Detocqueville on California

In 1835 Alexis DeTocqueville came to the America to write about the new republic. That produced Democracy in America, which has some amazing insights on the American character that are true today. He was a classic liberal political thinker. In the book he commented "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." The same could be said for any legislative assembly - including the one in Sacramento.

The Sacramento Bee got me thinking about Democracy in America today. There were three articles in the forum section which focused that thought. The first by a political consultant named Larry Levine asked for a return of the California that Mr. Levine saw in his childhood. Mr. Levine argues that California has replaced its traditional optimistic sprit with a mean one - "A mean spirit has replaced the resolve of our past." Among his examples are community college fees which have gone to "intolerable" levels. Although California's community college fees are actually among the lowest in the nation, he argues that "At every turn, we are telling the weakest among us that we no longer are the kind and gentle people who will extend a helping hand." Note - the numbers Mr. Levine argues are actually even less credible. Here are some facts Mr. Levine. At $26 per unit a student can attend full time for less than $800 a year in fees, that is one third the AVERAGE fees in community college across the country. What is more, fee waiver program offers NO Fees to anyone who claims financial need. How he thinks this is intolerable is beyond me. But California has recently reduced its level of support for a lot of programs that it once spent money on. Whether these changes are heartless, indeed some of them are, should be a matter of public discussion.

A second article was from Pat Nolan, former Minority Leader of the California Assembly who was convicted in the Shrimpscam investigation and spent some time in prison. Nolan, who was a strong supporter of increased sentencing when he was a member, argued that all the laws we passed to lock up criminals are not cost effective. I posted his article to my facebook page and a friend said "What's amazing is that it's taken him 20 years and a prison term to realize what almost everyone in Sacto except CCPOA and the Republican caucus were saying at the time. Long sentences for non-violent offenders just represented more workload (read jobs/union dues/campaign contributions) for the CCPOA, and damn the direct costs." The fight for the Governor's proposal to change the way we incarcerate people in the Assembly, is reflective of the unreconstructed people who still support Nolan's old position. I was impressed with Nolan's change in thinking - my friend was less so. The supporters of more incarceration never tell you that their "scholarships" to San Quentin cost the taxpayers $60,000 or more per year per person. Like Levine, those who oppose even looking at changing our current prison system are convinced that any change will somehow be "intolerable." Both sides claim certitude but have a tin ear a listening to alternatives, much less thinking about them. When legislatures do not work the DeTocqueville warning becomes even more important.

Both articles seemed to remind me of DeTocqueville - whether you are a liberal or conservative in California you expect that either side can bribe the public with its own money. Neither side bothers to look at the big picture but looks at how they can apply rents to their pet projects.

The third article, which was an editorial in the Forum section argues that the state is still a place of opportunity., That is in spite of thousands of Californians leaving the state, higher levels of unemployment (than the national average), and a seemingly intractable set of problems that the legislature seems inclined to ignore. The editorial suggests that California still attracts 46% of the venture funding in the country. Blah, blah, blah. Weather will not overcome an inability of the legislature to intelligently discuss what we want to accomplish in the public sector. Neither the right nor the left cares much about the package of things that we need to spend money on- without that the state will drift to a new status - Mississippi with earthquakes.