Written by Juan Sebastian Fragozo
Governor Gavin Newsom is planning to reopen the State on June 15, as long as hospitalization rates continue to decrease and the vaccination rollout stays on track. The Governor suddenly wants the State to go back to normal, or in other words, he wants to have people back on his side because of the imminent recall that has befallen his administration.
States around the country have lifted COVID-19 restrictions as more and more people across the nation get vaccinated, but the story here is a Governor doing everything in his power to get back in the good graces of the people. When Texas rolled back its COVID-19 rules and regulations, Gov. Newsom made clear that California would not follow in its footsteps. Now, he appears to have changed his mind.
California had some of the nation’s most strict and draconian pandemic restrictions, even becoming the first state to institute a statewide stay-at-home order. The citizens of this state have had to live with the decisions Newsom made, most of them political and with no basis in science or scientific recommendations, and now those decisions are haunting him in the form of citizens discontent that has galvanized and unified into an effort to recall him.
Even Though California took extraordinary and severe steps to enforce the pandemic restrictions, other States fared far better with few to no restrictions on their citizens’ liberties, like Florida. Governor Gavin Newsom has presided over a State that restricted its people and its businesses to bankruptcy, and many Californians are well aware of it. Now he is trying to pull people back to his corner, but we must remember why this recall was so successful in the first place. Gov. Newsom has demonstrated that he does not possess the leadership qualities needed in a crisis. He has been dismissive, secretive, and downright hypocritical through the pandemic and it is time that California had some competent leadership.
Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters
