aftermath of yesterday's ca special election

So yesterday's special election came and went, with a depressing, record-breaking low turnout of 10% of eligible voters. All of the initiatives that were supposedly going to save California from budgetary disaster were resoundingly smacked down by voters, who are sick and tired of playing fiscal shell games in order to overcome Republican minority vetos of the state's finances.

Framing guru George Lakoff sees an opportunity in all of this:

California voters have rejected the nonfunctional minority-rule government that has bankrupted the state, along with the governor who led the state into bankruptcy.

The voters want a functional democracy, and that means majority rule. No more blackmail by a 1/3 plus 1 Republican minority. [...]

The Democratic leadership should immediately take the initiative on a 2010 ballot measure, a supremely simple one-sentence measure. It would go something like this:

All budgetary and revenue issues shall be decided by a majority vote in both houses of the legislature.

One sentence. Simple. Straightforward. Understandable. And democratic. It should be called the California Democracy Act. From grade school on, we associate democracy with majority rule. It will make sense to voters – at last!

And the Courage Campaign seems to agree, starting a campaign that roughly uses Lakoff's language: Declaration of Democracy:

The special election resolved nothing. California still faces a massive budget deficit. And, try as they might, our state legislators will likely fail to close the gap because the system in which they operate is inherently dysfunctional.

The legislature cannot do its job because unlike 47 other states, it cannot make budget decisions by a majority vote. As a result of the ridiculous 2/3rds requirement for passing a budget, a small cabal of right-wing Republicans hold California's budget hostage year after year after year.

Government fails when it isn't democratic, as the 2/3rds rule repeatedly proves. That's why the Courage Campaign, CREDO Mobile and the League of Young Voters are declaring today that it's time to bring democracy to California's broken government. [...]

DECLARATION OF DEMOCRACY: Budgets and taxes should be approved by a majority vote of the legislature.

Support Democracy (and fiscal sanity) by clicking here.

Also, congrats to Judy Chu for winning the Congressional primary in the San Gabriel Valley (CA-32). She's now a sure favorite to be the next Representative from now-Labor Secretary Hilda Solis's former district (the district is well over 70% Democratic). Not only will she be a great progressive addition to the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (and hopefully the Progressive Caucus, as well), but she is a proven coalition builder and has been throughout her career. I'm looking forward to seeing her in Congress as Southern California's first Asian-American Representative.