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The recent overthrow of the minority leader in the California State Senate proves what many Californians have known for a very long time, the state GOP, rendered mostly irrelevant through their own extremism, have decided to fold their arms, pout and watch the state go down in flames. The bankruptcy of the State of California, the sixth largest economy on earth, is the ultimate monument to the policies of Grover Norquist and his ilk. As the right has been unable to shrink California's state government until it was "small enough to drown in a bathtub" they have decided to use the last tool available to them (the super-majority requirement to pass a budget through the Legislature) in order to forcibly strangle the state.
This is indicative of the whole neocon philosophy of government, that the old system has to be smashed in order for a new system to be born from the chaos. What the ideologues of the right have yet failed to learn, is that the only thing born of chaos, is more chaos. This will become readily apparent later this year, when the winter rainstorms give way to the dry heat of summer, and the California Chaparral goes through its yearly process of self-immolation. Without adequate funding, how will the already over-stretched Cal Fire organization manage to hold back this year's walls of flame?
The irony is, that many of the regions which will face the worst burns, such as San Diego County, Orange County and the High Desert, have been Republican strongholds for years. Effectively, the representatives for these regions have voted for the annihilation of their constituents. Nevertheless, there will be plenty of Californians who will lose their homes this summer who have urgently pled for a budget, any budget to pass. Yet nature, who respects neither borders nor jurisdictions, will not pay attention to voting records or party affiliation either, left and right alike will be consumed in the coming conflagration.
Will we remember the disastrous effects of this neglect and obstructionism come 2010? I certainly hope so. Assuming there is any state left to reclaim by then, one of the primary goals for the midterm ballot should be a referendum ensuring that this last measure of Republican obstructionism in budgetary matters is discarded on the ash-heap of history. The voters of the Golden State should look to pass a measure that overturns Proposition 13's longstanding requirement of a super-majority to pass the state budget. If all that is required to pass a budget in California is a simple majority, the state GOP will be forced to either move into the California mainstream, or fade into extremist oblivion.
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