the CA state legislature has gone completely off the rails in full blown partisan provocation mode, with three separate attempts to push the dial to 11/10:
- Passing a resolution urging (federal) congress to 'immmediately censure President Trump' 'for his racist and bigoted behavior' over Charlottesville
- Passing a bill to Brown that would move the CA primaries (ALL primaries in the state, not just presidential) up to be one of the first in the nation, which would break both DNC & GOP party rules, stripping CA of all its delegates
- Passing a bill to Brown that would require presidential candidates to release their tax returns to be listed on the state ballots, thereby removing Donald Trump from the 2020 ballots
The last one is by far the most damning, dangerous and unprecedented. There could be nothing more fundamentally undemocratic than trying to remove an opposing candidate from the ballots, and california is on its way to sparking a constitutional crisis and the total breakdown of democracy. First, its worth pointing out the blaring hypocrisy that on the same week they passed a measure moving
all state and federal primaries up, they crafted the tax return bill to
only affect the presidential election, not their own state elections, so it doesn't apply to the same lawmakers voting on it- a republican senator forced them to vote down an amendment that would make it do just that. And Brown himself didn't release his tax returns in his last 2 elections either, probably none of the lawmakers for that matter. But opening this can of worms goes well beyond just hypocrisy, its the pandora's box of a crisis if this actually gets signed into law, because then it forces both a showdown in the courts as well as provoke retaliation from the republicans. And the republican trifectas, particularly those in swing states, would have a joyous time crafting their own extortionate criteria based on the eventual democratic candidate, or just pass measures to categorically exclude them. If in 2020 Trump isn't on the CA ballot and no democrats are on the Wisconsin, Florida, New Hampshire or Virginia ballots, that would delegitimize the entire election and send us hurtling into societal collapse, wailing and gnashing of teeth, dogs and cats living together, etc.