“The fight for justice against corruption is never easy. It never has been and never will be. It exacts a toll on our self, our families, our friends, and especially our children. In the end, I believe, as in my case, the price we pay is well worth holding on to our dignity.”
Yesterday, I explained how the official title for California’s Proposition 28 tricks voters who favor tougher term limits into supporting a measure that will dramatically weaken those limits.
The title’s slipperiness is anything but accidental. It was designed to fool, hiding the fact that the measure doubles the time legislators can park themselves in the state assembly and ups senate tenure by 50 percent. Instead, voters read that Prop 28 “reduces” (ever so slightly) the time a politician can serve in both chambers, from 14 years to 12 years – something affecting less than one in ten office-holders.
“The proponents of the measure are longtime opponents of term limits who have long wanted to roll back California’s voter-approved legislative term limits,” says Jon Fleishman of the Flash Report, who serves as volunteer co-chairman of “No on 28.”
Still, the sham ballot title is only one part of the Prop 28 scam.
The biggest financial backer behind Prop 28 has been billionaire developer Edward Roski. While at the very same time legislators were awarding Roski’s company the special environmental exemptions he needed to build a sports stadium, Roski just happened to plunk down over a million bucks to the politician-prized petition drive, helping the measure get on the June 5th ballot.
“That’s crony capitalism and that stinks,” argues Fleishman.
“In a state with a 12-percent-plus unemployment rate,” Philip Blumel, president of U.S. Term Limits, points out about legislators, “the jobs they’re fighting the hardest to keep are their own.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Eugene V. Debs
“It is better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don’t want and get it.”
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Fawkes, Jefferson, Mom born, Debs jailed
On April 13, 1570, Guy Fawkes was born. In 1604, Fawkes became involved with a small group of English Catholics, led by Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate the Protestant King James and replace him with his daughter, third in the line of succession, Princess Elizabeth.
On April 13, 1743, Thomas Jefferson was born. Jefferson went on to swear “upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” He also wrote the Declaration of Independence, and served as the first U.S. Secretary of State, second Vice President and third President of the United States.
On April 13, 1919, Eugene V. Debs entered prison at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, for speaking out against the draft during World War I. Debs had run as the Socialist Party’s candidate for the presidency in 1900, 1904, 1908, and 1912. His last presidential run came in 1920 from his prison cell.
On April 13, 1934, Jane Jacob, who most scholars agree is the world’s best Mother ever, was born.
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Ballot Trickery
When California voters read Proposition 28’s ballot title, they overwhelmingly support the June 5th measure. That support radically dwindles when they learn more.
The Public Policy Institute of California released a poll showing 68 percent in favor and only 24 percent opposed. Surveyed Californians were responding to the official ballot title, which reads that Prop 28 “reduces the total amount of time a person may serve in the state legislature from 14 years to 12 years and allows 12 years’ service in one house.”
Voters want to reduce the time legislators spend in Sacramento.
But a poll commissioned by Citizens in Charge Foundation addressed the same measure, except voters were told, “Proposition 28 increases the total amount of time a person may serve in the state assembly from 6 years to 12 years. It allows a person to serve a total of 12 years either in the Assembly, the Senate, or a combination of both.”
Hearing that, voter support dive-bombed to a mere 28 percent, with 49 percent opposed.
Wording matters. Under Prop 28, the maximum time legislators can serve in both houses will be slightly reduced, from 14 to 12 years. But an analysis by U.S. Term Limits shows that only 8 percent of legislators would likely have their time in office reduced, since few legislators swap houses. Prop 28 doubles the amount of time politicians can stay in the Assembly and weakens the senate limit as well, allowing 82 percent of legislators to serve longer terms.
Jon Fleischman of Californians for Term Limits calls Prop 28 “a sham” because the ballot title was “written to fool the voters.”
“Scam” is a good word, too.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Seneca the Younger
Apply reason to difficulties; harsh circumstances can be softened, narrow limits can be widened, and burdensome things can be made to press less severely on those who bear them cleverly.
Seneca, Roman philosopher, statesman, and dramatist who died on April 12, 65 A.D.
On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began when Confederate shore batteries opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Bay. After firing more than 4,000 rounds at the fort in the next 34 hours, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surrendered. Two days later, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to quell the Southern “insurrection.” Thus began the deadliest war in American history with more than 600,000 dead on both sides.
On April 12, 1989, Abbie Hoffman, the 1960s political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party or “Yippies” and was tried and convicted of conspiracy and inciting a riot for his role in protests during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, as one of the Chicago 7, died after wallowing 150 phenobarbital tablets along with hard liquor. Hoffman’s death was officially ruled a suicide.
On April 12, 1999, President Bill Clinton was cited for contempt of court for giving “intentionally false statements” in a civil lawsuit brought against him by Paula Jones charging sexual harassment.
The art of polling is similar to almost any effort where interpretation is required: Context is important.
The Reason-Rupe pollsters seem to get this. Their recent survey covers not only a lot of ground (the president’s job performance, possible candidates in the upcoming elections, health care, morality and war) but goes into some depth on a number of the issues covered. For instance, each of Obama’s major challengers is put in the context of several competitive scenarios — Obama vs. Romney, Obama vs. Santorum (the poll was conducted before Santorum dropping out), Obama vs. Gingrich, Obama vs. Paul, etc.— with even possible third-party runs brought in. All very interesting.
The biggest section of the poll concerned health care. These questions also probed alternatives, eliciting opinions explicitly in the context of possible options and outcomes. But the results regarding Iran’s nuclear capabilities were especially provocative. Nearly half of Americans tend to favor military action against the country were we to discover that the Iranian government was developing nuclear weaponry. But, when the conflict was considered as a long, dragged-out affair — of the same variety as happened in Iraq — support dwindled, and the numbers opposed to intervention went well over half.
Not shocking. Costs matter. Context matters.
The most amusing element of context in the poll emerged in one pair of questions regarding Obamacare. Is the federal requirement to carry medical insurance unconstitutional? Over 60 percent said yes. But switch that mandate to requiring Americans to buy broccoli and other healthy foods, and those crying “unconstitutional” shot up to 87 percent.
Now that’s Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Elie Wiesel
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”
Americans too often forget how ugly politics used to be. In the 19th century, “tarring and feathering” was just one terrible way among many of “making a point.” Drenching somebody in hot tar is painful; putting feathers on that someone and sending them running was humiliating, as well.
And a sign of horrid cruelty.
Politics, which (we should remind ourselves) is how we publicly decide who gets to use the awesome and awful powers of the state (itself known to be the cruelest of cold monsters), can’t help but conjure up hate and violence. We must remain vigilant against that tendency.
So the recent killing of a Democratic campaign manager’s cat — actually, his child’s pet — and its desecration with the word “liberal” marked on it, has a context.
But that context is no excuse. It’s an incredibly sick, deranged, hateful act. We should all hope justice prevails.
The campaign manager responded reasonably, condemning whoever did it without casting blame about blindly. Too bad I can’t say that about the comments to the article on ThinkProgress.org. Many commenters there blame all “conservatives,” right-wingers, Rush Limbaugh, et al.
Like racist rhetoric, this paints blame with a wide brush, holding a whole group of people responsible for what one person in that group does. Shameful. But it’s even a bit worse in this case, since the guilty person has not been caught, so we don’t even know who did it or whether that person was actually a “conservative.”
Isn’t it time to get past blind hatred of the “they”?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.