Anatomy of a Doomed to Fail Recall — Blind Passion, or Blind Egotism?

Posted by Bob Lord

This is related to a recent post by AzBlueMeanie, regarding Leonard Clark’s recall effort. AzBlueMeanie and I have an entirely different take on the wisdom of an effort to recall Brewer, but I’m guessing the exact same take on an effort to recall Brewer that is led by Leonard Clark.

I’d love to see a REAL effort to recall Brewer, for several reasons. First, I think we’ve reached a point where disruptive politics are valuable for the disruption alone. Each time a Scott Walker, or a Jan Brewer, is recalled, an energy is created that will make the next recall, the next referendum, or the next Occupy uprising that much stronger. Second, Brewer is a true piece of shit. She inflicted untold misery on hundreds of thousands of immigrants simply because SB1070 eased her path to re-election. She allowed transplant patients in need of public assistance to die. Now, she wants the power to summarily fire state workers. Third, if approached thoughtfully, a recall effort could be used to stimulate voter registration and participation by progressive voters, especially Latinos.

That said, I get the logic of those, like AzBlueMeanie, who’d rather not go down this path. I just think that in the end the potential benefits outweigh the easily identifiable financial and opportunity costs of attempting a recall.

But I don’t get Leonard Clark. Succeeding in a recall is a massive challenge. There are all sorts of considerations. When should the launch take place? Do we want Brewer on the November ballot or by herself in a special election? What will generate the volunteers? Will paid signatures have to be part of the mix? How much money will be needed? Where will the donations come from? How can this effort have the most positive effect on the 2012 election results?

It’s entirely clear Mr. Clark didn’t stop to consider these items. And here’s something else he didn’t consider, in question form: “If I launch this effort and don’t succeed, what impact will it have on better organized groups who may be planning to launch a recall effort at a future date?” That’s what really annoys me here. Obviously, Clark’s doomed to fail effort makes it nearly impossible for a real effort to recall Brewer to have a chance a few months down the line.

So what goes on in the head of a Leonard Clark when he goes down a path like this? It has to be either blind passion or blind egotism. Mr. Clark perhaps is so passionate about his cause — removing Brewer from office — that he just can’t delay long enough to think all aspects of the effort through. Alternatively, Mr. Clark is so driven by the desire to promote himself and draw attention to himself that the end result is of less importance to him. The question that would uncover what’s going on would be “The recall has no chance of succeeding if you’re leading the effort, but likely will succeed if you let X takeover. What‘s your preference?” Of course, he’d have to be on truth serum when the question was asked.

Truth is, I couldn’t even hazard a guess what motivates a Leonard Clark. But it drives me nuts that there’s a real possibility here that his idiocy is going to undermine an otherwise viable future effort to remove a truly despicable politician from office. And that’s a shame.