California has experienced a self-inflicted exodus in recent years, as hundreds of thousands of residents have fled its high costs, high crime, and overall decay -- especially from several major cities. Never before had the Golden State lost population; it's shed more than half-a-million residents under the current governor. Famously, California ran out of U-Hauls at one point because the desire to depart was so strong and widespread. Despite the population bleed, the state is still the nation's most populous, home to more than 39 million residents. Based on the 2020 US Census, approximately seven percent of that population is black, half of whom are women. Somewhere in the ballpark of 1.4 million black women live in California. The state's culture warrior governor, who wants desperately to be president, had previously stated that if presented with an opportunity to appoint someone to fill a Senate vacancy in Washington, he'd select someone of that profile.
On Sunday, he announced he was keeping that pledge. And in fairness to Newsom, he never specified that he'd select a black woman who actually lives in the state:
No seriously, there are 39 million people in California & Newsom picked an abortion activist who lives on the other side of the country to be his state’s US Senator
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 2, 2023
Just incredible stuff:
Ah. California last reported that 10,305,901 Democrats were registered to vote in California, and with Butler's appointment, that number will increase to 10,305,902.https://t.co/YNclcwWnTE
— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) October 2, 2023
FPPC and FEC filings indicate that soon-to-be California Senator Laphonza Butler hasn't been a resident of the state for over two years. pic.twitter.com/IejF3ndnPO
— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) October 2, 2023
Congratulations to California's new Senator. pic.twitter.com/SHzPnzZluA
— Jeff Blehar is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) October 2, 2023
She and her organization have spent the last few days scrubbing her online biographies to better align with the fiction that she's a Californian. Ms. Butler will need to go register to vote in the state where she will now serve as a Senator. It's wild. Newsom's future in national Democratic politics is challenged by his status as a heterosexual, cisgendered white male. That's several strikes against him in an age of identity obsession, particularly among his tribe's activist base, so he's taking a page out of the Biden playbook to mitigate his problem. Joe Biden has made a number of key personnel decisions based on race and identity. People are free to contemplate how that's worked out for him, starting with an assessment of the sitting Vice President. Biden put a wholly unqualified person in charge of Health and Human Services in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, explicitly because of 'diversity' head counts. He picked Karine Jean-Pierre as his chief spokesperson, who has since declared herself an "historic figure," due to her status as an immigrant LGBT woman of color serving in that capacity. He also promised to only consider black women for the US Supreme Court, then followed through with his first selection. The mentality has been, I'm sorry I'm a white guy, but I'll make up for it with a fixation with identity-driven 'representation.' Newsom is adopting the same approach.
I personally find it unsettling and pretty gross for an executive in any setting to preemptively declare that positions of great importance will be filled based upon the factors of genitalia and skin color. Pick the best person for the job, and if that person happens to check one or more 'diversity is our strength' boxes, so be it. Announcing specifically that the search will be limited exclusively to people who tick a certain combination of those boxes is an open admission that a vast universe of high-quality candidates aren't even being given a look, because their melatonin levels and/or chromosomes are wrong. I know some see this as "progress." I see something rather different. This mentality also strikes me as a disservice to the ultimate pick, too, because many people take a negative view of how these selection processes unfold. So-and-so isn't the best qualified. So-and-so is only there because they refused to consider everyone. That might be unfair to the individual, but the game is seen as rigged and tainted from the start.
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And because Newsom is something of a cartoon character, he rushed headlong into exposing how preposterous this method of decision-making can get, picking a black lesbian and left-wing activist for a Senate seat -- evidently because that blend of identity and background was too alluring to allow the nettlesome fact that the person in question isn't even a California resident or voter to get in the way of his triumphant "making of history," or whatever. The approximately 1.4 million black women who actually do live in California weren't good enough, it seems. Indeed, none of the 39 million people in the state were. But there were political chits to consider -- plus I cynically suspect that most California voters are beyond being alienated by high-level Democratic machinations and governing outcomes, at least to the extent that such things make any sort of meaningful difference. This is what they voted for, and no matter how bad or embarrassing it gets, they still prefer it to the alternative:
It’s like literally the ultimate in political payment. Butler is the former President of the SEIU. They were huge players in Newsom’s successful campaign for Governor. https://t.co/LwWd827Ckk
— Jon Fleischman (@FlashReport) October 2, 2023
honestly, the only California Democrats who will actually be pissed are those whose own personal political ambitions feel diminished or disrespected — but many of them can’t even say so because of the identity dynamics
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 2, 2023
This point is key. As usual, big special interest money in politics from certain sources is good, you see:
If a Republican governor handed a Senate seat to the president of the NRA, there would be a media firestorm.
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) October 2, 2023
Not seeing that with Newsom/EMILY’s List. https://t.co/293qWgf2Bj
I'll leave you with another headline out of California. The governor is focused on the symbolism of the immutable characteristics of his freshly-selected Senator, who doesn't even live there. Many of the people who do live there will now be dealing with this new reality. More "progress:"
If you thought Los Angeles county was dangerous before, wait 12 more hours. Zero bail takes effect via ABC7 Los Angeles https://t.co/UyVx9otFO0
— Bill Postmus (@billpostmus) September 30, 2023
