Unlike the Democratic Party Conventions, the Republican party meets twice per year in their big shindigs. They do tend to be a little smaller events, but just as rowdy. Now, there is something about the Republican base that just isn’t the case on the left. As commentators as diverse as David Frum and Glenn Greenwald will tell you, Republicans are scared of their base, Democrats hate theirs.
It’s true in DC, and it’s true in Sacramento. Let’s just take a few samples: Democrats are busy cutting into long-term progressive programs. Programs that work, and save us long-term money. For example, look at Cal-Works. In response to the seemingly endless calls for “welfare reform”, we have proven that using best practices and sociological research, you can build a strong and beneficial program. It has helped rebuild many families, and heck, even the LA Times wants to see funding restored. Or look at Medi-Cal, or higher education funding. Time after time, Democrats are negotiating with themselves on how we devastate the state.
Now, look at the Republicans, where are they are terrified of their base. Heck, Tony Strickland started the Tea Party “Taxpayer’s” caucus just to show his fealty. Perhaps it is wise, after all, their base goes after their electeds for even putting taxes on the ballot:
The California Republican Assembly, a hard-line conservative group, has introduced a resolution for consideration at the party convention in Sacramento to censure lawmakers who vote in favor of putting additional taxes on a special election ballot.
Calling them “traitorous Republicans-in-name-only,” the resolution also calls for their resignation, would put the party’s support behind any recall effort against them and would prohibit the party from helping those lawmakers in future elections.(SF Chronicle)
And as Anthony Adams learned last year, you very well can be forced to hit the road before your time is up. Now, perhaps this changes under Top 2 if you get two Republicans into a general election, however, given how these elections generally run, that isn’t likely to happen. Very few Republican districts are really THAT Republican where two Republicans would meet in the general election.
And so, the Republicans continue to live in fear of their base. On the left, Democrats can blame Prop 13 and the obstructionist Republicans for everything. No need to cater to your base when you have a mushy middle that can win you elections.
Meanwhile, Brown seems to think a budget deal will happen this week. I, however, am not so convinced that he can get sufficient votes in both houses. It may take more time, and it may take another nasty item on the June ballot.
Or a majority vote measure. Pick your poison, I suppose.
I don’t think we’re gonna get two Republicans in the Senate and two in the Assembly to vote for the ballot initiative
I think it was foolish to expect that they would vote for it
So, now What ??
We’ll have to make even more budget cuts
DON’T Give Republicans a Voice in the Budget cuts
Make it a Democratic-only affair
You just need a majority to pass a budget
Make suer that programs benefitting REPUBLICAN AREAS are CUT
Agricultural programs, CalFire, rural roads…..
THOSE THINGS should be cut !!
You want budget cuts, you got ’em !!
A good opoint that was made above, Keep pprograms that work CUT Programs that DON’T work
Earn your pay Democrats
Both parties are frightened to do anything that upsets their contributors. Since both parties get money from basically the same groups — wealthy individuals and large businesses that’s who they cater to.
It may give the appearance that Reps cater to their base and Dems abhor their base. But that’s because the Rep base has been co-opted by contributors, while the Dem base tries to provide a people-based, non-wealth based alternative.
The point is that you’re making a false equivalence argument. You’re assuming Dem politicians are motivated in a way different from Rep politicians. They both operate the same way — support the people who you perceive are most important in getting you re-elected. And for both parties that is basically the same group.
If I could characterize an emotion that exemplifies eaither party I’d say excessive fear for the GOP and excessive sympathy (“bleeding heart”) for the Dems.
For the dems this allows for the broad coalition of interest groups that seem like they have nothing in common but they ban together on issues because in the carousel of causes each will get something passed or funded. The problem is that with sympathy there is no bottom to what you would spend if a family member was suffering. How far would you go until you cut them off?
In a similar way the excessive fear is a bottomless pit. How much would anyone pay to keep you safe? And GOP’s fear goes beyond its constituents, you have to throw in illegal immigration and muslims. They feel these are existential threats to their lives. Of course being scared makes you angry at the source of the threat. Massive defense budgets and neocon adventurism abound. But the fear of big govt appears when they feel that the govt cant take everything from them. So the policy is starving the beast with tax cuts. Paradoxically the GOP wants a tiny govt that can’t take money from them or tell them what to do but somehow be strong enough to tell other (foriegn people) what to do (like not attack us).
Bottomline – JB needs to go beyond the pawns and see if the anti-tax crowd wants pension reform (or something else) more than a tax extension. He has to offer then a choice and make them jump on it. It’ll mean sacrificing a member of the Grand Liberal Interest Coalition but it’ll get what he wants.
on the point “we have proven that using best practices and sociological research, you can build a strong and beneficial program.” That may be true from one perspective but success is not a lone criterion. Is it a Pyrrhic cost? Is the return what people will accept? Thats the biggest failing of liberal programs IMO – They seem like great success to the recipents and the politicians that will receive the votes for it. But outside those two is the large swath of people that don’t see the tangible benefit and wonder why. If the benefit is there it is often poorly communicated.
The best proof is how today taxes are deplored whereas 100 years ago a constitution amendment(!), no easy feat, passed that allowed for taxation. People must of seen the positive benefit then but not now.
I don’t think it’s fair to call the Democrats spineless or unaware of what their base wants. They are negotiating with themselves because they are being responsible and actually governing. In the absence of an opposition that participates and facing a zero-sum budget challenge Brown and the Sac Dems have to cut some things their base supports.
In my mind the California Republican Party is like a caged monkey being repeatedly zapped by the anti-Tax zealots. The right-wing put them in the cage and doesn’t allow them to participate, and in their anger all they can do is fling dung at the Democrats that actually show up to work.
The other issue you are seeing here is that the Democratic base is splintering under the pressure of making these choices. The Union half of the base (that this site seems to mostly represent) seems mostly concerned about process issues like funding levels, salaries, benefit packages and maintaing work rules. The other half of the base, educated urban and suburban workers earning >$50K, are more concerned with outcomes (school overcrowding, UC sucking, nobody to put out next summer’s fires) than the process aspects. The first group provides a lot of organized money and volunteers to the CDP, while the second group provides a lot of individual money and represents the more centrist and flexible voters that the GOP has repeatedly failed to get.
The fact that the first group is happy to tax the crap out of the second group is one of the issues driving this wedge. In an alternate universe where the CA GOP isn’t dominated by xenophobic racists you would have seen the voting shift towards statewide Republicans and perhaps seen this battle play out between parties. In our universe, the fight is going to be intramural.
because until it does, the GOP doesn’t have to even try to win a majority of seats, and can always claim it’s not the majority so it’s not theior fault, and the democrats can point at the GOP to absolve themselves of blame right before they pass whatever demands the GOP hostage takers want that week.
with a majority budget, both parties would be forced to have serious discussions within their caucuses about what kind of state they want, and voters could more easily punish any coalition after 2 years by electing a different one.
Jerry Brown is doing what he should have in 1978. After the passage of Prop. 13, Brown and the Dems set out to save the people from themselves.
They should have simply let 13 take effect. It’s a shock to the system but a necessary one. Each time, the Republicans have been able, after some ridiculous “fix”, to say “See!”. They’re spending too much.
Let everything rot or we’ll never get rid of 13.