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Ending Minority Rule in California: One Sentence Can Do It
California is in deep trouble because it has a dysfunctional system of government. Much of the problem can be change by one sentence.
I have sent to the Attorney General a ballot proposition for the 2010 ballot called The California Democracy Act, whose content is the following:
All legislative action on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote.
It would change two words in the Constitution, turning "two-thirds" to "majority" in two places. It is simple, understandable, and it is about democracy.
I will be speaking on this in Los Angeles tomorrow (Thursday) night. (See below.)
As I see it, democracy is the main issue in the governance of our state. The two-thirds rules have an anti-democratic effect. Our legislature is currently under minority rule. One-third plus one - only 34% -of either the Assembly or Senate can block the will of the majority until their demands are met. This is undemocratic.
Minority rule is why we have gridlock in the legislature. Minority rule has brought our state to near bankruptcy, causing crises throughout the state.
A majority of California voters have elected a majority of the state legislators, and that majority is responsible and, so far as I can tell, overwhelmingly dedicated to sane fiscal management and to serving the needs of our citizens. But they are handcuffed by minority rule.
Democracy can work in California. What the majority of voters want, a majority in the legislature will enact. And it only take a majority of voters to enact that one-sentence amendment.
Changing the vote requirement to a majority for budget and revenue will ensure that California's budget can meet the state's needs and be passed on time. One sentence can end economic uncertainty and provide for an improved credit rating, for payment of our bills with money instead of IOUs, and will bring stability to our schools, nursing homes and universities. One sentence can make California a well-run state again.
How does minority rule happen? By trickery. Don't be fooled. The way a minority of one-third plus one comes to run the show is by imposing a 2/3 rule. It may sound more democratic, but it is less democratic. It allows a minority to rule by gridlock, by thwarting the will of the majority in the legislature, and hence, a majority of the voters in the state.
No other state is run by such a minority. In no other state can a ruthless minority cause the chaos, disruption, pain, and near-bankruptcy that our state has suffered. A majority of the voters, can end the tyranny of the minority.
Democracy means majority rule. One sentence will do the job.
Of course, there will be a blowback. Conservatives will say, as they always do, that this is just a ruse to raise taxes.
But this is about democracy, not about how or whether revenues are raised. What the majority of citizens want, a majority of elected representatives will enact. The question is simple: do you want democracy?
Here's what government is about in a democracy. Government has two sacred moral missions: to protect and empower its citizens.
Protection starts with police and public safety and extends to protection for consumers, for our food, for workers, for the elderly, for those sick and helpless, for the environment, and for investors.
Empowerment is what allows us to earn a living and live decent lives: public roads and buildings; a working power grid; water; a basic educational system; a system of public health and nursing homes; a system of higher education with advanced research in medicine, computing, and agriculture; banks and insurance companies you can trust, and court system that works.
No one earns a living in California without protection and empowerment by the government. No one makes it without all of these things. Without them, the California Dream becomes a nightmare. Without revenue and a sensible budget, there can be no protection and no empowerment, and the world's seventh largest and richest economy starts to look like a third-world country.
Minority rule is closing California. State parks: closed. Schools: closed. Fire departments: closed. Nursing homes: closed. Medical clinics: closed. Libraries: closed.
We do not have to stand for it.
The majority of voters choose the majority of legislators. That's simple democracy. When the majority of legislators rule, the majority of voters rule.
Can this work? It can, with strong support. What is needed is a serious campaign making the case for democracy, and allowing the voters to see that minority rule is the root of the problem.
Since the minority is a strongly conservative Republican minority, progressive Democrats running for the legislature in 2010 can run on a pro-democracy platform, placing the blame for gridlock where it belongs, on their opponents.
The main question is whether we can run such a campaign successfully. That is simply a matter of organization, commitment, support, and funding. None of those is trivial. But we know how to do them.
If you want to join the movement, go
to: www.camajorityrule.com or www.facebook.com/group.php?
We have begun raising funds for a poll.
To contribute, go to: http://www.actblue.com/page/
Announcement
I will be speaking Thursday night at 7 pm to a coalition meeting of a wide variety of organizations dedicated to ending the 2/3 rules.
Where: SEIU 721
500 S. Virgil Los Angeles, CA 90020
Auditorium (Located on the first floor)
R.S.V.P.: susieanneshannon@ yahoo.com
or call (323) 939-5475
19 Comments so far
Show AllIt's fine to change the rule now, but remember today's minority might be tomorrow's simple majority. My personal take on this it's better to be able to stop legislation than be able to push it thru.
so you're just a good ol' naysayer, how wonderful for you.
Great article. I've watched this state strangled by Arnold and Republicans. SoCal-GOP country is a wasteland now, from the grapevine to TJ it's concrete, ugly. CentralCal is farmland-agribusiness, more rednecks. Only in Northern California do enclaves of human beings still worship God, Love or the Earth.
Arnold and minority rule have helped destroy California. And it has been the Rethugs; if it is good for most people, they block it.
But I went to a meeting of Dem party functionaries to speak about the Afghan war? These insipid obese fools did not know anything about foreign policy, they cared about the minutes of their meeting though!
Your characterization of the people geography of California is really off. So. Cal. is nowhere near the GOP pit you describe (Orange County & San Diego is), as Los Angeles county is one of the more progressive places in the state (it includes the "People's Republic of Santa Monica," for example).
From the tone of your missive, you must be related to or friendly with Nor. Cal. types (whose disdain for the rest of the state, especially the Southern part of it, is legendary and tiresome).
50%+1 passes legislation with a 1-year auto-expiry unless cancelled earlier OR renewed during the last 30 days before expiration (no early renewals)
60%+1 passes legislation with a similar 2-year leash
70%+1 passes legislation with a similar 5-year leash
80%+1 passes legislation with an 8-year leash
90%+1 legislation is good for 10 years, same conditions.
The one thing they could agree on is raising the sales tax so that it is now above 9% in most counties.
The Republicans like the sales tax because it doesn't effect their wealthy backers and the Democrats have never met a tax they didn't like regardless of how regressive it is.
Hey yohocoma, there's nothing hypothetical about bad government. Most government is bad in the US because it serves as an arm of corporate America.
I lived in New Hampshire for a while, the home of small government. The average worker there was better off than in CA. No income tax, no sales tax, no mandatory auto insurance and no seatbelt law.
California has one of the most opressive governments in the US. Taxes, fees and fines await the unsuspecting at every turn.
CA is in a lot of trouble, but allowing the government to more easily raise taxes is not the solution. The extra money will just go to higher pay for the police and prison guards in California's enormous prison-industrial complex.
Writing as someone whom has lived the majority of his life in California, I have witnessed the super-majority rule aid in the state's descent into the acme of dysfunction. While George Lakoff's proposal invites the potential for mischief that comes with the 50%+1 system, the current one is even worse.
It certainly does not take a super-majority to raise spending, and it is the mismatch that has helped create the budget problem. Big government Repubs lead the way on massive spending on the "war on drugs" which has caused so many murders, assaults, and property crimes.
It is unclear if the police create more crime than they deter. Some police presence is necessary, but it is they, at the command of those in Sacramento, that elevated the gang problem to what it is today.
Governing from a position of "we can cut off debate and keep this thing going" as the current Republican approach seems to be is like the old joke about which part of the body is most important; all of the different body parts argue about how important it is, like the brain making decisions and the heart pumping blood, but just like in Sacramento, it is the sphincter that can put a choke hold on the outward flow that can clog up the whole system. I feel that this modest proposal would make a world of difference to how our state seems to be frozen each year when the budget comes up for a vote. As for Democrats not ever seeing a tax that they didn't like, I think that is an outdated view now. Given the current economic situation in the world, Democrats in the state Assembly and Senate would be very wise to go very slow in considering any and every proposed new tax or increase; just because you can do a thing does not mean that you should. But having the ability to pass a budget with out having the sphincter, I mean the Republicans, holding back the ability to hold a vote would go a long way in allowing our state government to actually be run, not just debated.
This proposition will work if it can be made fraud proof:
Cap the amount of or prohibit spending money on ads.
Make it illegal to hire signature gatherers for petitions.
Give long prison terms for electoral/referendum fraud.
I'll go you one better, George. California needs proportional representation in the state legislature. Gerrymandered single-party districts make reelection almost a sure thing, destroying accountability. Proportional representation would make every vote matter and make government more representative and responsive.
Why try to fix the problem by tinkering, when we have a proven better solution in the toolbox?
Great idea.
How about an election reform proposition too?
Equal media time for all candidates, no corporate funds for campaigns, no purchase of media time for candidates.
California was heralded as the seventh largest economy in the world ten years ago: I was living in New York at the time, thinking..."either there is some real funny accounting going on, or the people there are getting shafted."
Ten years later, I am not patting myself on the back. I would be, if I weren't now living in California, and one of those shafted people.(sigh)
I have posted before of the highly distressing aspects of this state I have observed since my relocation, a move I knew I would come to regret more than any other past poor decisions I have made. I am a mother, and know my son's future is nowhere to be found here...
I believe Lakoff's proposal is a good start: alas, it is a late one. What is happening to California is a microcosm of what is happening to the nation; the causes are the same, thus the effects.
I agree with a previous poster: California has the most oppressive government in the country. I will add to that the astonishing consent of the people, if only by willful ignorance and a New Age spirituality/philosophy (so prevalent here!!) that enables them to turn off any negativity or show of anger toward what are clear and cut wrongs. Indignities and injustices of all kinds are not just ignored, they are acknowledged and dismissed with a decree to focus on the positive aspects, like the weather and the women...
That is all I hear from Californians and it is simply terrifying, watching this state dissipate politically, economically, and culturally with nothing done more about it than a shrug and a posturing of inner peace...
By GDP, California still has the 9th biggest economy in the world.
Grappa
Has the writer of the proposed change in the Calif. constitution considered a novel ideal of secession from the Union. If the changes you are purporting were to go through, wouldn't it be a hoot, to propose becoming an independent nation, that is seceding from the union. Think, Would not Texas insist on doing the same thing, after all they have voice such desires. just thing Texas wouldn't want to be out done and they would secede . At that very time we could get Calif back in the union and {poof] Texico would no longer be a state, think what that really means. first They would have hostel Mexicans to their South And damn Yankees to their north. I think that would ultimently send them over the edge. Just picture that for a second. kind of warms your heart.
Funny, I've read all these postings and heard no mention of "Arnold". Is he not even a participant in this nonsense?
3rd post