Old-Fashioned Democracy in a Thoroughly Modern State

ORTHRIDGE, Calif. — One upon a time in America every Jane and Joe staked at least some of their dignity on a piece of the national ideal that said when the chips were down the little people could go up against the big guys and — without a lot of money, with nothing but decency and guts — they could win. For many people that populist ideal was the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address rolled into one.

But for decades now, the decline in voter turnout has measured the fading of that populist ideal. The new truism seems to be that the public doesn't count. Big money has the deck stacked and everybody in the know knows it.

Except, maybe, in California. While Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, that most old-fashioned of states, now raises large sums of money on the Internet, in California's Silicon Valley, where the future began, the political action is of the old-fashioned sort — at the supermarkets, the soccer fields and the malls. There are weekends when you can't go 20 paces without someone sticking a petition in your face and delivering a rapid-fire discourse on that day's urgent cause. If the canvassers are any good, a few months later you'll be seeing the subject of that petition in your voting booth. (Though voter turnout in California has been relatively flat as well.)

Talking about the latest wave of petitions, for a recall of Gov. Gray Davis, the novelist Steve Erickson said: "It's old-fashioned and antiquated. Unless, in the age of the Internet, the recall, or the instant democracy it represents, is in fact the wave of the future. In which case California is, once again, the land of innovation."

To the frustration of many, a new populism has been raising its wild head since Proposition 13 rewrote the state's property-tax laws in 1978. Between 1982 and 2002 Californians voted on 113 initiatives.

A case can be made that the California version of populism is often a me-first suburban populism that has sliced through welfare safety nets and decimated education. But little people here do go up against the big guys and win — with the attitude that if littler people suffer for it, hey, that's no dent in my S.U.V.

This view was expressed by Dan Schnur, the California Republican political consultant, in The Los Angeles Times. "Whether or not Davis is recalled from office," he said, "this is going to be something that historians look back at as an expression of direct democracy in a way that's never been accomplished. For some people, it's a great day. For others, it's a day that will live in infamy."

"The populist elements of California politics derive from 90 years ago, when there was a sense that you needed to do something to contain the effects of special interests, whether it was railroads or whatever," said Mark Baldassare, research director for the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, "You needed an additional check and balance."

Now, as Mr. Baldassare observed, "it requires a lot of money, whether it's an interest group or a wealthy individual."

The Davis recall effort took off after Representative Darrell E. Issa, Republican of California, reportedly donated more than $1 million of his own money to a group to hire organizers. Canvassers will be paid one dollar for every authenticated signature. Mr. Issa is now the only announced candidate.

Is the recall effort just an Issa campaign to get elected on the cheap? The ballot would consist of two questions: Do you want Gov. Gray Davis recalled? Who do you want to replace him? There will follow a list of names, and, if Governor Davis is recalled, the person who gets the most votes becomes governor the next day. A candidate can win without going through a messy primary, with only a fraction of the total vote. Some direct democracy.

"Typical California, this weird mixture of wistful populism and very hard-edged special-interest politics," said William B. Fulton, president of the Solimar Research Group, a research organization that studies growth and land use. "The tools that were designed to protect the people now have been appropriated by the special interests. Things go on the ballot on the state level because somebody has a lot of money for something they want to promote."

State Senator Sheila Kuehl, a Democrat, respects the optimism of the petition signers, but also fears for them. "The regular people signing their name on a petition do feel for the moment that they have seized democracy away from the evil forces," she said. "But I'm afraid it'll simply lead to more disappointment when they realize, if they ever do, that their thoughts about democracy have been manipulated by the moneyed interests. I'm afraid they'll end up even more jaded."

But initiatives aren't the whole story. Face-to-face political involvement is basic to many communities. Cheryl Revkin, a chiropractor, is president of the Silver Lake Chamber of Commerce. "When there's something that effects our lives," Ms. Revkin said, "people take it directly. At the onset of the war in Iraq, the first thing we did was call an open community meeting with our local city council member and our state assembly representative, and asked, `How will this war in Iraq effect our lives?' "

Certainly with an unprecedented $38 billion state deficit, budget deadlock in the state legislature and drastic cuts in public services, the mayhem facing Californians won't be alleviated by the elated moment of signing a petition — or by community meetings.

But even with these odds, in California little people still continue to think they can change the world. They may be crazy, and they may be wrong, but they're not kidding

Thanks for posting this!

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Sorry, the Grange was started in 1873 here in California. That is more than 90 years. I haven't done enough research to know if the Grange was truely populist back then. I've had several Texans say they were. We were the ones who had success regulating the railroads. Like it or not it is a fact.

Reporters still don't get it, over half the signatures were gathered by volunteers organized over the internet.

It's true that we might not have met the July deadline for a special election instead of the March primary but even without Issa's involvment the Recall movement would have gathered enough signatures to make the ballot by the September deadline.

I like your style in posting this article, you know!!!

I personally do not like the "one candidate" scenario being promoted by the CA Republican "leaders," as it gives Davis the opportunity to smear that one and slither past the challenge. I do NOT like the Repellican "King Makers" strategy and personally hope for the most chaotic list of challengers imaginable, you know.

I want Graywater to have to use a "street sweeper" mechanised shotgun, rather than a rifle. The people will like it better and Davis will go down with a pack of dogs tearing at every part of his anatomy, you know!!!

The candidate with the plurality will be one the people have chosen and NOT one chosen for them by the Repellicans! If the stupid Demonicrats sit it out... too bad, you know.

Knowing the people have chosen will put the fear of God into the Demonicrat dominated legislature and will give the new Governor the necessary "Manure Scoop Loader" to clean out the Crapitol and there won't be much the creeple people can do about it, you know!!!

What do you think about that scenario? How 'bout the rest of you CA FReepers? The Dems have long abused the initiative process since Prop 13 and love the "Direct Democrazy" of the initiative, referendum and RECALL, you know. I just think it's hilarious that it's coming back to bite them in the butt, BIGTIME, you know!

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