Over the past three years there has been no dearth of examples of
what Americans have to look forward to if Republicans ever gained
control of all three branches of government. States like Kansas,
Louisiana, and Wisconsin are prime examples of Republicans piling up
crushing debt, cutting services, destroying education, and killing jobs
by pandering to the ultra-rich and corporations. It is obvious that in
Republican-misled states, like the United States Congress, wingnuts
have demonstrated their ineptitude to govern as a matter of course, and
if they do govern, it is only to benefit a very small portion of their
populations.
There is one example of a state that leads the nation in economic
growth, job creation, and the ability to govern for all the people. This
week, in a seriously stunning editorial by a
very wingnut newspaper
they readily admit and praise California with its Democratic
super-majority and governor as the model the rest of the nation and
Republicans in Congress should follow.
There were several notable points the wingnut authors cited
about how good efficient government is supposed to work for the people,
but it was their remarks that “Democrat Jerry Brown is a centrist;” not a
socialist, not a Marxist, not liberal, or not progressive. They
admitted that Brown might strike the rest of the country as alarming,
“but it is all the more reason for the rest of the country to take note
of the momentum here” and learn a valuable lesson that government can,
and does work for all the people when Democrats are in charge.
The editorial first noted that Governor Brown signed a nationally-watched compassionate and humane
bill making assisted suicide legal in California for the terminally ill. The editors also praised Brown’s signing Democratic
legislation that contains the nation’s most strident gender pay equity protections; “
protections that immediately raise the bar for the rest of the country to aspire to.”
The very next day Governor Brown signed “landmark bills” forcing state
contractors to extend employment benefits to transgender employees. And,
with help from the Democratic legislature “
radically upped the ante” on the
use of renewable energy in the Golden State; legislation the Koch brothers’ lobbyists fought hard to derail.
Then, the Governor and Democrats handed the Kochs another righteous smack down by passing and signing
legislation banning the nation’s largest public pension system, California’s, from investing in coal as part of “
a diversified investment portfolio.” The same day Governor Brown put California’s substantial clout behind the national movement to stop plastic microbead
pollution,
after earlier enacting legislation phasing out plastic bags. Still not
finished, the governor signed a bill regulating medicinal marijuana as
well as
legislation automatically registering Californians to vote when they obtain or renew a driver’s license.
Those recent displays of how a government can, and should, work “for
the people” are in addition to bills passed, and signed into law,
earlier this year that “deflated the insanity-driven and dangerous
anti-vaccination movement.” Unvaccinated children will no longer
jeopardize the lives of California’s student population because their
seriously disturbed parents deny science and get their medical advice
from a washed-up Playboy bunny and her comedian former husband.
Add to that a new racial profiling
bill
that law enforcement despises because it mandates that California
police, sheriffs, and highway patrol officers do what law enforcement
officials across the country resist as a matter of course; gather hard
empirical data to back any claim that they do not stop and detain any
California resident based on their race, ethnicity, or “
suspected” Middle Eastern religious affiliation.
While Republicans in Congress have made immigration reform a national
joke and portrayed immigrants as pariahs, Governor Brown and Democrats
have taken steps that the very conservative newspaper’s editorial board
labeled “
humane and intelligent policies.” Policies to ensure that, “
as long as undocumented people are here, they won’t be increasing the ranks of the state’s sick or uneducated, or drive without a license.”
The same editorial board, after mocking Congressional Republicans for
saying “I’m not a scientist” to avoid addressing climate change, simply
gushed that Democrat Jerry Brown is “
inking subnational agreements”
all over the globe to reduce greenhouse gases. Despite California’s
robust environmental regulations, there is still a lot of work to do to
reduce the Golden State’s unhealthy air quality across the state; all
while the Kochs are spending tens-of-millions to kill clean air
standards.
Finally, as America lags the rest of the developed world in providing
mass transit, and California Republicans in Congress vow to never allow
it to progress, over nearly three dozen private-sector companies are
vying
to partner with California to build the nation’s first high-speed rail
line. It is a project that will create hundreds-of-thousands of living
wage, and permanent, jobs in what will be the greatest Earth-moving
project in California’s history. It is also a project the Koch brothers
have worked tirelessly to stop because more mass transit options means
fewer gas-guzzling vehicles on California’s already over-crowded
highways.
Now, if one listens to Republicans, whether in red states or
Congress, each and every achievement a Democratic majority legislature
with a Democratic governor has accomplished California should be
struggling, hemorrhaging jobs, and piling up unsustainable debt.
However, that is certainly not the case in California and that is
including being in the early stages of a drought of historically epic
proportions. The conservative editorial board is spot on about Jerry
Brown; he is a centrist. What could be more “
centrist” than a
governor calling for decent wages, compassionate immigration policy,
care for the environment and tax rules that do not give everything to
the rich and corporations?
California still has a long way to go to completely dig itself out of
a deep dark hole from previous Republican administrations and
legislatures, but it is making significant progress simply because the
legislature and governor work for all the people. The rest of the nation
should take a long, hard look at how a state with a Democratic
super-majority and governor is able to govern effectively. As an aside,
no American should think for a minute that the Democratic legislature is
completely enamored with Governor Brown because he is not a hardline
progressive and has governed from the middle. One would hope that
Republicans in Congress would take a page out of California’s Democratic
legislature and governor’s steady hand in governing for all the people,
but that would require them actually wanting to govern for the people;
something that is never going to happen.
