As California’s budget mess continues to worsen, and we seem headed inexorably towards depression levels of unemployment, poverty, homelessness, and hunger, I’ve been recalling the summer of 1992 when Los Angeles erupted into a multi-racial redistribution of wealth.
Have the Republicans really thought through the potential results of eliminating the minimal payments to 127,000 low income parents and children in San Bernardino County when the unemployment rate is already above 13%?
Or the anger among the friends and families of the 420,000 low income parents and children in Los Angeles County who receive minimal payments, education, and assistance with child care?
On a hot night in September, with the Santa Ana winds blowing, and a simmering pool of rage, it will only take a spark.
Instead, it’s a serious question.
I was working in Los Angeles in the summer of 1992, with a very diverse group of people. The riots were widely anticipated if the Rodney King trial verdicts exonerated the cops. But what actually transpired went beyond race.
There’s a simmering rage out there now, with a deep undercurrent of economic populism. The white, anti-immigrant voice of that rage is reported through the media.
When the Governator declares war on the poor, can he really expect that they will never rise up in anger?