Hooray! The outrageous propositions 1 A-E have been crushed by voters who just can't take any more.
California voters have rejected the nonfunctional minority-rule government that has bankrupted the state, along with the governor who led the state into bankruptcy.
The voters want a functional democracy, and that means majority rule. No more blackmail by a 1/3 plus 1 Republican minority.
In short, the voters have given the Democrats a new freedom -- if they will only take it.
The Democratic leadership should listen to its grassroots. They should immediately stop negotiating with the governor and other Republicans on how to destroy even more of what makes our state human. The Democrats, as a whole body, not just the leadership, should assert their majority, decide for themselves how they want to deal with the shortfall, and then invite the defeated Republicans publicly to join them and take their proposals to the public, first organizing serious grassroots support.
What is the point of doing this if the Democrats still don't have the 2/3 votes to pass a budget bill? The point is drama! Most Californians are not aware of the minority rule situation. This could dramatize it and place the blame where it belongs. Drama matters. There might still be a later compromise. But the drama would set the stage for a 2010 ballot initiative.
The Democratic leadership should immediately take the initiative on a 2010 ballot measure, a supremely simple one-sentence measure. It would go something like this:
All budgetary and revenue issues shall be decided by a majority vote in both houses of the legislature.
One sentence. Simple. Straightforward. Understandable. And democratic. It should be called the California Democracy Act. From grade school on, we associate democracy with majority rule. It will make sense to voters -- at last!
The term "revenue" would cover taxes without waving a red flag.
Up to now, Democrats have been acting like sheep being herded by the Republican minority. They need to show courage and stand up for what they believe. That's what the voters are waiting for.
On the 2010 ballot initiative:
Get rid of the 55% proposals. People understand that majority rule means democracy. 55% means nothing.
Even if you don't address taxes and just address the budget process, the Republicans will still say you're going to raise taxes. You may as well go for real democracy.
And finally, get a unified message that can be supported by the grassroots. Do grassroots organizing for 2010, starting now. Organize spokespeople to get that message out. Organize bookers to book your spokespeople in the media. You Democrats are a majority. Act like it. The public will respect you for it.
For example, if the Republicans claim that this vote showed a tax rebellion, point out that only Prop 1a was about taxes. The other propositions failed. And the voters rejected a spending cap. What are you waiting for, you Democrats. You have been set free.
If it is claimed that the vote was meaningless because so few people went to the polls, reply that the refusal to vote on these propositions was itself a vote against having such an election and such a lame way of running the state.
The voters have spoken. You Democratic office-holders have chance to come out on the side of the voters. Take it!
George Lakoff is the author of The Political Mind, just out in paperback. He is Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley.
What about having a supermajority to raise taxes but a simple majority just to pass the budget.
Right now the Republicans are using the 2/3 budget vote to get items they did not earn at the ballot box.
The overall budget should be determined by a simple majority, and the tax threshold should be reduced from two-thirds to three-fifth, just like the current filibuster.
This column is intriguing, to be polite, but not very grounded.
We pay our state legislators and provide funds for staff precisely so that they can look at the budget as a whole - revenues and expenditures. They should be looking after the best interests of the state and it's citizenry - if they don't, we can vote them out.
The CA budget process gets worse every year because every year they have to make concessions for the few Republicans that block action. It's the equivalent of playing the float (lost now) whereby one writes checks on the premise that one's next pay check will be deposited before the checks clear. I speak from personal experience! One quickly reaches the point where one has spent one's entire pay check before getting it yet still has bills that are budgeted to be paid from the spent pay check.
The reason we voted the rule in is because WE DON'T TRUST our elected officials to balance the budget with the money they have. It is more then obvious that WE DON'T WANT OUR TAXES RAISED. They are high enough!!!!
Hear this. The SUPER-Majority has said NO! If nothing else, considering the anti 1A group was out spent by a factor of 10. I ask you… Who are the grassroots people.. It’s not the Teachers union who alone spent 4 times the amount the entire No campaign.
I dare you to put simple majority on the 2010 ballot.. IT WILL BE DEFEATED BY 66% OR MORE!
Also, you state this was a defeat of a spending cap. There was no spending cap in that bill. The real spending cap was telling Sacramento they have to balance the budget with what they have. PERIOD!
My vote exactly. That's why I didn't vote. My non-vote was my vote. These ballot initiatives are a waste of time and money. They cause more harm than good. I usually vote NO on every one but that participation in the system keeps it alive. I'm done with it. Its too corrupt and it allows money-backed minority positions to rule over the whole population. Only minorities with money can succeed. Real minorities--people with no money or power still have no voice.
It does not get any better than Grocho, does it?
Thank you, Prof. Lakoff, for speaking my mind.
I hope that President Obama reads your blog and "takes it to the grassroots."
Now is the time for him to make the most of his populatiry, his intelligence and his wit and stick it to those who oppose, for the sake of opposition, his perfectly sound plans to resurrect the economy.
This is a pipe dream.
You're also conveniently forgetting that the public employee unions which advertised against these props used a right-wing frame to do so, claiming that the problem with the state spending limit is that it wouldn't have been strong enough!
There seems to be something really wrong with the Democratic Party, they lose their courage almost as quickly as they're elected. That goes for those who are elected to national as well as state positions. I don't believe that advice is going to fix this. What we badly need are some candidates with balls!
Did you read this Obama? This is not the change I voted for! I voted for single payer health care and an investigation into the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the American people committed by the last administration. We need to free ourselves from the petroleum trap we’re in. I could go on, and on, and on but no one is going to do anything about it anyway.
Could you walk over to Boalt Hall this fall and place a citizen's arrest on John Yoo?
Thanks,
The American People.
PS--I'm all for your proposition. Watch out for the onslaught of Norquistian rhetoric that isn't proportional to the minority status of it's proponents.