Great message.
But HOW, HOW, to get through to the many ignorant voters?? We won’t get through to real leftists, but there is a majority of Democrats that are badly informed. I believe most of them would vote at least economically conservative if they UNDERSTOOD ECONOMICS and were given true facts.
Well, it was a strange campaign, but I'm not particularly surprised by the result.
For one thing, it's tough for anyone but a Democrat to win statewide office in California. Arnie was an exception. People really thought that the Terminator might be able to deal with legislators by "knocking their heads together" and forcing them to be reasonable.
But, Arnie soon found out about the power of the public employee unions in California and the influence that they exercise over member of both parties in SacAnd,ramento. Teachers demand higher salaries, smaller class sizes and more money. Prison guards demand more prisoners, more prisons, higher salaries, more overtime, and higher pensions and that's just two of the unions. What Democrat is willing to vote to cut funds for education? What Republican is willing to vote to reduce the number of prisoners or prisons? And, nobody can compromise a penny by offering to reduce spending on some of their own favorites in exchange for the other side cutting spending on some of the other side's favorites. No compromise!
So, the spending continues and a budget (which must at least appear to be balanced) can't be passed unless 2/3 of the legislators agree. It's really been an impossible situation.
The next governor needs to take on all of these public employee unions.
So, Meg faced a difficult situation. Up against a party registration deficit because she is a Republican, she probably needed to risk alienating all of the interest groups related to schools, prisons, and public services by more forcefully, more clearly and more specifically articulating just exactly how she intended to take on each of those public employee unions. But, if she had done that, would she have won?
Could she have won by promising to make real cuts in education? Could she have won by promising to release some prisoners and maybe even close some prisons?
I doubt it. She probably ran the best race she could have run in California.