Voters in conservative states like Alabama and Tennessee had already ended involuntary servitude in their prisons in recent elections. So it came as something of a surprise on Wednesday that California voters were rejecting a similar proposal.
Proposition 6 was failing by nearly 10 percentage points after election night counting, despite facing little vocal opposition. The measure would amend the state constitution to prevent inmates from being forced into labor as punishment, and it was one idea from a state task force that had examined whether California should provide reparations to African American residents.
Some state lawmakers saw the measure’s poor performance as an indication of a rightward shift in California on criminal justice. In Tuesday’s election, voters in Los Angeles and Alameda counties were on their way to ousting their progressive district attorneys, while Californians statewide overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative that stiffened penalties on retail theft and drug possession.
TLDR: Proposition 6 in California, dedicated to banning involuntary servitude in California's jails, was on the ballot without an opposition argument or organized campaign against it. Seriously-- as someone who read the ballot measure, there was no organized argument against it listed (as given by California's free book they send out with every ballot). It seems on track to not pass. "San Francisco" liberalism seems to have reached it's end for the time being-- and in it's place, another era of tough-on-crime policies.
Might make another thread about the general 'rightward' shift in California, but it's pretty clear that the supposed "bastion" of progressivism is basically on it's way out. Disappointing, but almost certainly inevitable. Trump has been using the term San Francisco liberal for decades to describe this states politics, and it seems basically on point. NS: how do we feel about this?
