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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: September 8, 2003
Latest Update: September 8, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

The Carnival of the Recall

On Wednesday, September 3, Latoya Lewis, CSUDH, wrote:

Hello Jeanne,

I am in your alternative theory course and my name is Latoya Lewis (the purple fanatic). You lectured a bit on rational choice theory on last Wednesday night, defining it as theory that believes that we all have rational reasons for what we do. I would definately have to disagree with Habermas' view that we are all rational beings. There are many times where I have made a statement or done something that I wish I could've thought through before I took action.

Haven't we all? But remember that I'm referring specifically to what Jonathan Lear says is behavior that does not go through any reasoning process at all. We just react. Kind of a knee jerk reaction. And then we later try to rationalize that behavior. It wasn't rational. I also think that much of what we do is as you describe it, done without really thinking it through. jeanne

Speaking of unreasonable communication. In class, you mentioned that our Senator, Diane Fienstein supported the recall,

No, no. She is adamantly OPPOSED to the recall. She's a Democrat, after all. But she is also opposed to voting for any of the candidates after she votes NO on the recall.

however, she was resistant to vote in the next election for governor. How rational is that? The latent message in this is that, yes we should get rid of governor Davis, but it's not that important who takes his place.

No. She definitely doesn't want to get rid of the governor. Sorry I didn't make that clear. But you're right about the next part. She doesn't want to vote for anyone. And that is a problem. If all Democrats who vote NO on the recall fail to vote on the resulting election, that means that there will be fewer votes overall, and it could leave a Republican looking falsely like he/she had a landslide. Notice that Bustamante is ahead of Schwarzenegger in the polls right now. Democrats, by having Bustamante on the ballot give Democrats an opposition candidate to the Republican alternatives. I think that matters. Less frustrating than feeling that only Republicans get to vote.

Of course, the whole carnival is crazy anyway. We're having a $66 million election because one crazy Republican was willing to spend a spare million to force us into it, instead of letting us put the money where it was needed.

What message is she giving to those who have fought for the right to vote?

Basically, her message is that none of us should be voting at this point for Governor. But that's not one of her alternatives. Or ours either. It is precisely your feeling that we have a right to vote that needs to be met by a Democratic candidate on the ballot. Otherwise, you might feel like someone took away your right to vote. Not good.

I just believe that she didn't totally count the cost before making this statement.

I suspect she did count the cost, Latoya. She just sees the alternative danger that when you say go ahead and vote, some Democrats might just vote for someone else for the hell of it, or because they don't like Davis, or whatever? Not rational, remember? There are no right answers here because there are no precedents here.

This goes back to normative expectations. We expect those in power to be logical and rational, but when this doesn't happen and there's a lack of answerability (no recognition of the other) it can leave those in society very frustrated and confused.

Yes, it does go back to normative expectations, especially that our professional politicians will know how to handle the situation. But this is unprecedented. No norms. Lots of quarreling about how to handle it all. And, yes, this leads us to great confusion. Especially when our Senator is saying that we should do one thing, and Bustamante is saying to do another. Sometimes it's more comfortable to have normative expectations.

Please let me know if I grasped the concepts used, if not, please email me to clarify.
From Latoya Lewis

I think you grasped the concepts just fine. I hope this will help others think this through. love and peace, jeanne

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