Recall This!!: Rocco Rossi gets Populist, Stupid

The reason that I've said so many savage things about the Tea Party in the United States is that it is a primarily populist movement, and populism has always been cynical, stupid or both. It is predicated on the idea that life is simple and there are no problems that can't be solved by the people, if the politicians and bureaucrats would get out of the way.

And that idea is dangerous nonsense. As we saw during the first five years of the Iraq War, simple solutions are not only wrong much of the time, they can be disastrously wrong. A functioning democracy doesn't need "one of us", it needs someone better than us. As Jon Stewart once pointed out, we were swept away by the macarana, and can't be expected to be experts in much of anything.

Moreover, populism started out as a very liberal concept that should be alien to all but the dumbest conservatives. Yes, most of the original Populists were Republicans, but that was at a time when the GOP was quite a bit more liberal than the Southern Democrats who ruled the U.S through the Senate.

If you want a close look at what populism creates, look at California. It's debt-ridden and prone to constant political instability because Hiram Johnson created a system whereby everyone could vote on everything, regardless of how contradictory and mutually exclusive the things that they voted for actually were. When you vote for tax freezes and increased services, you wind up being California - a fact that's evident to everybody that isn't from California.

Being an adult who believes that you should suffer the consequences of your actions, I opposed the 2003 recall of Governor Gray Davis, although my loathing of the man was boundless. The GOP had nominated a dangerously dumb nobody to run against Davis just a year earlier, and the voters cooperated with Davis in crushing the Republicans like a beer can.

Elections are actions that, just like any other, have consequences. And if you not only elect Davis, but reelect him, you should suffer the consequences of that choice for his full term. All the recall did was allow Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was physically terrified of running a full year-long campaign and declined to do so in 2003, to have a much easier three-month recall race that he almost couldn't lose. It was opportunistic in the extreme.

And the last place candidate in Toronto's mayoral campaign, Rocco Rossi, just announced that he supports recalls here.

Citing the need to restore trust between angry voters and City Hall, Toronto mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi threw a curve into the mayor’s race today by announcing he would allow Toronto voters to recall their mayor and members of city council if they fail to live up to their promises.

“The contract that exists between voters and politicians cannot depend on trust alone,” said Rossi. “It must come with rights as well, including the right of recall.”

(...)

“It’s easier to return a broken blender in this town than it is to recall a rogue politician. And that’s not right,” Rossi told reporters. “Under the current system, voters cast their ballot and hope for the best. It’s a four-year blank cheque. And all too often voters are disappointed. […] Public service becomes a career and not a calling.”

Rossi announced that when he is mayor, citizens will enjoy the “Three Rs”: Respect, Results and Recall. “Every Toronto voter has the right to be treated respectfully by their mayor and councillor. Every Toronto voter has the right to results. They have the right to measure performance against promise, and results against expectations.”

(...)

“Many Toronto politicians have grown used to having a four-year blank cheque to do whatever they please,” said Rossi. “The party’s over. The slogan of my campaign is Take Back City Hall. And Taking Back City Hall starts with the right to Take Back Your Vote.”

That might be the silliest fucking thing I've ever heard, and it's more than enough for me to take back every nice thing I've ever said about Rocco. If he supports this, there's no I would support him or encourage anyone else to. Allowing for recalls will change the political atmosphere in this city from one of anger and frustration to almost total anarchy.

First, a recall provision would mean that we would have never-ending campaigns. As soon as one election is over, the winner would have to keep raising money and building an organization to fend off any potential recall petitions. Moreover, those petitions would be endless. As a matter of fact, Democrats started talking about recalling Schwarzenegger before he was even sworn in after Davis was recalled. Just because the petitions aren't often successful doesn't mean that they don't exist. They do. Ronald Reagan had to beat back no fewer than thirteen of them during his eight years as governor.

Recalls would also exaggerate the importance of the extremes in any political coalition, since the extremes are the most likely place for a recall movement to start, as is the case in California. Let's say that Rob Ford was elected and suddenly realized that his economic platform wouldn't work. If he changed course, as one would hope that he would if he knew that his previous position was wrong, someone to Ford's right would be encouraged to start a recall against him. To avoid that, he would have to constantly play to his right, which is not where the base of his support would be if he won.

Third, there already is a mechanism to remove a corrupt or criminal office holder in most democratic jurisdictions. That would be impeachment or some variant thereof. In Canada, you're almost automatically removed as soon as you're convicted of a crime. If you just don't like your representative - and I don't like very many of them at all - wait until the next election, you big pussy.

Fourth, who would be able to start a recall petition, who would coordinate it, and how would they be funded? In almost any circumstance a recall effort would be an independent expenditure, and that would bump up against campaign finance laws at the municipal, provincial and federal levels.

Fifth, it would upend the way that elections are run. You wouldn't have to work your way up anymore and groom yourself for a long, tough campaign. Instead, you can start a recall movement and position yourself as the saviour. No muss, no fuss. Unfortunately, that would create even more amateurish politicians than we already have.

If nothing else, I applaud Rocco for admitting that he can't do this on his own. The powers of Council are laid out in the City of Toronto Act, which is provincial legislation. Where Mr. Rossi is either lying or hallucinating is in thinking that Queen's Park would allow the recall process to exist anywhere in Ontario, because there would be immediate and legitimate pressure to have the legislature apply it to themselves. And few politicians are as given to surrendering their own power as Rocco Rossi says that he is.

Except that he's really not. This is a pose, because he knows that the Queen's Park would never amend the City of Toronto Act to allow recalls. This is Rocco dressing himself up as a populist and grabbing on to an issue that he most likely suspects that Rob Ford's voters will strongly support.

Rossi is positioning himself to be the number two choice with Ford supporters in the event that Ford collapses. It's pretty clever and awfully cynical. Could it work? I doubt it, but I think that this is just the first move in the reinvention of Rocco Rossi as a populist asshole.