Editor’s note: Breaking views are thoughts from individual members of the editorial board on today’s headlines.
On Thursday, the California Assembly did something remarkable: it rejected socialism.
Just kidding, no it didn’t.
But it did reject a socialist holiday.
The Assembly voted down AB3042, introduced by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, which would allow school districts to consolidate President George Washington’s and President Abraham Lincoln’s birthdays into a single “President’s Day” in order to then recognize May 1 as a paid holiday in recognition of “International Workers’ Day.”
What is International Workers’ Day?
Pushed by socialists more than a century, International Workers’ Day has long been a major holiday in communist countries. It was an official holiday in the Soviet Union, and has long been celebrated in countries like Cuba and North Korea.
Unfortunately, Santiago felt he needed to allow school districts to participate in this legacy. His office argued that, “Today, many of California’s students have never learned about the incredible struggles that workers undertook to win basic labor rights and build the middle class.”
So, instead of working to ensure California’s public schools do a better job of educating students, Santiago decided it made sense to let school employees take May 1 off in recognition of a socialist holiday. Brilliant.
Fortunately, some Assemblymembers spoke out against the proposal.
Assemblywoman Melissa, Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, noted that there’s already a day for people to commemorate the struggle for labor rights: It’s called Labor Day.
Assemblyman Matthew Harper, R-Huntington Beach, condemned the bill for proposing California’s school observe a Soviet holiday. “Are we in competition to become the laughingstock of the United States?” Harper asked. “This is ridiculous. This is insane.”
Santiago’s underlying reasons for proposing this absurd bill can be found in his office’s official rationale: “In the current political context, labor unions are under attack in an effort to destroy collective bargaining rights, dismantle the public sector, undercut living wages, and eliminate basic benefits.”
At the end of the day, that’s all this was about: Santiago is merely genuflecting to the public sector unions that have gutted the state of California and affirming that he will stand with them as they push for higher taxes to pay for their unsustainable pensions.
Fortunately, while 29 Assemblymembers chose not to vote, 27 voted against it (including some Democrats like Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes, D-Corona) and only 22 voted in support.
The set of Assemblymembers who voted for it are worth highlighting as people who shouldn’t be trusted with the power of government: Aguiar-Curry, Burke, Carrillo, Chiu, Chu, Gonzalez Fletcher, Gray, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, O’Donnell, Quirk, Rodriguez, Rubio, Santiago, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Rendon.
Sal Rodriguez is an editorial writer and columnist for the Southern California News Group. He may be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com
