What with doomsday now upon us here in California, I think it's a good moment to look back just a few short years ago to see what the effects of turning our politics into circus sideshow really are.The old phrase "Politics isn't policy, it's perception" was never more true than in California's 2003 "Who Wants To Be A Governor?" race. It was one big marketing campaign, and the public was duped into a popularity contest rather than worrying about how to actually fix the problems.
Back in 2003, when everyone in the country was pretending that Junior was Winston Churchill and the nation was in full blown worship of phony macho posturing, here in California we were bored and decided to see what would happen if we simply deposed a guy who seemed kind of pansyish in favor of a Hollywood movie star who would entertain us with his colorful slogans and fancy family.
The "issue" that supposedly precipitated this little tantrum was the required restoration to earlier higher rates for car registration, brought about by a weakening of the economy. The media went wild, even friends of mine who know absolutely nothing about politics pretended to be enraged that they would be forced to pay $30.00 more a year and they all went out and voted to recall the Governor and replace him with The Terminator.
That recall was a political sideshow of epic proportions, featuring porn stars, Gary Coleman and even Arianna. It was great fun. Standing in line to vote that day -- the longest line I'd ever experienced at the ballot box --- was like being at an American Idol party.
Arnold Schwarzenneger was as much of a clown as Gary Coleman was during that election. But he was big box office and very wealthy so nobody cared. Indeed, the fact that he spoke in nothing but stale cliches and stupid bumper stickers made people like him all the more.I think only the pain of a $26 billion shortfall eliminating thousands of jobs, all but annhiliating the safety net, decimating programs for the poor and for seniors and blowing a gaping hole in education will make people finally get serious about politics. There's a reason why America's seniors, those who grew up during the first Great Depression and WWII, take voting so seriously. They remember first hand what it means when politics becomes about the perpetuation of power and not helping the people. Since 1980 we've lost that, since Reagan. Really, I think it was since Kennedy and Johnson's world turning to ashes that we lost what it meant. Camelot and the Great Society became the Me Generation and "greed is good".
The single most important thing that Schwarzenneger has done is keep the state from raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations. That's what he was sent to do and he did it. And look where we are today. I'm not saying that Gray Davis could have saved the state. The system is broken and nobody couldn't have headed this off entirely. But I'm afraid that we are going to have to reform more than the state constitution to fix things. We need to reform politics itself somehow, convince people that it isn't American Idol or the World Series, or the ruling class will always be able to afford to put on a show whenever they need to manipulate the folks and the folks will probably fall for it.
So yes, that popularity contest six years ago had a bit of a price tag on it. We're all going to pay, state governments besides California still have a $175 billion or so shortfall to deal with. California's just the biggest petri dish for this little experiment in governance. One-eighth of the country has a $26 billion shortfall, the other seven-eighths have another $175 billion to go. On a per capita basis, we're all just as screwed as California should the other 49 states also go for Option A and refuse to raise taxes.
For us to be serious about government, we're going to have to go through pain. Lots of it.
That's a cheery thought eh?
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