{"id":13883,"date":"2011-09-26T18:13:51","date_gmt":"2011-09-26T18:13:51","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-09-26T18:17:25","modified_gmt":"2011-09-26T18:17:25","slug":"jerry-brown-discovers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2011\/09\/26\/jerry-brown-discovers\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerry Brown Discovers Some Horsemen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>Jerry talks anti-tax doctrinaires with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calbuzz.com\/2011\/09\/brown-gop-bows-to-four-horsemen-of-tax-apocalypse\/\">CalBuzz<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>by Brian Leubitz<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm.amazon.com\/e\/cm?lt1=_blank&#038;bc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;nou=1&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;fc1=000000&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;t=mortgagedfutu-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as4&#038;m=amazon&#038;f=ifr&#038;ref=ss_til&#038;asins=0439724171\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" align=right scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>The Republicans and the Democrats, at least in the venue I know best, California, have a very different relationship with their respective bases. &nbsp;The Democrats raise money from their activist base, gets volunteers, and then generally ignores them. &nbsp;The Republicans, well, it is a very different story. &nbsp;Sure they get money and volunteers, but the tail wags the dog. &nbsp;The right wing activists of the Republican party controls them.<\/p>\n<p>As a long-time blogger, I suppose I have a bigger megaphone than most. &nbsp;However, I have nowhere near the power (nor earning power) of Jon Fleischman, my right-wing counterpart at the <a href=\"http:\/\/flashreport.org\">FlashReport<\/a>. &nbsp;He says something, and all of a sudden, legislators are looking around to make sure that they didn&#8217;t cross him. Me, well, sometimes I get an &#8220;attaboy&#8221; when I am of some use, but let&#8217;s just say that Calitics isn&#8217;t lucrative, and that nobody is calling me a horseman of anything but the cartoon variety <a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_dj0QoMHlrus\/SfeUBA57GOI\/AAAAAAAAArU\/zfIhBKYShpw\/s1600-h\/areyouahorse_thumb.jpg].\">http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_dj0Q&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>So, it is interesting, that, in an interview with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calbuzz.com\/2011\/09\/brown-gop-bows-to-four-horsemen-of-tax-apocalypse\/\">CalBuzz<\/a>, Governor Brown called out the Republican base as the proverbial tale wagging the Republican party.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Invoking the infamous symbols of Conquest, War, Famine and Death from the Book of Revelation, the former seminarian identified the anti-tax fearsome foursome to whom the Republicans submit as 1) DC anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist; 2) Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association; 3) LA radio spewers John Kobylt and Ken Champiou and 4) FlashReport, GOP operative Jon Fleischman&#8217;s right-wing blog.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s emotionally quite wrenching for any of the Republicans to embrace anything opposed by the Four Horsemen of the Tax Apocalypse,&#8221; Gov. Gandalf told Calbuzz. &#8220;If that group, or even maybe any one or two of them, invoke the dreaded &#8216;t&#8217; word, they do cower.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course, this is really nothing new. &nbsp;If you&#8217;ve taken a bit of time to really consider the California right-wing over the past two decades, it doesn&#8217;t take a PhD in political science to see their slide from pragmatic dealmakers to ideological extremists. &nbsp;Jerry likely knew this before he retook the Horseshoe, but perhaps the breadth and depth of this takeover took him by surprise.<\/p>\n<p>To be honest, in many ways, the right-wing has more power over the Democratic Party than the left-wing base. &nbsp;Under the 2\/3 rule, revenue legislation must be tailored to hold all of the conservative Democrats. Nobody can take a walk, even if we did have the 2\/3 Democratic chambers that we have been lusting after for so long.<\/p>\n<p>Fleischman has a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flashreport.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/23\/lamenting-the-absence-of-trust-in-politics-cogdill-should-look-in-a-mirror\/\">post today excoriating former Senate minority leader Dave Cogdill<\/a> for agreeing to temporary sales tax increases. &nbsp;He states, and perhaps daydreams, of what California would have looked like if we had a 2011 budget in 2009. &nbsp;And the thing is for Fleischman, perhaps the world may have looked slightly better.<\/p>\n<p>But that is only if you are doing well. &nbsp;After all, California (and the US in general) is a great place for those who are doing well financially. &nbsp;But ask those Californians who are alive today because they got a helping hand from state services, and you would see a very different picture of that 2009 vs 2011 budget debate.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the fact that the Rich need the state is hardly reported. But California without the economic engines that are the UCs, CSUs and the community colleges is a markedly different (and worse off) state. &nbsp;A California without the public infrastructure is a worse off state. &nbsp;We all need the public goods that only the state can provide efficiently. Denying that might be convenient for the Right, but it is devastating for California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><i>Jerry talks anti-tax doctrinaires with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calbuzz.com\/2011\/09\/brown-gop-bows-to-four-horsemen-of-tax-apocalypse\/\">CalBuzz<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>by Brian Leubitz<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm.amazon.com\/e\/cm?lt1=_blank&#038;bc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;nou=1&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;fc1=000000&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;t=mortgagedfutu-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as4&#038;m=amazon&#038;f=ifr&#038;ref=ss_til&#038;asins=0439724171\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" align=right scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>The Republicans and the Democrats, at least in the venue I know best, California, have a very different relationship with their respective bases. &nbsp;The Democrats raise money from their activist base, gets volunteers, and then generally ignores them. &nbsp;The Republicans, well, it is a very different story. &nbsp;Sure they get money and volunteers, but the tail wags the dog. &nbsp;The right wing activists of the Republican party controls them.<\/p>\n<p>As a long-time blogger, I suppose I have a bigger megaphone than most. &nbsp;However, I have nowhere near the power (nor earning power) of Jon Fleischman, my right-wing counterpart at the <a href=\"http:\/\/flashreport.org\">FlashReport<\/a>. &nbsp;He says something, and all of a sudden, legislators are looking around to make sure that they didn&#8217;t cross him. Me, well, sometimes I get an &#8220;attaboy&#8221; when I am of some use, but let&#8217;s just say that Calitics isn&#8217;t lucrative, and that nobody is calling me a horseman of anything but the cartoon variety <a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_dj0QoMHlrus\/SfeUBA57GOI\/AAAAAAAAArU\/zfIhBKYShpw\/s1600-h\/areyouahorse_thumb.jpg].\">http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_dj0Q&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>So, it is interesting, that, in an interview with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calbuzz.com\/2011\/09\/brown-gop-bows-to-four-horsemen-of-tax-apocalypse\/\">CalBuzz<\/a>, Governor Brown called out the Republican base as the proverbial tale wagging the Republican party.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Invoking the infamous symbols of Conquest, War, Famine and Death from the Book of Revelation, the former seminarian identified the anti-tax fearsome foursome to whom the Republicans submit as 1) DC anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist; 2) Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association; 3) LA radio spewers John Kobylt and Ken Champiou and 4) FlashReport, GOP operative Jon Fleischman&#8217;s right-wing blog.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s emotionally quite wrenching for any of the Republicans to embrace anything opposed by the Four Horsemen of the Tax Apocalypse,&#8221; Gov. Gandalf told Calbuzz. &#8220;If that group, or even maybe any one or two of them, invoke the dreaded &#8216;t&#8217; word, they do cower.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course, this is really nothing new. &nbsp;If you&#8217;ve taken a bit of time to really consider the California right-wing over the past two decades, it doesn&#8217;t take a PhD in political science to see their slide from pragmatic dealmakers to ideological extremists. &nbsp;Jerry likely knew this before he retook the Horseshoe, but perhaps the breadth and depth of this takeover took him by surprise.<\/p>\n<p>To be honest, in many ways, the right-wing has more power over the Democratic Party than the left-wing base. &nbsp;Under the 2\/3 rule, revenue legislation must be tailored to hold all of the conservative Democrats. Nobody can take a walk, even if we did have the 2\/3 Democratic chambers that we have been lusting after for so long.<\/p>\n<p>Fleischman has a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flashreport.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/23\/lamenting-the-absence-of-trust-in-politics-cogdill-should-look-in-a-mirror\/\">post today excoriating former Senate minority leader Dave Cogdill<\/a> for agreeing to temporary sales tax increases. &nbsp;He states, and perhaps daydreams, of what California would have looked like if we had a 2011 budget in 2009. &nbsp;And the thing is for Fleischman, perhaps the world may have looked slightly better.<\/p>\n<p>But that is only if you are doing well. &nbsp;After all, California (and the US in general) is a great place for those who are doing well financially. &nbsp;But ask those Californians who are alive today because they got a helping hand from state services, and you would see a very different picture of that 2009 vs 2011 budget debate.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the fact that the Rich need the state is hardly reported. But California without the economic engines that are the UCs, CSUs and the community colleges is a markedly different (and worse off) state. &nbsp;A California without the public infrastructure is a worse off state. &nbsp;We all need the public goods that only the state can provide efficiently. Denying that might be convenient for the Right, but it is devastating for California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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":[117,204],"tags":[60],"class_list":["post-13883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-117","category-204","tag-60"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-3BV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}