Posted on 07/08/2005 4:21:06 PM PDT by John Jorsett
Think of 1958, so distant in the past that the Los Angeles Times ran front page stories about Alaska finally being voted the forty-ninth state and Russia launching a rocket that nearly reached the moon---“farther than any object man has sent from the Earth.”
Something that didn’t make headlines---because the reality of it wouldn’t become clear for years---was the fact that 1958 was the last time Republicans controlled the Sacramento legislature, aside from an occasional oddball year or two.
It was the year California went Democrat, and never went back.
I mention 1958 because of the hectoring underway by California GOP hardliners, who pundits call the “circular firing squad” because of their corrosive effect on their own party. We’ll remain a one-party state as long as the GOP fails to quell its far-right, which insures the party’s failure in California.
As a fiscally conservative Democrat, I want California to return to a two-party system, and thus engage in a true debate over the big ideas. Yet as Republicans gear up for the 2006 statewide elections, they are once again taking actions that guarantee they get nowhere in their uphill battle to regain California.
Exhibit A: Steve Frank, who emails his California Political Views and News to journalists and party activists, recently declared that Republican state Sen. “Abel Maldonaro (sic) was a Hillary Clinton wannabe,” for running for state controller soon after becoming a senator. Another missive reported that Keith Richman, a moderate San Fernando Valley Republican Assemblyman running for state treasurer, deserved the “Republican In Name Only” (RINO) award given him by the Club for Growth because Richman supported taxes in opposition to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004.
GOP leadership in California is so lily-white it might as well be 1958. Instead of whining about Maldonado’s ambition, the GOP should fast-track this rising Latino star from Santa Maria. Yet they prefer the high-tech approach of crossing their fingers to bring new faces into the ossified party hierarchy.
As to Richman’s RINO award, Schwarzenegger probably works more closely with the thoughtful and rational Richman than all but two or three Republican leaders. But it wouldn’t be a circular firing squad if the Club for Growth actually cared who the governor respects.
Exhibit B: At a recent annual gathering of Republicans in Los Olivos, Gary Mendoza, a former deputy mayor of Los Angeles running for state insurance commissioner, announced that if liberal Silicon Valley Republican Steve Poizner gets the GOP nomination instead of him, Mendoza won’t support Poizner against the Democrat who runs. Mendoza got applause from moderates and conservatives alike by calling Poizner’s supporters the “Gore-Lieberman wing” of the GOP.
Mendoza, a moderate and a decent guy, tells me, “Less than one one-hundredth of Republican primary voters supported the 2000 Gore-Lieberman recount, as did Steve Poizner, who is really a Democrat.” His sharp critique is mild compared to vilification of Poizner from the right. (You can imagine what hardliners say about Abel Maldo-whatever and that socialist Keith Richman.)
Poizner’s crime is his mixed ideology. Yet his issue-by-issue approach is not unusual among Silicon Valley’s unorthodox Republicans. Moreover, the majority of California Republicans and independents who might lean Republican are mixed-issue voters. A long as the far-right is the tail wagging the party’s dog, the GOP will drive these voters away.
Some hardliners are whispering that Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minuteman Project, might be a terrific replacement for U.S. Congressman Christopher Cox of Orange County, who was tapped by President George W. Bush to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.
I’m not going to smear the Minuteman Project, like hysterical Democrats who thought crazed gunmen were on the loose. It’s clear that somebody with a voice, besides just talk radio, needed to call attention to the porous border. However, promoting a lightning rod like Gilchrist is typical GOP hardliner mentality: cluelessly put forth an easily demonized Newt Gingrich type, then act mystified when voters and the California media recoil against the entire party.
We’re left with a virtually permanent Democratic legislature, a study in myopia and dysfunction typified by recent blustering over California's staggeringly high gas-pump prices. Was anybody besides me amused when the legislature held their inept public hearings to “learn the cause” of super-high gas prices in California? News flash: the legislature wrote the environmental laws that severely slashed gas production in California, leading to the worst gas-pump prices in the nation.
If Republicans had controlled the legislature for nearly five decades, things would be no better. Instead of the most crippling gas prices in America, we’d have oil drilling all along the coast. The lesson is, one-party rule does not work.
The California Republican Party should grasp this better than anyone. Yet instead of drafting non-ideologues capable of winning statewide races and rebuilding the party, GOP activists are doing what they do best---taking position, and letting it rip, in the circular firing squad.
Someone should secure 5000 SADM devices along the eastern border of this state and prepare to initiate.
The whole state is beyond repair!
We were concentrating so hard on fighting the moderate Republicans that we never got around to electing any conservatives.
If it weren't for Karl Rove and George W. Bush, Texas would probably still be a one party state. (OK it is still a one party state but now it's the Republican party.)
We simply didn't have a culture of winning. We didn't eat, sleep and breath winning. We were just a sanctimonious bitching society that happened to control the state party because it wasn't worth anyone else trying to control.
It doesn't help that the state has been flooded by illegals and now their children are voting.
And guess what. Illegal immigration continues. The Administration has done nothing to stop it. Guess just how backward this state will be in 20 years.
"GOP leadership in California is so lily-white it might as well be 1958"...
You can never get there if you abandon your beliefs, or soft-pedal them. Soft-pedaling them means not defending them means never persuading anyone.
If Republicans had controlled the legislature for nearly five decades, things would be no better. Instead of the most crippling gas prices in America, we’d have oil drilling all along the coast.
This is just silly. Oil drilling along the coast is not a problem. We are already drilling along the coast, and its not a problem.
As the article pointed out, over-zealous environmental regs, the sheer impossibility of getting a permit to build refineries, pipelines, power plants, drilling platforms, guarantees energy problems. Guarantees it. This is what 50 years of Democratic Party control has given us, but if Republicans seriously wouldn't have done any better, then what is the point of worrying about it at all? Let the Dems run it, we're already in the best of all possible worlds.
Republicans eat there own and liberals laugh.
This admitted simpleton ("As a fiscally conservative Democrat...."), Jill Stewart, rails against one-party rule but then uses her entire column to promote GOP surrender. Har! Sure, Jill. If only the Republicans became Democrats then we wouldn't have "one-party rule." What a maroon!
And the rest of the country now.
Guess what follows?
And guess what. Illegal immigration continues. The Administration has done nothing to stop it. Guess just how backward this state will be in 20 years.
Correct, and even as recent as 1994 the people of California got it right and voted for proposition 187.
And can anyone guess who in this administration, spoke out against the proposition back in '94?
Republicans eat there own and liberals laugh.Republicans taste better. Ever had a veggie burger?
I disagree. I think the article is all wet. CA Repubs may have their fair share of dorks, but it ain't across the board. Compare the worst Pubs with the AVERAGE CA Dem, and it's no contest--the Dems dominate the looney tune market hands down.
Besides, how would you explain the Dem domination in National races out there.A John Conyers/Dick Turbin ticket would carry the state EZ against any Pub ticket--landslide.
And it does not go back to the 1950's. Remember Ronald Reagan?
Here's the real answer-- population shifting. The immigrants, the fruits and nuts, and the far far left wing constitute the majority of the voters dominating the metro areas of the state. The Dems just pander to the America haters and the something-for-nothing crowd and get elected with ease. The smarter and more patriotic element left years ago.
To say the Repubs drive off voters is stupid. Or rather, IT'S THE VOTERS, STUPID. When these people vote for Boxer and Fineswine--they know exactly what they are doing.
bookmark
That was a long time ago. It started to change with Paul Eggers. It took a long time and a lot of work--although to be honest, most of the credit goes to the Dems. Their national party committed Texas Suicide starting in 1972.
Yep.
ABortion is the biggest issue. That said there are more patient ways to deal with it indeed. IT does not help that the media focuses on that.
In any case, ever since women got the vote, the baby has been held hostage. This is a much bigger problem dating from earlier than 1958.
I agree with you (although not this writer), but try telling that to 2/3rds of Freepers. They'd rather yell about what a RINO Arnold is.
You are correct. Every time the people of this state have had the oppertunity they say no to illegal immigration. And it gets ignored by the governement. Just as the American people as a whole say no every time they get the chance. And they get ignored by the government. And now the entire nation has the problems California has.
Guess what happens in 20 years to the US? The US will be one big California. As that happens we have a Republican President, a Republican Senate and a Republican House. In 20 years we as a whole will be like California. Essentially one party Democratic rule with a toothless opposition.
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