King Newsom's long train of abuses and usurpations

*This is a repost of a substack article by Julie Hamill originally published here.

I spent Memorial Day weekend reading through the Declaration of Independence. I know I’ve got the wrong holiday, but I had time to kill during a family car ride and my recent trip to DC inspired me to get back into the founding documents.

Somehow I’d forgotten the Declaration of Independence included a long list of grievances against the oppressive King George III. As I went through the list I couldn’t help but think of California Governor Gavin Newsom and his very own band of redcoats—the Democratic Party and their union foot soldiers.

The parallels are unmistakable.

Now, before anyone reports me to the feds for inciting a revolution, that’s not where I’m going with this. I am simply pointing out that the relentless, tyrannical, oppressive regime imposed by Newsom and his allies in this state have made people like me feel justifiably disenfranchised and outraged. We must change the political system in our state or write the whole thing off as a failed (but beautiful) democratic experiment.

The Declaration of Independence says, in part:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

This goes back to my previous post about the point of government. Government is a necessary evil, separate from society, instituted by the people to secure certain unalienable rights FOR THE PEOPLE. Unalienable means impossible to take away or give up. We created institutions of government to secure rights that cannot be taken away.

King George III had no respect for Americans’ rights to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, nor did he like the idea of self-governance. He wanted to control every aspect of life, tax the people, and hold veto power over anything the people wished to do. Sound familiar?

Accordingly, the founders decided they were justified in “throwing off” such government. The King’s “long train of abuses and usurpations” reduced them to “absolute despotism.” King George exercised absolute power, so the founders established a new system of government to restore that power to the people.

In California, the trend under Governor Newsom has been an erosion of local control in all matters from housing to education (See, e.g., SB 9, SB 10, SB 330, AB 1078, AB 1955). Newsom works hand in hand with our supermajority Democrat state legislature to impose the most oppressive and radical policies statewide, centralizing power in Sacramento and removing it from local elected officials throughout our state’s incredibly diverse cities, counties, and school districts.

“For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments…”

The effect is that elected city councils and school boards are completely neutered in their authority. Local electeds have lost nearly all of their power to control decisions impacting the issues most important to Californians. If a local elected body tends to lean in a conservative or even moderate direction, Newsom weaponizes his Attorney General, Department of Education, and Department of Housing and Community Development to crack down and ensure that no policy in conflict with his own radical ideas takes effect. (See, e.g., Huntington Beach, Chino Valley, Temecula)

“He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance…”

Then, to add insult to injury, the Democratic party’s foot soldiers work to recall conservative and independent school board members. Anyone espousing non-leftist views in elected office is at risk for recall by Newsom’s incredibly powerful and well-funded machine.

One of the most egregious recent examples of Newsom’s despotic nature is his use of public funds to challenge a citizen-backed voter initiative called the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, which will make it much more difficult for the government to raise taxes on Californians if it passes. Newsom took it upon himself to file a lawsuit (using our money) to make sure the act doesn’t even make it to the ballot!

“For imposing taxes on us without our consent…”

As a parent and an elected school board member, I find myself constantly fighting against harmful, destructive policies spewing from Sacramento like raw sewage onto a California beach.

“He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people…”

My children and I have not had any meaningful representation in this state for as long as I’ve been a mother. In fact, whenever I have attempted to advocate for my children, or for sane and rational policies in housing or education, not only am I not heard, but I am excoriated, threatened by my own government, and attacked by astroturfed groups aligned with Newsom’s foot soldiers.

I am not alone. Most parents I know feel the same way I do about forced density in single family neighborhoods, gender ideology lessons for elementary school children, secret transitions of children and demonization of their parents, elimination of merit and standards, and the teaching of self-hatred and condemnation of America, among many many other abhorrent things.

However, parents do not feel free to speak up about their opinions because the foot soldiers have been trained to shame and shun them. I’ve watched it play out in school board meetings. Foot soldiers in red shirts yell “shame” while their astroturfed allies make animal sounds at parents who voice concerns about sexually explicit content and the incessant focus on gender ideology. This is followed by calls for cancellation to their employers, friends and family.

If someone speaks up in a city council meeting about their desire to maintain the bucolic, semi-rural setting they spent their life savings to enjoy, they’re labeled a racist.

Meanwhile, California suffers from shockingly incompetent mismanagement of funds, continuing to pour money into failed programs like “fixing homelessness,” funding healthcare for undocumented immigrants while doing nothing to stem the tide flowing across the border, among other radical social projects—while facing a double digit billion dollar deficit that grows by the day. I’m not even going to get into the fraud and waste or the complete lack of attention to critical infrastructure.

I’m not suggesting revolution, but I am suggesting that we vote differently. I’m neither Republican nor Democrat. But, unless and until we can restore some sense of sanity and respect for local control among the incredibly diverse communities that populate this state, I will be voting against the Democratic party in every local and state election. This state cannot sustain any further mismanagement, and the people cannot continue to be disenfranchised by Newsom’s Sacramento-based behemoth.

California has been abandoned by conservatives nationwide as a lost cause. Candidates here don’t receive the same resources and infrastructure that non-left candidates receive in other states. On the other hand, Democrats like Ted Lieu don’t have to campaign to win their heavily Democrat districts, so they give their campaign funds to down-ballot city council and school district races, ensuring that Democrat candidates crowd every level of government and populating a deep bench for endless control.

You can help stop this by ending your support for California Democrats. Stop. Stop voting for them. The causes they advertise in this state are false. For example, there is no risk of losing your right to abortion in California. It’s enshrined in the California Constitution. Yet, Democrats campaign on it because it is a very effective fear mongering strategy.

Their framing of social issues is designed to weaponize your compassion and empathy, to dehumanize the enemies of the Democratic party and ramp up your emotions to get you to the ballot box. Do not fall for their tactics. If we want to restore true self government in California and keep this state alive, we have to turn away from Democratic party control.

“In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people…”