Tuesday's Defeat - The Senator's thoughts on the special election..Tom McClintock

CaliforniaRepublic.org ^ | 11/14/05 | Tom McClintock

[NormsRevenge]

In 1945, Winston Churchill was swept from office in a devastating election defeat just days after leading England safely through World War II. As he watched in morose silence as the results rolled in, Clementine sat beside him, patted his knee and said, “If you ask me, Winston, it’s a blessing in disguise.” Churchill growled, “At the moment, madam, it is very well disguised, indeed.”

I’m not going to pretend that Tuesday’s election was anything other than what it was: an unmitigated and stunning defeat of some of the most basic principles of good government ever put to a vote: that government should live within its means; that politicians shouldn’t chose who gets to vote for them; that teachers should demonstrate sustained competence before they’re granted lifetime tenure; that public employees have a right to decide for themselves what candidates they’ll support with their own money; and that parents have a right to know if their teenaged daughter is undergoing an abortion.

Nor am I going to pretend that the election can be easily dismissed as a fluke. It was a major setback in the cause of reform and a major victory for the government unions that are now ascendant, emboldened and unchallenged in their domination of our political and legislative process.

There are many lessons to be learned and to be learned well. But as Mark Twain warned, “We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits on a hot stove-lid; she will never sit on a hot stove-lid again--and that is well; but also she will never sit on a cold one anymore."

I have always said that it is naïve to believe that the same legislature that got California into its mess is going to get it back out. The Governor learned this during the first year of his administration, when, despite a few cosmetic and incremental successes, no serious reforms survived the legislature and the state’s finances continued to deteriorate (masked by a $15 billion infusion of borrowed money).

The governor ultimately had no alternative than to bring this impasse to a head and appeal directly to the people. He could have maintained a façade of bipartisanship, contented himself to tinker at the margins, put forth pleasing half-measures while the state’s deficit continued to mount – but he chose finally to confront the state’s condition boldly and forthrightly. And he knew that to do so, he had to confront the government unions responsible for that condition.

Should the election have been called sooner, when civic attention and the Governor’s popularity were at an all-time high? Could the reforms have been better selected, framed and crafted? Would a clearer presentation of these issues have prevailed?

Those shoulda-coulda-woulda questions are important ones and I don’t begrudge the pundits who are now raising and answering them. But they should be tempered by Teddy Roosevelt’s observation that, "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again (because there is no effort without error or shortcoming), but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause…”

Now the watchword is “compromise,” but through all this soothing rhetoric there is a hardened reality: the government unions are now in a stronger political position than ever and no “compromise” will escape the Capitol without their seal of approval. And that means the state will continue to drift upon the course that has already brought it to the brink of insolvency, until the next crisis awakens voters.

Elections are decisive moments in time that record a snapshot of public judgment, but they are conducted in a dynamic world where events can quickly reshape the political landscape. If the fundamental course of the government is not changed – and the government unions have an intense self-interest and demonstrated ability NOT to change – crises will visit California with increasing frequency and intensity. In such an environment, the politics of the state could shift very rapidly.

Whatever the Governor does in response to the election, it is imperative that he levels with the people on the actual fiscal condition of the state and that he is very clear and uncompromising in presenting the solutions that must ultimately resolve it. And when watered-down and meaningless changes are all that emerge from the legislature, he must resist the temptation to proclaim them as anything more.

We humans are creatures of habit. We instinctively resist change and engineer our institutions of government to resist it as well. Change occurs in a society only after the necessity for it finally overcomes our own resistance. That is why serious reforms only come in a state of agitation – and why the recall succeeded in 2003, while the reforms to consummate that recall failed two years later. The recall proceeded while the public perceived a crisis and the reforms were attempted when they did not.

When the next crisis comes, the Governor will find a new appreciation among Californians for what he was trying to do in this election, and a more receptive electorate to do so in the next.

[NormsRevenge]

Tom McClintock

Mr. McClintock is an expert on matters of the State budget and fiscal discipline. He is a Senator in the California State Legislature and ran for Governor in the 2003 recall election. His valuable website is found at www.tommclintock.com

[NormsRevenge]

He is also running for Lt. Gub in '06. Go Tom!

[kellynla]

I wish he would run for governor!

Been a lonnnnnng time since we had a true blue conservative governor!

[rellimpank]

Whatever the Governor does in response to the election, it is imperative that he levels with the people on the actual fiscal condition of the state and that he is very clear and uncompromising in presenting the solutions that must ultimately resolve it. And when watered-down and meaningless changes are all that emerge from the legislature, he must resist the temptation to proclaim them as anything more.--

--i.e., the Gobernator needs to do what he should have spent the last two years doing---

[Jibaholic]

California is a lost cause. There are only two kinds of blue states. Those that will soon be red (the great lakes states), and those that will soon go bankrupt after driving out all their productive citizens.

[atomicweeder]

Eventually, California will be forced to take much more drastic action than the current Governor proposed. (For example -- defaulting on state employees' paychecks.)

[Grampa Dave]

"The governor ultimately had no alternative than to bring this impasse to a head and appeal directly to the people. He could have maintained a façade of bipartisanship, contented himself to tinker at the margins, put forth pleasing half-measures while the state’s deficit continued to mount – but he chose finally to confront the state’s condition boldly and forthrightly. And he knew that to do so, he had to confront the government unions responsible for that condition."

"Those shoulda-coulda-woulda questions are important ones and I don’t begrudge the pundits who are now raising and answering them. But they should be tempered by Teddy Roosevelt’s observation that, "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again (because there is no effort without error or shortcoming), but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause…”

Most of those so called California conservative critics, who didn't vote and stayed home in a temper tantrum are those who perceive themselves as the Pure Walk on Water Conservatives. They had rather bitch about something in their lunacy than do something about the problem. They spend more time stabbing Arnold and GW in the back than eliminating liberals.

46

Most of those so called California conservative critics, who didn't vote and stayed home in a temper tantrum are those who perceive themselves as the Pure Walk on Water Conservatives. They had rather bitch about something in their lunacy than do something about the problem. They spend more time stabbing Arnold and GW in the back than eliminating liberals.

[Redleg Duke]

"Most of those so called California conservative critics, who didn't vote and stayed home in a temper tantrum are those who perceive themselves as the Pure Walk on Water Conservatives. They had rather bitch about something in their lunacy than do something about the problem. They spend more time stabbing Arnold and GW in the back than eliminating liberals."

That is it in a nutshell, the single-issue, conservative "purists" who, if they can't get everything their way, will sit it out and "send a message". The message is "Liberals survive another election!"

[Guyin4Os]

California is a lost cause

Only in the eyes of those who accept losing.

[Earendil]

Bottom line is even some of those who call themselves "conservatives" are at the trough getting money from taxes. My co-worker, a so-called "conservative" has a wife who is a teacher. He couldn't wait to get to the polls to defeat the propositions because "teachers work hard for what they get and they are entitled to their benefits and the Union helps them get those". This same co-worker, who is staunchly anti-abortion, who decries liberalism in our culture, is for lower taxes, supports the military and resents social programs can't wait to get "life time medical benefits" from his wife's teaching career, at no cost to him. He also says adamantly she should do everything she can to draw social security because "she paid into it and is entitled to it".

It is "conservatives" like this who support the status quo in this state. Their hands are in the public trough and I really doubt there is the will to change it. As long as people are benefiting from public funds like this they are not going to change their votes. The problem is systemic and can only be changed by a complete overhaul, which is not going to happen anytime soon.

[kellynla]

Do you live in California?

[Grampa Dave]

"That is it in a nutshell, the single-issue, conservative "purists" who, if they can't get everything their way, will sit it out and "send a message". The message is "Liberals survive another election."

Amazing isn't it. My wife voted late after she finished working just before the polls closed. She was able to scan who voted in our cul de sac as she signed the roster.

Every liberal voted at least once. We were the only conservatives/republicans out of 3 couples, who voted. Since then I have talked to the two conservative guys who didn't vote. They were mad at Arnold for something he did or didn't do. So they didn't bother to vote. I told both of them that the union thugs and libs in Sacramento thanked them. They just shrugged.

[Jibaholic]

Only in the eyes of those who accept losing.

Wrong. Voting with your feet is the most powerful way to repudiate liberalism. Give 'em enough rope and they will hang themselves. As more and more people vote with their feet and move away from high tax blue states like California and Massachusettes, the liberal experiment will be in more and more trouble. Eventually it will collapse under its own deadweight.

That is the purpose of federalism: give failing ideas the freedom to fail.

[Redleg Duke]

Yeah, Republican/Conservative indifference is what the RATS' are counting on to keep them alive.

[Grampa Dave]

I have lived in N California since 1971 and have voted for every Republican candidate since we registered that year.

We have voted for every proposition that helped us like Prop 13 and against every prop like those that won in the last election.

Can you say the same?

[Redleg Duke]

Sure, as more and more Republicans/Conservatives "vote with their feet", the liberals will push California into a merger with Mexico.

Smart! Real smart!

[Clock King]

He tried that remember, But people are so stupid they elect celebrity over ability. Flash and Style over ideas. I'm beginning to dis-believe in democratic principles. People are too stupid.

[Grampa Dave]

I voted at about 5 pm.

Standing outside were democrat and republican poll watchers. The rat was all grins as the repubie was sadly looking at some list on the outside.

After voting, I talked to the republican poll watcher, and asked him how it was going. He said that about 30% of the republicans had not shown up to vote. The rats were running at about 80% and usually did well towards the end of the day.

[LdSentinal]

California is not a lost cause.

New York is a lost cause.

[Pragmatic_View]

"Most of those so called California conservative critics, who didn't vote and stayed home in a temper tantrum are those who perceive themselves as the Pure Walk on Water Conservatives. They had rather bitch about something in their lunacy than do something about the problem. They spend more time stabbing Arnold and GW in the back than eliminating liberals. "

"An excellent analysis of the situation by Tom McClintock and great post by you, pointing out and illustrating the key issues. BRAVO!