Posted on 04/29/2003 12:21:24 PM PDT by ZGuy
[Key line of article - "Republicans should let Democrats have their way with the budget and then be prepared to point a strong partisan finger when things unravel."]
Perhaps the most destructive legacy of Progressivism (the political movement and body of political thought that is the foundation of modern liberalism) is the political idea that politics itself is bad.
The early Progressives talked incessantly about "building a national state," one that would usher America into the future — much the way that latter day Progressive, Bill Clinton, talked incessantly about building a bridge to the 21st Century. But Progressives understood that if "the state" was to be a rational state, one that doled out social justice fairly according to the Progressive dictates of the day, it could not be subject to the authority or control of ordinary citizens. Citizens, after all, do not understand the historical and progressive nature of "the state." If one believes in the Progressive doctrine that the purpose of government is to provide a vehicle for moving the American people into the future, then the state should be controlled and directed by scientifically and historically trained experts, or bureacrats, and not partisan, and therefore corrupt, politicians or the partisan and corrupt citizens they represent.
From the Progressive point of view, parties are not very important, because they are, by definition, "partisan" and divisive. Only professional, non-partisan bureaucrats can unite the American people and lead them happily into the unknown (except to the bureaucratic experts) future. Thus at the heart of the modern liberal experiment is the drive to minimize if not abolish altogether political parties.
To the degree to which politics must be retained — the most intelligent Progressives understood that the basic idea of government by consent of the governed was an obstacle to building a grand Progressive state — those politics should be "non-partisan." If that cannot be achieved, then politicians should at a minimum present themselves and their policies as "bi-partisan." Remember that: every time you hear a politican, Democrat of Republican, celebrate bi-partisanship, they are really championing Progressivism, whether or not they know it.
The California Constitution stands today as a grand experiment in Progressivism. From the initiative process to the recall and referendum to the non-partisan statewide elected offices and judges, the California Constitution perhaps goes farther than any other state constitution to remove or minimize accountability and partisanship in state government. It also goes far to build a massive class of bureaucrative "experts" to administer the affairs of the state. As anyone remotely familiar with the state of the Golden State knows, the results have been disastrous.
One of the key Progressive "reforms" implemented in the California Constitution was the two-thirds requirement to pass the state budget, passed in the midst of the Great Depression, when Progressive ideas seemed so alluring. Assuming that neither party is likely to possess such a large super-majority (although if California Republicans stick to their current game-plan, they may soon hand that majority to the Dems), Progressive architects amended the Constitution so that the budget would necessarily be "bi-partisan". Neither Democrats or Republicans would be fully responsible for the budget, and therefore neither party could be praised or blamed for the most important actitivity of the state government: deciding what it will do and how much money it will spend doing it.
California Democrats almost have a two-thirds majority in both the state Assembly and Senate, but they are growing impatient. As explained in this recent San Diego Tribune editorial, Democrats want complete control of the budget process; they do not want to be forced to compromise with a handful of Republicans. Thus they are supporting an initiative that will probably appear on the ballot next March that would lower the necessary majority to pass a budget to 55 percent of the Assembly and Senate. Republicans are howling that this will elimate what little influence they now have over the budget, that Democrats will run to excess with unfettered control. But we have a message for California Republicans that may come as a surprise: Let them have it!
Republicans would do well to stop their squawking for awhile, and sit in quiet and study some of the advice offered in that masterpiece of political science, The Federalist Papers. There they would learn of the importance of responsibility and accountability. They would learn that political power is dangerous, but necessary. Thus you provide those in control of the government the power to accomplish what they should, but you hold them strictly accountable for their actions. That is the nature of American politics, and it means you can never drive partisanship from politics, try as some might.
True, Democrats control everything, politically, in California today. But the solution is not to cling on to Progressive policies and demand "bi-partisanship." Rather, it is time for Republicans to be partisan, and aggressively so. Republicans should let Democrats have their way with the budget (we Californians get what we deserve: we voted these people into office), and then be prepared to point a strong partisan finger when things unravel. This means that Republicans must be political, and, above all, partisan. The solution will not be found in Progressive budget policies and practices. The solution will be emphatically political: Republicans should implement their policies by winning elections up and down the state, which means beating Democrats up and down the state -- including those places considered to be Democratic strongholds. No area should be considered sacred, and no opinions should be taken as unchangeable.
Republicans will achieve little or nothing by playing the minority party role in the Progressive scheme of California budgetary politics. They must clearly demonstrate to the people of California the serious jeopardy in which the liberalism of the Democratic Party has placed them, and then be prepared to act decisively when Californians turn to them for solutions.
D'OH!!
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