Yesterday

What a sad day for democracy and for the "great state" of California. All partisanship aside, yesterday was a chance for people to actually make positive change. Yes I voted for all of the Governor's propositions, and I will concede all those issues but one, Prop 77-Redistricting. People voted against it because "The People's Court's" Judge Wapner told them not too. This State is highly polarized and every effort made in favor of democracy has been defeated. We will now continue to go on as we have with politics as usual.

People say they hate politics, they say they hate how money corrodes government, but they still vote for the side with the most money. They seem to take for granted the fact that by voting on propositions period, they are being bought. No one can understand what they are voting on and for, and no matter how hard and sincere of an effort they make to be unbiassed, Californians are not turning off the television. Never mind that politicians on both sides couldn't stand for Prop 77. People associated all the propositions with the Governor they hate who is of the same Party as the President they hate. These propositions were pitted as a partisan by the No's. Instead of taking each issue on its own merit, people decided to vote the same on them all. (This actually was a strategic mistake on the part of the Yes's but I won't get into it because it is a moot question and I am not a political strategist.)

Because of money, the proposition process is essentially voting for Yes or No on an arbitrary number rather than an issue. After all the confusion people go into voting recalling a grocery list of numbers with yes's and no's next to them. By the time they go in even if there were no descriptions—or even words period—next to these numbers we would vote yes/no.

We were also bought by prescription drug companies with Props. 78 and 79. I am going to assume that since it is lower in the sequence, 78 was put on the ballot as a sincere attempt to give voters a chance to decide on an issue about prescription drugs—I must admit can't tell you what their intended changes were, but in general they were obviously about cost. I do know that the prescription drug companies spent 80 million dollars on this election. Whichever way you look at it the "confuse the voters more strategy" did its job. When a proposition is put on the ballot, if the opposing side has enough money to buy signatures, they can put up another proposition on the same issue, knowing that when there is confusion both measures are almost unequivocally defeated. Either way even if their proposition loses, they are happy because they have actually won, in other words once again our votes were bought.

You all know that I am "into" politics, but I really am not making partisan accusations. Things need to change here. I am sad that they never will because of money. Because of the money given to the No side of Prop 77, instead of speculating and polling, I can TELL you who your new same congress member will be, who your new same state senator will be and who your new same assembly member will be. As such, this means theoretically your vote doesn't count. I hope that you will let your friends know that you are and we all should be tired of the same, same, same game that politicians play. If in the future another redistricting measure comes up on the ballot—which is truly a gift since California is one of the only states in the Union that actually lets people vote on law—please vote in the direction of change. A redistricting vote is probably the single most powerful vote you have. (Another reason is so we don't turnout like Texas in 2003—and I'm only half kidding)