(Natural News) Without question, California’s economic prospects defy belief. Alone, the state’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) of an estimated $3.2 trillion makes it the largest in the United States and the fifth-largest in the world.

But by the same token, the Golden State’s massive economy masks systemic societal failures on nearly every level, and its Left-wing governor — Gavin Newsom — has done next to nothing to correct them.

For instance, California is home to the country’s largest homeless population, thanks entirely to the ‘progressive’ policy of decriminalizing activities like living on sidewalks and relieving oneself in the streets.

In addition, California actually has the nation’s highest poverty rate per capita. That’s right; the land of Hollywood millionaires and tech billionaires has a massive poor underclass that the state’s ‘woke’ and ‘compassionate’ liberals couldn’t care less about.

Add to that frustration over endless, repetitive coronavirus shutdowns, impossible-to-find affordable housing, rising rents, and bludgeoning taxes — and it’s easy to see why, underneath the veneer of GDP, there is much that is wrong about Democrat-run California and the governor in charge.

And that’s just scratching the surface.

As such, a growing “Recall Gavin Newsom” effort is now underway while there is still time to salvage the state.

“Unaffordable housing. Record homelessness. Rising crime. Failing schools. Independent contractors thrown out of work. Exploding pension debt. And now, a locked down population while the prisons are emptied. Hold Gavin Newsom accountable. Gavin Newsom must go,” says the RecallNewsome2020 website.

Organizers of the site posted last week that the recall petition drive was building, noting that the movement has “submitted more than twice as many petitions as the previous effort at this point.”

“Our Recall Gavin campaign is building a grassroots organization with over 80,000 California voters already signed up as volunteers to sign and circulate recall petitions. That number is growing every week. And this is just the beginning,” the site notes.

The movement ticks off several issues that are either chronic to the state and made worse by Newsom or new phenomena that have made life even worse for millions of Californians, most notably thanks to COVID-19. (Related: Bought-off California lawmakers approve SB 277 mandatory vaccination law.)

“Are you tired of being locked up, unable to make a living, at the same time as California’s prisons are being emptied? Do you wonder why Gavin Newsom’s cronies are building ‘supportive housing’ for the homeless at a cost of over a half-million dollars per unit, instead of just getting them help in less expensive facilities?” the site says. 

The organization also asks: “Did you struggle to run a business, even before this lockdown, because of overregulation and the highest taxes in America? Did you lose your job when Gavin Newsom signed AB 5, which made it illegal for many companies to employ independent contractors?”

The law, specifically, devastated freelance journalism in the state because it limits writers in the “gig economy” to just 35 articles per year — which is insane.

The site also notes that rules and laws in California, many issued or signed by Newsom, also curb First Amendment rights to speech and religion, as well as Second Amendment rights “to keep and bear arms.”

“Do you wonder how California’s cities, counties, and state agencies will ever pay off their pension debt, or balance their budgets, or stop raising taxes, when Gavin Newsom can’t even cut spending to provide benefits to illegal immigrants, benefits that aren’t even offered to working citizens of California? Then join the Recall Gavin 2020 movement,” the site intones.

To be sure, not every part of the state is deep blue. There are enclaves of ‘red,’ and it is those regions that suffer the biggest constitutional abuses.

But the blue cities are not immune from Newsom’s negative influences, nor from the Democrat supermajority legislature, as evidenced by rising crime, homelessness, taxes and lack of affordable housing.

Sources include:

RecallGavin2020.com

NaturalNews.com