.
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