Posted on 06/26/2006 3:01:57 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Founded in 1929 to unite the country after Mexico's revolution, the PRI ruled by accepting all ideologies. It catered to unions, the rich, the poor -- anyone who would support it. Its platform was maintaining power." - Associated Press, Sunday, June 25, 2006
I've been thinking the past few weeks about the conservative movement and the idea of winning versus merely staying ahead -- a strategy seemingly employed at the national level to ensure that the Republicans maintain the majority. Notice none of the political pundits are talking about Republicans trying to pick up seats this election cycle. They're merely trying to stay ahead.
After reading the AP's reference to the PRI this weekend, I concluded that I should be thinking not in terms of staying ahead, but in terms of winning versus "maintaining power."
Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters wrote last week about Governor Schwarzenegger's strategy of Clinton-style triangulation to win re-election this Fall.
"As he seeks re-election, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is triangulating like crazy, sailing a zigzag course of actions and pronouncements designed to keep fellow Republicans on his side in a showdown with Democrat Phil Angelides, while building support from the independents and moderates who will be critical to his re-election hopes." (June 23, 2006)
What Walters did not say, but which many in conservative circles say privately, is that the governor's real strategy is to buy off special interest groups that might otherwise expend tens of millions of dollars in political advertising to attack him, as happened last year during his ill-fated "Year of Reform" special election.
In their effort to defeat Schwarzenegger's reform initiatives last year, two of which would have taken a great deal of power from public employee unions like the California Teachers Association (CTA), and to drive down his approval rating with the public, the teachers union mortgaged their real estate investments and imposed a "teacher tax" on union members so they could raise enough money to run an expensive television and radio ad campaign against him.
Not wanting his re-election campaign to be a bloody sequel to the 2005 political barrage, Arnold, doing what any politician seeking to maintain power would do, bought off the teachers union in this year's budget with billions of dollars more for education, (not a dime of which is likely to make kids any smarter this year than they were last year). And it worked. Why, so enamored of this year's budget is the teachers union that they've taken upon themselves the altruistic endeavor of lobbying for the swift passage of the governor's budget. How big of them.
And there's also the $10.4 billion education bond, which the teachers union is also fond of. I'm sure that if the education bond passes, though it's not doing well in the polls I hear, all the money will be used to help the children. Or is it to protect the children? Well, don't get caught up in the details of all the miraculous things this bond money will do for children. They're really beside the point.
The teachers union isn't the only special interest with deep pockets that Arnold fears. CCPOA (California Correctional Peace Officers Association, a.k.a., prison guards union) has lots of dough, lots of power and lots of animosity toward anyone who doesn't bend to their will. So the governor did what governors seeking to maintain power do. He genuflected.
Gone are the days when Governor Schwarzenegger had the courage to speak honestly about the special interests that control Sacramento and wield extraordinary influence over state policy. He said as much in his 2005 State of the State when he courageously said of the Department of Corrections, "This is an agency in which there has been too much political influence, too much union control and too little management courage and accountability."
Yet last week, a federal court-appointed special master issued his most scathing review yet of the administrations mishandling of California's prison system.
"Following the appointment of Susan Kennedy as the governor's chief of staff ..., a series of disturbing developments have taken place which signal a return to the prior Davis administration's practice of allowing the CCPOA to over-rule the most critical decisions of the CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)secretary."
His administration willingly admits that "extending an olive branch is something they also are doing with other groups with which Schwarzenegger has previously clashed." By "previously clashed" they mean groups that expended tens of millions of dollars opposing the governor, and in the case of CCPOA, drove a flatbed truck around town with an unflattering billboard of Schwarzenegger in swim trunks - a little psychological warfare the prison guards union must have picked up in their Vacaville facility.
I've heard the word "masterful" used to describe how the governor is maneuvering all the pieces on the political chess board this year. But I would argue that it doesn't take a great deal of genius to figure out what the PRI determined so many decades ago - special interests have their price and can be bought.
And so it is that Arnold Schwarzenegger is in the position today of maintaining power. But he is not winning. Buying people off in politics is the equivalent of taking steroids to land in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. It's a short cut, and it's being done at taxpayer expense.
Winning is an art form that relies on the powers of persuasion and leadership - not handing out goodies from the state treasury. It requires a belief in something greater than oneself.
Arnold Schwarzenegger will probably be re-elected in November and maintain power for four more years, though it's anyone's guess how he will govern. Once he is gone, the Republican Party must determine if they are in the game to maintain power or win elections.
Yeah, I am dissappointed. Looks like the teachers unions and prison guards are running the state once again. One groups failures is the other's bread and buter. How ironic.
The problem is is that there's no version of a "teacher tax" that non teachers pay into to counter the teachers. There should be. Businesses for one, should pay into some fund to counter unions. After all, businesses represent all of us, but there's no way to get them to pay into a political fund like this. Some will, most won't. The teachers demonize businesses as special interest, but in reality they are the best providers for the common interest (with some regulation and barring monopoly).
Private contributions are too inefficient at raising money. If anyone has any ideas, I'd like to hear it.
Color me bitter. As one radio commentator put it, "Arnold could have been a contender." Instead he has turned into a girly man governor. Not the Governator we all hoped was taking the governor's chair when we kicked Gray Davis to the curb for his incompetence. What my beloved state needed (and still needs) was a take-no-prisoners, tough love governor. Instead Arnold squandered his mandate to reform the state government by trying to be popular with everyone. Instead of taking the fight to the Democrats, he tried to work with them by playing nice. Instead of trying turning the 2004 election into a referendum on the disfunctional state legislature, Arnold laid low. Instead of fighting toe and nail for his 2005 ballot reforms (none of which were radical enough in my book) he allowed the unions to tar and feather him and the reform movement was stopped. Arnold now acts like the pussy-whipped husband of a shrew wife, afraid of getting scolding should he speak up. And now he wants us to vote for him? Only by holding my nose and with the knowledge the alternative is much much worse.
It should be. The Left paid dearly for those victories last fall - if they had to do it again, they could end up financially hamstrung for a decade.
I am going to hold my nose and vote for Arnold the RHINO!
Who else is there?
No time to change Trojan horses in the middle of the river. ;-)
That is a question to be posed to the Ca GOP power and brain trust.. What exactly do they stand for.
Let the RINO die on the vine.
fyi
California state budget, at a glance
The Associated Press
http://www.bakersfield.com/119/story/59066.html
California lawmakers planned to vote Tuesday on a roughly $131 billion state budget. If approved and signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, it would:
BOOST EDUCATION FUNDING - Increase school funding from $50 billion this year to $55 billion next year. The funding would include money for music, art and physical education programs that Schwarzenegger supports. School districts also would be able to apply for $534 million in grants to buy new books and pay for other one-time expenses.
REPAY DEBT - Pay down $2.8 billion of general fund debt, including bond payments and money owed for transportation projects.
FULLY FUND TRANSPORTATION - Pay the full $1.4 billion owed to transportation projects under Proposition 42, and repay another $1.4 billion owed to transportation funds from past years.
EXPAND SOCIAL SERVICES - Improve foster care for 70,000 children ($75 million). Increase the income levels for subsidized child care eligibility ($67 million). Pay for cost-of-living increases for the elderly, blind and disabled ($42 million).
REDUCE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FEES - Cut community college tuition from $26-per-credit to $20-per-credit. Spend $130 million to keep University of California and California State University tuitions at their current levels.
HIRE NEW JUDGES - Hire up to 50 new judges ($5.5 million). Also, expand anti-gang programs ($6 million), and increase efforts to catch Methamphetamine dealers ($6.5 million).
EXTEND "YACHT TAX" - Charge Californians an estimated $28 million in taxes on boats, aircraft or other vehicles purchased outside the state.
Um if the feds find a problem with the prisons, the feds will take them over.
It's not going to work because Angelides has the real control of the most of these interest groups. They will gladly take Arnies handouts and vote against him. What a dolt.
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