Human beings are by nature territorial. That especially applies in politics where domains are carved out by groups of entrenched interests claiming to be sacrosanct and will broach no intrusion.
The California Legislature wants to run its own house even if in the minds of many it is doing so very badly.
Despite the internecine warfare taking place – witness the inability to muster even a simple majority to support the nomination of one of their own to fill the vacant lieutenant governor slot – there is little evidence of coming together around reforms that might ultimately save the present institution from extinction.
This might account for the lack of interest in a holding a constitutional convention – an idea sprung by a few inventive Bay Area thinkers who have no confidence Sacramento will ever mend its ways unless threatened with public rebellion.
But this sudden populist insurgency to cleanse government of its impurities has apparently come to a complete halt for the usual reasons: Lack of funds, public indifference and legislative resistance.
The mere notion of discussing any constitutional changes is apparently more daunting than Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and their supporters found it to be when they pulled off an arguably more difficult task 224 years ago.
That’s partly because democracy then did not require petition drives, hordes of lobbyists and giant bankrolls. Nor did interesting ideas have to spring from the populace; there were plenty of brilliant leaders just itching to launch a nation.
Bipartisanship was rampant. Innovation was taken for granted.
Today, the glaring absence of any of out-of-the-box thinking, orderly process and solidarity for the mutual good is thwarting adoption of even modest remedies as the political machinery grinds to a halt.
Such inertia, lack of real leadership and outright fear of change from within the legislative chambers has helped turn what seemed only months ago like a promising idea into just another quaint topic for dinner conversation.
Meanwhile, we have settled into government by public initiatives (59 at last count were being readied for the November ballot), minority dictation of budgets, insurmountable hurdles to reining in the deficits, and term limits that has turned Sacramento into a giant job placement mill and made public service a badly devalued commodity.
Repair California, a group led by Marin resident John Grubb set out to remedy this by staging a constitutional convention. It has officially closed shop, according to Jim Wunderman, CEO of the Bay Area Council, who was the original promoter of the idea.
A petition to qualify it for the November ballot by April required 1.2 million signatures and $5 million to hire a management firm. To date, $1 million was raised and 100,000 signatures collected.
“There is little discretionary cash in today’s climate,” says Wunderman, “Also, though it was nonpartisan, both left and right saw hidden political agendas being pushed by the other.”
“We were trying to invent something for which there was no previous model,” says Wunderman.
That didn’t stop the founding fathers.
In September 1789, Jefferson wrote to a fellow Founder James Madison, “No society can make a perpetual constitution or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation.”
He may have been on to something.