On this episode of “The Federalist Radio Hour,” Rescue California campaign manager Anne Dunsmore joins The Federalist’s Western Correspondent Tristan Justice and Staff Writer Jordan Davidson to discuss a nonpartisan, citizen-driven campaign to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom after a year of his strict COVID-19 lockdowns and blatant political hypocrisy.
“This is a citizen movement, this is not a political movement,” Dunsmore explained, noting that Newsom’s reliance on “political science” instead of “real science” frustrated and provoked people on both sides of the aisle during the pandemic. “We’re pursuing a political process to fix the problem for sure, but this isn’t a Trump versus Biden thing.”
Dunsmore said it was Newsom’s politically motivated actions instead of solution-motivated actions that created an irreconcilable difference between him and more than 1.4 million of his constituents who signed the petition to kick him out of office.
“Even if he came up with some policy solutions, at this point I don’t think anybody would believe it,” Dunsmore explained. “He’s been on such a seesaw.” The only way a politician will successfully navigate a situation like the one created by Newsom, Dunsmore said, is by paying attention and by listening “to the people and not the pundits.”
“Don’t discard the preferences of the people you want to represent,” Dunsmore warned. “Don’t tell them how to think. Understand and listen to what’s happening to them. Their opinions are born of the school of hard knocks. They’re living it. And they’re either going to live a dream or a nightmare, and they look to their representatives to lead them towards the dream and not provoke the nightmare and perpetuate the nightmare, and that’s what you’re seeing.”
Read more of The Federalist’s coverage of and commentary on the Recall Gavin Newsom effort here and here.
