Choosing your constituency

My grandfather accumulated a lot of wisdom in his 99 years on this earth. When he chose to share it--usually over a cocktail at happy hour--I would listen eagerly and try to retain as much as possible. Some of the more memorable things he said are the following: on finance-- "there's no friend like money in the bank." On health and ageing: "moderation is the key." On religion--"Religion is no damn good" On women--"if you stand women on their heads they all look the same." Much of what he said was tongue and cheek as he had a wonderful sense of wit and humor, but the one thing that he said that has resonated most with me over the years has to do with politics: "our government is not perfect, but it's the best damn government out there." That's worth remembering from time to time.
In my home state of California, Gov. Schwarzenegger is in the process of trying to break the gridlock that has maintained status quo for better or for worse (mostly worse) for at least the past decade. One of the measures he is in the process of getting on the ballot for the upcoming special election is Prop. 77, the redistricting-reform measure. This would take congressional redistricting out of the hands of lawmakers and put it in the hands of a panel of retired judges. As it exists now, basically congressmen can choose their constitituency through a process called gerrymandering. This all but assures perpetual re-election as evidenced by the fact that not one single seat changed hands in the last election among the CA congressional delegation.

The WSJ has more today in their editorial section:
A sharply split 2-1 decision by the California Court of Appeal regarding
the fate of Prop. 77, the redistricting-reform ballot measure, speaks to the
intense politicization of the state's initiative process. Prop. 77's proponents
have filed an emergency application to ask the California Supreme Court to
preserve the ballot measure.
In 2001, state Republicans and Democrats (aided by technology which allowed a whole new level of voter profiling) struck a brazen deal to draw districts: This resulted in an election where for the first time in modern California history not one seat changed party hands. Prop. 77 calls for immediate reform by mandating an independent panel to draw districts
impartially.
Democratic Attorney General Bill Lockyer and his confederates in
the legislative leadership have attempted to characterize what were essentially
clerical mistakes surrounding Prop. 77 as some kind of conspiracy between the
proponents, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a million Californians. Frankly, if the
legislative chairs want to investigate a conspiracy, they should start with the
AG's own bizarre legal renderings: For months, he used his authority to write
title and ballot summaries in a partisan fashion to discredit Gov.
Schwarzenegger's reform package. His characterization of a general budget
spending cap measure as "School Funding, School Spending" was such a blatant
attempt to stir up voter concern over education that he was forced to rewrite
summary and title. When questioned by the press about the redistricting
proposition, the AG offered that while he'd always been a proponent of removing
redistricting power from the hands of the legislature when he was a state senate
leader, he thought Prop. 77 was "kooky."
The AG's campaign against this measure smacks of Wonderland: "First the verdict then the trial." In the wake of the Court of Appeal decision, there is talk of copycat lawsuits challenging the plethora of initiatives which have become law. And flying through California's
buzz-circuit was a story -- which may be apocryphal -- that in D.C., on hearing
of the ruling favorable to the AG, the most right-wing GOP member of the
California delegation as well as its most liberal Democrat, both leading
opponents of fair redistricting, were seen embracing.
The special election this fall is more than a clash between Gov. Schwarzenegger and his Janissaries versus the Democratic legislature. It is potentially the Second Act of the
Recall -- the second stage of a revolution to reclaim sovereignty.
(Mr. Mundell is chairman of Californians for Fair Redistricting.)

Gerrymandering is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. Governing should be about consensus, but with an incumbent solidly entrenched through gerrymandering it makes a candidate mount a more radical campaign than may be necessary. In their quest for votes it forces them to gravitate more to the fringes--be it the left or the right--rather than towards the middle where compromise and consensus rule the day.

If anybody wonders if AG Lockyer has ulterior motives in his blatant obstructionism, remember that he has his eye on the governorship. He's also the one who said the following after the collapse of Enron in June 2001: "I would love to personally escort (Kennneth) Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, 'Hi, my name is Spike, honey.'".

There you have it. The California Attorney General officialy sanctions prison rape in the penal system.

This is when I remind myself, "it's not perfect, but it's the best damn government out there." Sometimes I'm not so sure.