Political Headline of the Day

From the Los Angeles Times:

Calif. voters exercise their power -- and that's the problem

The Times goes on to blame the voters for Sacramento's problems. They do have a point - it was voters who elected those dummies up there, but thanks to gerrymandering, voters are pretty much stuck with one party rule in this state.

And when the voters did try to act, such as in passing Prop 187 that would have rid our budget of $10 billion in expenses related to services to illegal aliens, a single judge overruled the entire electorate.

The mess in Sacramento has much more to do with our elected officials than the voters who are almost given no choice in who they send up there.

The Sacramento Bee editorial is much more accurate:

Good morning, members of the California Legislature. Good morning, Governor.

Feeling bruised and abused this morning? Well, you can't say you didn't see it coming. The polls have been saying for weeks that voters were going to do just what they did on Tuesday: Conclusively reject your slate on the ballot, Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and 1E.

Today, on the morning after voters kicked around your best effort at fixing the state budget as if it were a deflated soccer ball, you face a decision.

You can blame the voters for reacting with uninformed and misplaced anger.

Or you can look in the mirror and admit you had it coming. And you know you did.

Over the last couple of decades you and your predecessors in both parties created an environment of cynicism that poisoned Californians' faith in democracy. You have insulated yourselves from the electorate. You have rigged elections by drawing noncompetitive districts. You have discouraged turnout with negative campaigning. You have catered to special interests across the political spectrum.

As the state's fiscal situation grew more and more dire, you responded with years of gimmicks and stalling followed, finally, by secret negotiations to produce what turned out to be (at least in our estimation) an acceptable compromise.

But by then, the problem was too big to be solved so easily. And it was too late to make your case to the voters, who were tuned out and disengaged, which is exactly how most of you wanted them.

Read it all.