Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff, is famous for advising Democrats to never “let a crisis go to waste.” That is, the Democratic Party’s play book posits that, in desperate times, they should put forth measures that take advantage of emergency situations. Lest you think this was a one-off comment, allow me to take you back to 2003, when Hannah Beth Jackson and a few of her scurrilous colleagues in the Legislature inadvertently broadcast a private meeting over a live microphone throughout the Capitol building.
The discussion had to do with a budget impasse in the middle of a crisis. The object of the discussion? As the Los Angeles Times reported on July 22, 2003, “Democrats Discussed Extending Budget Crisis.” The story began, “11 Assembly Democrats debated prolonging California’s budget crisis to further their political goals.” Read that again slowly. The Dems wanted to “prolong a crisis to further their political goals.” Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, for her part, wanted to “dramatize the consequences of the crisis”.
Fast forward to 2020. Nothing much has changed, except nowadays, Democrat politicians are so brazen, and their core supporters are so obliging, that they no longer need to hide their contemptuous exploitation of crises. Examples abound.
Elon Musk made the news last week when he threatened to move his Tesla plant out of California because Alameda County wouldn’t let the plant operate due to the COVID-19 shutdown. The Tesla plant was the only auto manufacturing plant in the country that was shut down and the last auto plant in the state. It employs some 10,000 workers making $90,000 a year. The cars are the darlings of the left because they are all electric. Nevertheless, in response to Musk’s threat to leave, Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez cursed Elon Musk in a tweet. So much for her party’s love of the green economy and jobs that pay living wages!
Speaking of Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez, she was the sponsor of a bill, AB5, that eliminated upwards of one million independent contractor jobs in the state of California. Nationwide, an estimated 40% of workers are engaged in the gig economy, representing $1 trillion in economic activity. Nevertheless, the dunce Gonzalez quipped, “These jobs were never that good anyway”.
AB5 has been labeled the worst piece of legislation in this state in the last 20 years. The bill has exacerbated the COVID-19 crisis in manifold ways, including its impact on doctors and nurses who work as contractors, in addition to truck drivers, two occupations that proved vital during this virus shutdown. That is, the loss of these jobs in the “gig” economy couldn’t have come at a worst time. Making matters even worse, the Dems in Congress want to adopt AB 5 for the nation!
Meanwhile, in Sacramento, during a hearing having to do with legislation that proposed to repeal AB5, Hannah Beth Jackson had the temerity to say that the people who supported the repeal were simply mad because “we took away your lollipops”! Actually, no, mommy. What the CA legislature took away was the ability to pay for food, rent, car payments and health insurance!
In the larger scheme of things, as Gavin Newsom admitted, this virus is giving his party the opportunity to further its political agenda. Thus far, that agenda includes such things as statewide rent control, eviction prohibitions, universal basic income, decarceration, in addition to setting the stage to raise taxes by way of eliminating Prop 13 benefits for commercial properties. Moreover, he is hoping, with the help of his Aunt Nancy Pelosi, to leverage the financial impacts of the overwrought shutdown he himself has imposed upon us, into a federal bailout of historical proportions. Heaven help us.
