{"id":11587,"date":"2010-04-27T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-27T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-04-27T20:01:10","modified_gmt":"2010-04-27T20:01:10","slug":"prop-14-rigging-the-political-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2010\/04\/27\/prop-14-rigging-the-political-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Prop 14: Rigging the Political System"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a conceit among self-described “moderate” and “centrist” pundits that their politics are the only legitimate politics – and that those on the left and right are not as legitimate. When the right and left become more dominant in a political system, the moderates view this as deviant, as something bad, as something to be fixed, instead of as just another possible permutation on the political spectrum. <\/p>\n

When denunciation of the two “extremes” fails to arrest the collapse of the center, the moderates’ next move is to rig the system to produce outcomes favoring their ideological position.<\/p>\n

That’s what is happening in California this June with Proposition 14. Prop 14 would change the way primary elections work in this state, sending the top two votegetters onto the general election regardless of party. That virtually guarantees it will be impossible for third parties to make it onto the November ballot, whereas under the current system, they can.<\/p>\n

In many districts this will likely mean two Democrats or two Republicans will be on the ballot in November, making it harder for Democrats to pick up seats in these swing districts. <\/p>\n

But the real purpose of Prop 14 is to move the Democratic Party to the right. The logic is this: in many California districts, Democratic primary fights will be pushed out into the general election, where Republican voters can support the moderate Democrat at the expense of the progressive.<\/p>\n

Dan Walters laid out that thinking<\/a> in his column today:<\/p>\n

Liberal Democrats and their allies, especially in public employee unions, have the most to lose from a structural shift because they now control the tenor of the Legislature through gerrymandered districts and closed primaries.<\/p>\n

Business groups have the most to win because they are now dependent on Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto liberal legislation, and would like a more centrist, business-friendly Legislature.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, this ignores the fact that Californians have embraced the so-called “partisan divide.” Democratic voters regularly pick more progressive candidates in their primaries because California Democratic voters are generally a progressive group of people<\/em>. Similarly, California Republicans are generally a bunch of wacko wingnuts. I don’t like that fact, but that’s democracy for you.<\/p>\n

“Moderate” politics are an anachronism out of touch with reality in 21st century America. Such politics are only possible during periods of sustained prosperity, such as the postwar era, when there was no need to debate basic economic questions. Centrism is in many respects a political bubble phenomenon enabled by prosperity. <\/p>\n

As soon as prosperity is gone, basic questions reassert themselves: should we tax the rich to provide public services to the poor and the middle-class in order to provide them security and job growth, or should we cut taxes on the rich and slash government services and let the middle-class and poor fend for themselves?<\/p>\n

There is no middle ground between those (unless you use massive amounts of debt to bridge the divide, which as we’ve seen is a failed policy). Everyone eventually has to choose between right or left. In fact, most “moderates” have already chosen the right and have been doing so for 30 years. The continued popularity of the left, as embodied by progressive Democrats, offends “moderate” sensibilities and is seen as cause for trying to rig elections by changing the system.<\/p>\n

Other flaws of the Prop 14 model become apparent when looking at how it works in other states and countries.<\/p>\n

In Washington State, where the top-two system was used for the first time in 2008, it also had the effect of pushing primary fights into the general election, diverting resources, money, and time away from other Democratic priorities.<\/p>\n

Prop 14 would apply to statewide races as well, so one could conceivably face a gubernatorial election where there are two Republicans on the November ballot, especially if there are several Democrats dividing the Dem vote. One could eventually see a replay of the 2002 French presidential election, where the second round was a runoff between a corrupt center-right incumbent (Jacques Chirac) and a fascist (Jean-Marie Le Pen), primarily because the center-left split its votes between three different candidates. The result was that the center-left had to hold their nose and vote for Chirac to prevent Le Pen from winning. Ironically enough, the top-two system in France wound up giving a huge boost to the far right.<\/p>\n

I could see something similar happening in 2014 if Jerry Brown weren’t to win this year: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Lt Gov Gavin Newsom, and AG Kamala Harris split the Democratic vote, letting two Republicans – incumbent Meg Whitman and Tom McClintock – come in 1-2 and being the only candidates for governor on the November ballot. I’d rather poke my eyes out with sharp sticks than have to decide between those two.<\/p>\n

All in all, it’s a strong case against Prop 14. Let’s hope voters hear that case and vote accordingly in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a conceit among self-described “moderate” and “centrist” pundits that their politics are the only legitimate politics – and that those on the left and right are not as legitimate. When the right and left become more dominant in a political system, the moderates view this as deviant, as something bad, as something to be fixed, instead of as just another possible permutation on the political spectrum. <\/p>\n

When denunciation of the two “extremes” fails to arrest the collapse of the center, the moderates’ next move is to rig the system to produce outcomes favoring their ideological position.<\/p>\n

That’s what is happening in California this June with Proposition 14. Prop 14 would change the way primary elections work in this state, sending the top two votegetters onto the general election regardless of party. That virtually guarantees it will be impossible for third parties to make it onto the November ballot, whereas under the current system, they can.<\/p>\n

In many districts this will likely mean two Democrats or two Republicans will be on the ballot in November, making it harder for Democrats to pick up seats in these swing districts. <\/p>\n

But the real purpose of Prop 14 is to move the Democratic Party to the right. The logic is this: in many California districts, Democratic primary fights will be pushed out into the general election, where Republican voters can support the moderate Democrat at the expense of the progressive.<\/p>\n

Dan Walters laid out that thinking<\/a> in his column today:<\/p>\n

Liberal Democrats and their allies, especially in public employee unions, have the most to lose from a structural shift because they now control the tenor of the Legislature through gerrymandered districts and closed primaries.<\/p>\n

Business groups have the most to win because they are now dependent on Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto liberal legislation, and would like a more centrist, business-friendly Legislature.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, this ignores the fact that Californians have embraced the so-called “partisan divide.” Democratic voters regularly pick more progressive candidates in their primaries because California Democratic voters are generally a progressive group of people<\/em>. Similarly, California Republicans are generally a bunch of wacko wingnuts. I don’t like that fact, but that’s democracy for you.<\/p>\n

“Moderate” politics are an anachronism out of touch with reality in 21st century America. Such politics are only possible during periods of sustained prosperity, such as the postwar era, when there was no need to debate basic economic questions. Centrism is in many respects a political bubble phenomenon enabled by prosperity. <\/p>\n

As soon as prosperity is gone, basic questions reassert themselves: should we tax the rich to provide public services to the poor and the middle-class in order to provide them security and job growth, or should we cut taxes on the rich and slash government services and let the middle-class and poor fend for themselves?<\/p>\n

There is no middle ground between those (unless you use massive amounts of debt to bridge the divide, which as we’ve seen is a failed policy). Everyone eventually has to choose between right or left. In fact, most “moderates” have already chosen the right and have been doing so for 30 years. The continued popularity of the left, as embodied by progressive Democrats, offends “moderate” sensibilities and is seen as cause for trying to rig elections by changing the system.<\/p>\n

Other flaws of the Prop 14 model become apparent when looking at how it works in other states and countries.<\/p>\n

In Washington State, where the top-two system was used for the first time in 2008, it also had the effect of pushing primary fights into the general election, diverting resources, money, and time away from other Democratic priorities.<\/p>\n

Prop 14 would apply to statewide races as well, so one could conceivably face a gubernatorial election where there are two Republicans on the November ballot, especially if there are several Democrats dividing the Dem vote. One could eventually see a replay of the 2002 French presidential election, where the second round was a runoff between a corrupt center-right incumbent (Jacques Chirac) and a fascist (Jean-Marie Le Pen), primarily because the center-left split its votes between three different candidates. The result was that the center-left had to hold their nose and vote for Chirac to prevent Le Pen from winning. Ironically enough, the top-two system in France wound up giving a huge boost to the far right.<\/p>\n

I could see something similar happening in 2014 if Jerry Brown weren’t to win this year: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Lt Gov Gavin Newsom, and AG Kamala Harris split the Democratic vote, letting two Republicans – incumbent Meg Whitman and Tom McClintock – come in 1-2 and being the only candidates for governor on the November ballot. I’d rather poke my eyes out with sharp sticks than have to decide between those two.<\/p>\n

All in all, it’s a strong case against Prop 14. Let’s hope voters hear that case and vote accordingly in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1990],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1990"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-30T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}