Is voting for a boot to your own face exclusively a Kansas problem?

What is going on in California?

Theres a primary election for governor with three leading candidates, the top two of whom will compete in a runoff.

One of the three is a pro-corporate-oligarchy rightwing Republican who will lose the runoff. He wants to stop regulating businesses, slash taxes on gazillionaires, end income taxes on most people to reduce their interest in government, and cover California in sprawling roads and suburbs. He says sohere. If you want more chemical spills and wild fires, billionaires and unhoused, and crumbling schools with lots of test-taking, this would seem to be your guy. But hes going to lose the runoff, and if youre reading this hes probably not your guy. (Its the ability to read that gives it away.) This guys name is Hilton.

Second, is an empty-suit corporate hack whosewebsiteincludes literally no platform at all. He will not say what he would do if elected. Asked in an interview what he would change about California, hewouldnt namea single thing. Told that California has the most homeless people, most poverty, most unafforability problems, and highest gas prices, he still couldnt think of anything to change and chose instead to brag about the size of Californias economy. But here is who is paying for his campaign (and separate schemes to promote his campaign) anyway: millions from the healthcare denial industry, millions from the fossil fuel profiteers, millions from Uber, Airbnb, McDonalds, Chevron, Meta, Pacific Gas and Electric, Davita, Southern California Edison, and on and on. This guys name is Becerra. Hes a walking corruption billboard.

The governorship will go to that human disaster, and the Democratic Party brand nationally receive perhaps its final flush down the drain, or to the third candidate.

Third is a candidate wholays out a planto fix many of Californias problems and set a model for the rest of the United States. Hes not being publicly bribed by every dirty industry in sight because hes a billionaire himself. Yes, that says something truly disgusting about U.S. politics. But voting for the candidate of the billionaires above in order to oppose this billionaire would be madness. He, Tom Steyer,is proposingto do these things:

Can you imagine?

Would this not be wonderful?

What are you waiting for?

Here is a handy comparison:

I repeat:

Please consider, my dear beloved Californians,

DO YOU FIND THIS CHOICE IN SOME WAY DIFFICULT?

David Swanson