You know what happens when you give control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives to the Republicans? They begin fighting with each other. But it’s not a phenomenon unique to the GOP by any means. The same thing can happen to either party at the state level and that’s what’s currently going on with the Democrats in California. Having no suitable foe to fight from the other party, the furthest left wing of the state party is currently launching an effort to recall Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. His crime? Failing to push through a single payer state operated healthcare system which would have likely bankrupted the Golden State before the decade was up. (Associated Press)

Democrats control every lever of power in California state government, and free from worrying about major losses to Republicans, they’re training fire instead on each other. The latest example is a recall effort against Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, a strong progressive now targeted by party activists upset that he derailed a bill seeking government-funded health care for all. The Rendon recall comes as the California Democratic Party contends with a protracted leadership battle that is as much about donors and messaging as it is about ideals. It follows a contentious battle among environmentalists over the state’s cap-and-trade law to fight climate change, which some thought was too deferential to oil companies.

One thing you can always say for the Democrats is that they’re dedicated to being subtle. That’s exemplified by this charming image showing up at protests around the state.

The California Nurses Association takes credit for the altered state flag showing the bear with a knife in its back, but they claim they’re not involved in the recall. (I assume that means that it’s a “grassroots” effort.) But that doesn’t mean that the natives aren’t restless.

The single payer scheme (SB-562) managed to pass the state senate on a party line vote, but on June 23rd it was shelved in the Assembly by Rendon. Check out the unreasonable list of frivolous complaints he had about it at the time. (LA Times)

“SB 562 was sent to the Assembly woefully incomplete,” Rendon said in a statement. “Even senators who voted for SB 562 noted there are potentially fatal flaws in the bill, including the fact it does not address many serious issues, such as financing, delivery of care, cost controls, or the realities of needed action by the Trump Administration and voters to make SB 562 a genuine piece of legislation.” Rendon took pains to note that his action does not kill the bill entirely — because it is the first year of a two-year session, it could be revived next year.

So Rendon was rude enough to point out that the plan provided no way to pay for the $400B price tag, had an incomplete structure for the actual delivery of healthcare, contained no measures to stop consumer costs from skyrocketing further and ignored the fact that the White House and Congress were unlikely to go along with the federal financial support it would require. What a jerk! Who goes around nitpicking over little things like that when there are liberal headlines to be made?

Perhaps the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in California can pull this off. Who knows? They might manage to recall Rendon and replace him with some sort of Sanders – Warren style firebrand who will push single payer through, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead. And then when California eventually goes bankrupt and asks the rest of the country to bail them out we’ll see a different sort of revolution on the west coast. Either that or grant them their Calexit wishes and build a wall around the entire place.