Virtually The Entire Media Establishment In This State Is Two Years Old

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

I happened to catch Which Way L.A., one of the few public affairs programs in California, and after about 20 minutes of listening I considered the unique method we have of running a 38 million-person nation-state with almost a total media blackout on government's inner workings to be maybe a good thing.  Because this was the most fantastical 20 minutes of drivel you could possibly conjure, and I'm pained by the thought that anyone was exposed to it.

Warren Olney had his usual insider flaks on, with pollster Mark Baldassare, Fred Silva from California Backward Forward and Neal Johnson, Director of the "public performance" project at the Pew Center on the States.  You can listen to it here, but please, please don't.  Let me summarize.  Basically the problem with state government is that nobody gets along.  If we'd only all pitch in as a team and work together to move things forward, everything would be dandy.  Also reviewing the performance of every single public program would eliminate the budget deficit, or something.

I don't remember the words "two-thirds requirement" in the 20 minutes I heard, or "tax pledge," or the sundry other characteristics that make California completely ungovernable.  The idea that you're going to get people with the ability to hijack the budget with a tiny minority to willingly give up their power in the spirit of "working together," when they've organized themselves around precisely the opposite circumstance, is so ridiculous and unserious that I'm surprised anyone can make the argument when they're not teething.

Here's the extremely simple point.  California isn't allowed to govern itself, by its own rules.  If you want any possible solution without the same kind of gridlock and delays, CHANGE THE RULES and allow elected lawmakers to do their own jobs.  It's not about being friendly or reforming on meaningless margins or "restoring voter's trust" (whatever the hell that means).  It's about allowing government to govern.  Talking about anything else is just verbal masturbation.

I mean, if Dan Walters can see the frickin' light on this, it's not locked away in some formula.

It is what those in the Capitol call - and what California Forward identifies as - a "structural deficit." This is, in brief, a unique situation and what any governor did in the past means absolutely nothing today. Until and unless California resolves its underlying crisis of governance, the budget crisis, along with the crises of water, education, transportation, housing and everything else, will continue to bedevil us.

That's the message that California Forward should be driving home.

No kidding.