The elephant in the room
| By Robert Cruickshank, Courage Campaign - Jan 7, 2009 10:38:38 AM PT |
| Also listed in: Courage Campaign Staff |
Earlier today Brian at Calitics wrote about Bill Bagley's take on the problems with California government - which were of the typical "oh gee why isn't there more bipartisanship?" sort. Bagley offered some specific points, but his commentary is part of a familiar refrain in this state that assumes the Legislature, the parties, and ideologues are all to blame, regardless of party.
This is simply not true, and those promoting that line of argument are doing the public a disservice by misinforming Californians about what is really going on.
Democratic legislators cannot be credibly described as unflinching ideologues who refuse to cut a deal. This statement was sent by Speaker Karen Bass yesterday before Arnold announced his budget veto. See if you can find the inflexible hard-left ideology that makes compromise impossible:
In contrast to these compromise moves - many of which were bitter pills for Democrats to swallow - Republicans spent the day joining the Howard Jarvis Association in suing to block the Dems' budget deal.
Bagley and those who embrace his "can't we all just get along" arguments are letting Republicans off the hook for their obstructionist tactics. New Democratic assemblymembers such as Nancy Skinner and Bill Monning have tried to reach out to their Republican colleagues, wanting to build the rapport Bagley says is missing. They were rejected in those outreach efforts.
Why? Because today's Republican Party is fundamentally different from that Bagley remembers, and not just because of structural reasons. Term limits plays a role in enabling Republicans to become more conservative, but that ideological shift away from the kind of Republicans who would cut a deal for the good of the state, like Pete Wilson, and toward ideologues like Mike Villines mirrors a national trend.
Since the early 1990s the Republican Party around the country has become dominated by the far right, especially financially. You can't win a Republican primary unless you swear fealty to Grover Norquist and his anti-tax agenda. If a Republican votes for a tax increase they'll get challenged in their next primary. You can't wine, dine, or jawbone away that reality.
When Bill Bagley and other Californians argue that the problem is a lack of bipartisanship, they wind up hiding this reality from the public. The budget crisis would have been resolved long ago if Republicans were willing to negotiate in good faith. Every time we ignore that fact, we let them get away with it, since the public gets outraged at "the legislature" or "the bums in Sacramento" rather than at the people actually responsible - the Yacht Party.
Unfortunately the "let's ignore Republican obstruction" movement continues apace. It led to Prop 11's passage, an unnecessary "reform" that will do nothing to change that internal dynamic within the Republican Party.
The new holy grail is open primaries. The US Supreme Court threw out California's earlier open primary, so the only way to achieve this is through a "top two" system. Which as Washington State discovered this year, merely produces two candidates from the same party for most legislative seats. That will do nothing to change the hard-right ideology within the Yacht Party.
Bill Bagley, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, and other reform groups that mislead the public into thinking everyone's at fault are merely letting the Republicans get away with the destruction of the state. If they really wanted better government, they would speak the truth - that California voters need to ask why a party that claims to follow Ronald Reagan won't embrace a tax increase as the Gipper himself did in 1967.
Until we confront the Elephant in the room, California will continue to head toward a cliff.
This is simply not true, and those promoting that line of argument are doing the public a disservice by misinforming Californians about what is really going on.
Democratic legislators cannot be credibly described as unflinching ideologues who refuse to cut a deal. This statement was sent by Speaker Karen Bass yesterday before Arnold announced his budget veto. See if you can find the inflexible hard-left ideology that makes compromise impossible:
Additional changes will include:
*Even greater authority to enter into so-called "public-private-partnerships" and "design-build" arrangements for state construction projects;
*More modifications to environmental laws to speed up road construction;
*A tax incentive to keep film production in California;
*A moratorium on home foreclosures;
*Some additional budget cuts and modifications to the revenue package so that the package contains more in expenditure reductions than new revenues.
In contrast to these compromise moves - many of which were bitter pills for Democrats to swallow - Republicans spent the day joining the Howard Jarvis Association in suing to block the Dems' budget deal.
Bagley and those who embrace his "can't we all just get along" arguments are letting Republicans off the hook for their obstructionist tactics. New Democratic assemblymembers such as Nancy Skinner and Bill Monning have tried to reach out to their Republican colleagues, wanting to build the rapport Bagley says is missing. They were rejected in those outreach efforts.
Why? Because today's Republican Party is fundamentally different from that Bagley remembers, and not just because of structural reasons. Term limits plays a role in enabling Republicans to become more conservative, but that ideological shift away from the kind of Republicans who would cut a deal for the good of the state, like Pete Wilson, and toward ideologues like Mike Villines mirrors a national trend.
Since the early 1990s the Republican Party around the country has become dominated by the far right, especially financially. You can't win a Republican primary unless you swear fealty to Grover Norquist and his anti-tax agenda. If a Republican votes for a tax increase they'll get challenged in their next primary. You can't wine, dine, or jawbone away that reality.
When Bill Bagley and other Californians argue that the problem is a lack of bipartisanship, they wind up hiding this reality from the public. The budget crisis would have been resolved long ago if Republicans were willing to negotiate in good faith. Every time we ignore that fact, we let them get away with it, since the public gets outraged at "the legislature" or "the bums in Sacramento" rather than at the people actually responsible - the Yacht Party.
Unfortunately the "let's ignore Republican obstruction" movement continues apace. It led to Prop 11's passage, an unnecessary "reform" that will do nothing to change that internal dynamic within the Republican Party.
The new holy grail is open primaries. The US Supreme Court threw out California's earlier open primary, so the only way to achieve this is through a "top two" system. Which as Washington State discovered this year, merely produces two candidates from the same party for most legislative seats. That will do nothing to change the hard-right ideology within the Yacht Party.
Bill Bagley, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, and other reform groups that mislead the public into thinking everyone's at fault are merely letting the Republicans get away with the destruction of the state. If they really wanted better government, they would speak the truth - that California voters need to ask why a party that claims to follow Ronald Reagan won't embrace a tax increase as the Gipper himself did in 1967.
Until we confront the Elephant in the room, California will continue to head toward a cliff.
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