Great. I don't want the guy who's buying the job with his own corrupt money either. And I don't want a Republican either. I like Katie Porter but does she have a shot?
Lasting change takes collective action, not one rich guy throwing money around.
People like to toss out the factoid that Elon Musk could end world hunger with a tiny fraction of his hoarded fortune, and that's true, as far as it goes. He could pay to feed everyone on earth. But if the structural, political, and economic factors that made those people hungry in the first place aren't fixed, then weeks or months or years later they'll all be hungry again.
I mean, take California's high speed rail. Newsom and his predecessors have thrown something like thirty billion dollars at building a line from San Francisco to LA or wherever the hell it's supposed to go, and it doesn't really matter where it's supposed to go, because they haven't built shit. But the reason they haven't built shit isn't a lack of money - it's because of landowners not wanting to give up their land for train tracks, it's because of the glacial pace of environmental review and permitting, it's because of sabotage by the richest man in the world who owns a car company and hates public transit on principle, it's because of a hundred other things that a billionaire can't fix by throwing money at it.
I don't like Steyer, but he's not wrong to believe that reforming California's government is the only way to actually fix what's wrong with California. He's just wrong to think he can do it through the Democratic Party.
20 Comments
TheGoldenV@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 81d
Ugh… why does everything suck?
silence7@slrpnk.net · 25 pts · 81d
Becerra has been heading this way for a while. I asked him to sign on to the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge a few months back and he refused.
pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 80d
So the best candidate we got rid right now is Steyer??
Raiderkev@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 80d
Can't trust a billionaire..
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafe · 2 pts · 79d
Can't trust anyone who wants the job.
silence7@slrpnk.net · 0 pts · 79d
Yes. He's promising to be class traitor and support taxing billionaires, while also having a long history of supporting decarbonization.
ViatorOmnium@piefed.social · 8 pts · 81d
500k seems rather low for a oil bribe to the favourite to win the election. Do they know about any impeding scandal?
silence7@slrpnk.net · 9 pts · 81d
It's not a one-off. They operate as a patronage machine where they give politicians money repeatedly over their career.
silence7@slrpnk.net · 5 pts · 81d
Nothing impending, but Becerra's chief of staff just pled guilty to embezzlement.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 81d
Great. I don't want the guy who's buying the job with his own corrupt money either. And I don't want a Republican either. I like Katie Porter but does she have a shot?
silence7@slrpnk.net · 6 pts · 81d
No. Based on polling, the two Democrats with a shot are Steyer and Becerra.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 80d
Is Steyer really a Democrat though? Or just savvy enough to run as one?
pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 80d
Yeah he's running as a democrat and some of his positions are actually pretty progressive
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 80d
If he were truly progressive he could already have done most of what he's proposing out of his own pocket instead of spending it running for Governor.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafe · 2 pts · 79d
I have a standing rule that I won't vote for billionaires, but if we end up with a billionaire Democrat against a MAGA, I'm NOT voting MAGA.
I may not like voting for a billionaire, but I remember FDR was rich, and do it anyway.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 79d
Well yeah
stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 79d
Lasting change takes collective action, not one rich guy throwing money around.
People like to toss out the factoid that Elon Musk could end world hunger with a tiny fraction of his hoarded fortune, and that's true, as far as it goes. He could pay to feed everyone on earth. But if the structural, political, and economic factors that made those people hungry in the first place aren't fixed, then weeks or months or years later they'll all be hungry again.
I mean, take California's high speed rail. Newsom and his predecessors have thrown something like thirty billion dollars at building a line from San Francisco to LA or wherever the hell it's supposed to go, and it doesn't really matter where it's supposed to go, because they haven't built shit. But the reason they haven't built shit isn't a lack of money - it's because of landowners not wanting to give up their land for train tracks, it's because of the glacial pace of environmental review and permitting, it's because of sabotage by the richest man in the world who owns a car company and hates public transit on principle, it's because of a hundred other things that a billionaire can't fix by throwing money at it.
I don't like Steyer, but he's not wrong to believe that reforming California's government is the only way to actually fix what's wrong with California. He's just wrong to think he can do it through the Democratic Party.
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 81d
That's the Biden administration brand moderation I've come to know and loathe
Formfiller@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 81d
GROSS
Maeve@kbin.earth · 2 pts · 81d
🤐