Posted on 11/26/2006 9:49:55 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO — Expect surprises. It's no longer politics as usual.
Want to overhaul the Legislature into a single nonpartisan house? How about creating universal health care or a bullet train? Voters may soon get the chance.
Californians are so tired of Sacramento and Washington that they are creating a "unique hybrid democracy" to dissolve political gridlock on key issues — a trend that could spread across the nation.
That's the conclusion reached by California's two foremost pollsters, looking back to the Nov. 7 election and ahead to coming sessions of the Legislature and Congress.
Californians are backing away from the two-party machine system, voting for candidates of choice, and vigorously using initiatives.
Various interests are already pushing 14 measures for 2008 on hot-button issues ranging from political traffic jams, to immigration, to same-sex marriage.
"The unique hybrid democracy preserves the current system of elected representatives to carry out duties, but incorporates increased amounts of citizen input and oversight," said Mark Baldassare, poll director for the Bay Area-based Public Policy Institute of California.
"The two-party system is having trouble attracting new voters, adapting to the changing demography and adjusting to the increasing use of the ballot box," Baldassare said.
"Hybrid democracy may be the answer to the public's desire for populism and a solution to the parties and divisions, special-interests' influence and voter distrust that currently plague America's political process," he said.
"California could lead the way, as a nation-state, in a new political direction."
Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, agreed that "voters want some third way other than these bickering two sides."
"California politics is marching, in many ways, to a different drummer," DiCamillo said.
The most dramatic of the proposed initiatives that could wind up on a ballot in 2008 would ax the state Senate and Assembly to create a single legislative house of 50 to 80 members to be nominated and elected in a nonpartisan manner for a two-year term.
The proposal would create a minimum waiting period before a final vote on legislation and limit legislators' salary and travel costs.
Another would create a costly state-run health care system for Californians. Others would approve a bond for high-speed rail and revisit the ongoing controversy over same-sex marriage by constitutionally eliminating domestic partnership rights.
Yet another would prohibit illegal immigrants from obtaining drivers' licenses, college aid, or any other public benefits not required by federal law.
Though immigration polled as voters' top issue in the gubernatorial race, "Schwarzenegger was adroit at avoiding issues that I think could have put him in an awkward position," DiCamillo said.
"He avoided immigration as a real campaign issue," said DiCamillo.
An issue that's national, such as immigration, boiling up in state voters' minds shows that Washington is not focused and underscores the trend toward Californians taking more into their own hands, the pollsters said.
"There's not consensus about what should be done but a sense there's a lot of unfinished business," Baldassare said. "That's why an issue like immigration bubbles up."
be scared folks, very scared. :-o
..or is it just nothing more than TWirPs at work... elites, social democRats and libs masquerading as moderates and now preparing to do their dirty deeds with a newly elected leader shaking it up on the media sound stage globally.
Gridlock is good. Republics are ugly but beat all alternatives. Let the fighting continue or prepare for tyranny.
This sounds like a way to create a brand new unelected governemnt. Just what the elitist snots have been dreaming about for years. I had a feeling the Democrats would go bonkers with their power if they got elected. Increasingly I'm being proven right.
Californians are backing away from the two-party machine system, voting for candidates of choice, and vigorously using initiatives.
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None of which has stopped the rampant spending and borrowing, the fleecing of the taxpayers continues unabated, only taking on a new dimension and image is all yet eerily sounding like the 'Third Way' in action with the new this and new that and all...
Somehow, creating a unicameral legislature to increase the volume and flow rate of the sludge created in Sacramento doesn't sound like an improvement, but maybe that's just me.
Go ahead California, if you want to run your own show, epect to pay for it yourself as well.
California is already bankrupt, so how is it going to make universal health care defying federal powers? (and therefore money)
Pay back your deficit you owe America California, then you can become Mexifornia all you want, and have Mexican style "universal health care" as well.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
No thank you, they can keep their "hybrid democracy".
"Californians are backing away from the two-party machine system, voting for candidates of choice, and vigorously using initiatives."
Some of the "initiatives" approved by voters that liberals don't like here in CA get thrown out in the lib hack courts
The Marxists declare their first victory in dismantling the USA. The nation-state of California. Be very afraid.
There's a reason that the founders set up the Constitution the way they did, and favored a democratic republic" rather than a democracy. Pure "democracy" is two wolves and a sheep on a desert island voting on what's for lunch.
You are right, of course. We are seeing another form of Communism rise, that's all. Now it's going to be done by the "right people", uh-huh... Hang on, this ride is going to be interesting.
I hate to have to state the obvious, but that's it.
and oddly enough, you will hear posters here saying that this is the best we can hope for... a liberal Gub running with a pack of liberal wonks..
Believe me, I say it with sadness and alarm! I have much family in California. I myself left--but with great reluctance. I LOVE California, but the Left has all but destroyed it--and all its promise. They will do the same with the entire United States, if the American people are foolish enough to let them.
and crooks.
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