Last week, long-time Sacramento Bee columnist penned a column Both Left And Right In California Want Automatons In Office where he throws down the gauntlet of criticism on those who oppose a bigger, fatter state government (he also throws down on the other extreme, but that is not the focus of this blog post).
The California Republican Party has been frequently – and rightfully – criticized for insisting that GOP politicians adhere to a very narrow set of supposed principles, such as always opposing any purported tax increase regardless of its merits.
That rigid mindset entertains no differences between a general sales tax increase, an increase in a specific user tax such as the one on gasoline or even closing a completely unjustified special interest tax loophole, and shuns the tax reform that California sorely needs.
It’s not only a mindless posture, but makes Republican officeholders nonparticipants in the budgetary process. And the party applies the same political myopia to other issues as well, thus contributing to the state’s chronic governmental dysfunction.
Let me first say that I enjoy reading Dan’s columns. He is a very centrist guy, and in a town where the politics is dominated by the whacked-out left, it means that more often than not I find myself agreeing with Dan’s observations about what happens in the State Capitol. But every once in a while Dan will slam conservatives, like he did above, because as a moderate, he is less defined by ideology and more so by finding the intersection between two points and assuming that this is where reasonable policy-making should be at that focal point.I suspect that if the pendulum were to swing back more towards the middle, that you would see a lot more diversity of opinion amongst GOP legislators on a myriad of issues. But right now it is so bad that it is clear that any kind of “deals” cause us to lose field position. And the problem is that every time the Democrats score a touchdown, or a field goal, it means higher taxes, or more borrowing, or increased spending, or more regulations. All of these things are bad news for California and her residents.
March 5th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
So, Jon, maybe the solution is to elect more Republicans. How, Jon, do you propose to do that? After you and your friends engineered the odious CRP platform at the February convention that now hangs around the necks of all persons who put an R after their name on the election ballot. After you and your friends hung former Senator and Governor Pete Wilson in effigy at a CRP convention. After you and your friends help the Democrat win the general election by running straw write-in candidates against Republican who won the primary because you and your friends think they are a moderate. So, Jon, how do you propose to elect more Republicans?
March 6th, 2012 at 2:21 am
Bob,
I generally agree with you on the failure commonly known as the CA Reep party.
However, the CA Reeps CAN achieve their fiscal goals and smaller gov’t goals if they rid themselves of their odious intrusions into individual personal lives.
CA is more conservative fiscally than on personal freedoms, and often entangles itself with religious-tainted matters – so when the latter isssues come up or are violated voters bail on the former.
There’s also a non-Darwinian ‘survival of the loser’ theme in CA Reep party: LOSING is REWARDED in the party hierarchy and funding paths.
I’m active in the gun rights community and it’s instructive seeing that it’s more useful for certain CA Dems (‘blue dog’-style, generally) to carry gun bills than for Reeps. And yet the Reeps want the “pro-gun” badge even though in large part their failed unwinnable-in-CA antichoice stance makes them unelectable in most districts. It’s far easier to elect a prochoice politician with a bag of dead babies passing out free machineguns than it is for to elect an anitchoice politician that’s also antigun.
In the next 10 years, unless something changes, we’re gonna see a ‘corner case’ Republican party that’s irrelevant and a generalized left/right split (generally urban vs more rural) in the CA Dem party serving as the resultant two party system, with the primary being the real election.
Bill Wiese
San Jose CA
March 6th, 2012 at 8:37 am
Aas long as long time professional party staff, fund raisers, pundits and assorted operatives are getting paid to lose…nothing changes…
Are you all daff? Your continually watching the 19th century water wheel go around and round…
Cut the feed bag and the changes will happen real quick!
March 10th, 2012 at 11:26 pm
Time after time the far right wing-nut Republican operatives fall into the same old trap: look at the most recent case of the Republicans turning the Democrats trashing of the first amendment regarding churches into a fight over woman’s rights. How dumb can Republican operatives get? It’s no wonder these people lose election after election by doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. Why can’t these far right wing-nut Republicans get their nose out of peoples bedrooms, bathrooms and doctor’s offices? It seems there are two distinct groups of people: the moral up-lifter people (who tend to be Republicans) want to impose their ideas of correct morality and religious dogma on everybody else and the leave me alone and let me live my life the way I want people (moderate Republicans, Democrats and independents) who want no part of the moral up-lifters agenda. But the moral up-lifters not only want to tell people how to live, they want to pass laws that restrict or punish anyone who does not toe their mark 100 percent.
March 10th, 2012 at 11:36 pm
The top two primary election should take care of sidelining the far right wing-nut Republicans. This will, of course, make the Republican Party completely irrelevant in California. But in the near future, hopefully, moderate Republicans can rebuild the party and make it relevant again. It happened before and could happen again.