(Understanding their problems can help keep us from repeating their mistakes – promoted by blogswarm)

One can reasonably argue that the downfall of the California Republican Party began in the early 1990’s.  At that time, the California Republican Assembly was putting together a concerted strategy to gain control of each and every Republican Central Committee, and thus of the internal power structure of the California Republican Party.  From that base, they were able to determine who would run in local elections, who had the name recognition to win State Assembly races, etc.

Along with that organization came the ability to activate the most conservative, most idealogical, most enthusiastic members of the party and get them to the polls to win almost all state-wide primaries. The results have been self-destructive.

The most recent Republican Convention introduced a possible change in the political structure as Contra Costa County Party Chairman, Thomas Del Becarro was selected as the Vice-Chairman of the party.  The old guard, Republican Central Committee controllers, like Richard Pombo, tried to defeat Del Becarro, but were not successful. Remember, Del Becarro is the one who filed a lawsuit to prevent Jerry Brown from taking office as Attorney General on the grounds that he was “not qualified” according to a strict reading of the law.

We now have an increasingly polarized environment in Sacramento, played out daily in the press. A 2006 report released by the Public Policy Institute of California documents the fact that the California electorate is increasingly disassociated from either major party.

What is the lesson to be learned from this?  What have the parties of the “left” (Democrats and Greens) not produced gains equivalent to the losses on the Right?

Equally important, if the electorate is going to remain disassociated from the major parties, will we continue to be governed by those who, like Schwarzenegger, have managed to position themselves as being outside of either? 

I have a lot more questions than answers.