Ah come on, I mean Gray Davis is doing a GREAT job...
... at exposing what happens when Democrats control all branches of state government.
Posted on 03/08/2003 8:57:32 AM PST by John Jorsett
As the state has sunk into fiscal crisis, Gov. Gray Davis' popularity has dropped to the lowest level of his governorship, with just 27% of Californians approving of his job performance and 64% disapproving, a new Los Angeles Times poll has found.
Yet California voters, who reelected Davis just four months ago, oppose the budding effort to recall him from office, the poll found.
The survey paints a bleak picture of Californians worried about the stalled economy and angry at Davis over the state budget morass. They expect taxes to rise and public programs to be cut -- although they find few options acceptable -- and they blame the Democratic governor more than anyone for the pain ahead.
"I think he's done a lousy job," said Sam Battersby of Chino, an independent who summed up an opinion shared by many of the 1,300 poll respondents. "I just think you'd almost have to be derelict in your duty to allow this to happen."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Right on!
What frustrates me however Dog is that the real problem is within the legislature, a branch of government which is now almost immue to the will of "the people" because of the redistricting in 2001.
I blew my top when our stupid, ill organized, worthless, impotent, California, Republican leadership bought into the plan in an a short sighted, selfish, ill advised, plot to protect their few remaining RINO steats in the legislature.
Until the California election process can again be opened to moderation, the state will continue to harbor extreme ideologues in the legislature and the executive branch will be unable to make any sugnificant difference except to obstruct.
All roads lead to Rome or in this case all indications point to a collapse of the California economy, many months of finger pointing and blame and then redistricting that favors moderation.
Time will tell Dog.
The state legislature is still going to be hard for the GOP to take. California demographics greatly favor the Rats.
Not only does it favor liberals, but as a consequence of the 2001 redistricting, some of SoCals districts absolutely insulate ideologues. These districts tend to be politically monchromatic and contain extremly high percentages of residents who demand a larger public, social, saftey network.
The representatives from these districts are guided by single purpose mandates and absolutley ignore their minor constituancies which reflect the general state population.
The weakness of democracy is, in its purest form, that it provides for the rule of the mob without consideration for the rights of the minority. This weakness is balanced by our republican form of democracy. The minority protections provided by our republican system are being thwarted however by a sinister pattern of ideologically motivated redistricting of representation to exclude any consideration of minority opinion.
The consequence is that California now has a disproportate over-representaion of a single, minority class. Compounding this problem is the predictable tendency for these districts to elect ideologues as their representatives rather than individuals who balance their mandates with an eye for the good of the whole.
Ah come on, I mean Gray Davis is doing a GREAT job...
... at exposing what happens when Democrats control all branches of state government.
A few things work in our favor however: 1) that redistricting also made the Republican's districts safe ones. Since budgets require 2/3 passage and the Democrats need gobs of money to implement their schemes, the Republicans are in a good position to get in the way. 2) The Democrats passed a form of campaign finance reform that favors grassroots efforts, and the Republicans are much better at collecting money that way. 3) Even the supposedly 'safe' districts they've constructed for themselves can be breached. Witness the victory of Republican Shirley Horton over Davis' hand-picked guy, Vince Hall. 4) The state isn't necessarily as solidly liberal as people think. The Defense of Marriage act, to cite a recent example, passed handily. I'm betting Ward Connerly's Racial Privacy Initiative will too. California isn't a lost cause.
My mother's boyfriend is a self-described "good liberal" (read stinkin' commie) and according to my mother, he and all his liberal cronies disliked Davis (if you can believe it they thought he was too conservative) but to a man they voted for him anyway. Why? They couldn't vote for a conservative, don'tcha know.
That's exaclty the point of my tirade. This state isn't fudamentally liberal. It's fundamentally moderate to conservative.
The perception of California's condition is, for the greater part, established by the nature of it's governance. At the heart of that governance is the legislature and recent development in legislative redistricting has created the dicotomy.
My point is in support of your thesis that things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Honest reason is not going to strip these ideologues of their power. The consequences of their actions is going to resolve the issue. The collapse of the California economy and the forced and sudden withdrawal of the government tit is going to force those who are ever so slightly up the chain of havenots to recognize that their "less fortunate" brethren are dragging them down.
More specifically they will realize that their uncles and cousins, who have yet to arrive at California's golden door, will be the straw that shatters their dreams.
If the Times says its 27% and 64%...then its more like 20% and 70% in reality! LOL
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Hang on here, are we talking regular mud-flaps, or those ones with the reclining female (too big topside to stand up, I guess) on them?
Roger that.
And even then, it won't fix anything. Governor Doofus will just spend it on some liberal Dr. Feelgood social program to buy votes and blame the whole morass on the mean-spirted Republican Congress, greedy Enron executives and GWB.
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