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Blue Civil War: The Battle for California

Via Meadia readers know that the most important political battle in America today isnt the much-ballyhooed battle f or the soul of the GOP. It is the blue civil war, pitting key elements of the Democratic coalition against one another as the old social model f ails and the growth curve of rising blue model costs runs up against f iscal limits. Blue model policies, whatever their merits, dont generate the revenue that can support blue model institutions and methods, and when those shortf alls appear, the coalition divides. Its happened in Wisconsin, its happened in Indiana; its happened in Michigan and it is happening in Calif ornia. T he Battle of San Diego is now in f ull swing. Last summer, voters there approved Prop. B, a ballot measure to ref orm a pension system whose cost had quintupled in 12 years, eating up revenue f or other activities. As politicians struggled to pay of f the pension obligations, libraries closed their doors and roads deteriorated. Voters had enough. No longer would they accept service cuts (or tax hikes) to pay to keep unionized public employees in the lif estyle to which they had grown accustomed. T he unions are striking back. A f ew weeks ago, the Public Employment Relations Board, a quasi-judicial administrative agency f or public employees, ruled that the city f ailed to negotiate in good f aith with its public employee unions bef ore Proposition B was placed on the ballot, as a local news station reported. In other words, unions believe they should have veto power over which options are put bef ore the voters. City Attorney Jan Goldsmith was not impressed:

Were not gonna back down one iota, I can tell you that, he said. Because the people do have a right under direct democracy to bypass the city council, to bypass the state legislature, to bypass the labor unions, and to bypass PERB. This is a constitutional right, no different than the first amendment.

T he PERB ruling isnt binding on the city, but the court battles have already begun. If Prop. B is overturned in court, the city of San Diego stands to lose $27 million. But if the statewide trend is any indication, that wont happen. Public employee unions elsewhere in the state are currently losing similar battles against a state employee pension ref orm bill signed into law last August. And the unions have a surprisingly tough f oe in Governor Jerry Brown, who is now going to the mat against the unions on this issue. Its a striking sign of the times: in a Democratic trif ecta state where Dems control the governorship and both houses of the state legislature, the governor is f acing down the same unions that conjured up millions of dollars and thousands of supporters to back him. T he irony is rich; during Governor Browns f irst two term administration between 1975 and 1983 he helped create the modern Calif ornia system of powerf ul government employee unions. For decades, Democrats have straddled a divide: they sought to represent both the producers of government services and the low and middle income citizens who depend on those services. Democrats want the votes and the contributions of teacher unions, and they want the votes of the parents whose kids attend public schools. As long as the blue model worked, the contradictions could be managed. Increasingly, however, the contradictions have come to the f ore. Teacher unions want lif e employment f or incompetent teachers; their representatives negotiate f arcically unsound pension arrangements with complaisant politicians and want taxpayers to pony up when the huge bills come due. Other producers of government services also have their sweetheart deals. T he result is that the consumers of government services, many of whom of course are Democrats, are getting a raw deal. T hey are paying too much money in taxes to support a system of government that, however outstanding and dedicated some people in it may be, simply cannot deliver acceptable services at a reasonable cost. T he Democratic claim to represent both sides f airly is getting harder to sustain. Republicans right now are largely irrelevant to the blue civil war. T he consumers of government services f olks who send their kids to public schools, depend on mass transit, cant survive in old age without Medicare and Medicaidwant government to work better and more cheaply, but they dont want it to do less. T his is why the Battle of San Diego and similar f ights taking place across Calif ornia are unlikely to redraw partisan lines anytime soon. But theres a serious political opportunity in America f or a movement that cares deeply about ensuring that the people who need public services (whether provided directly by the state as in public schools or indirectly through vouchers and charter schools) receive good value f or their money. A movement that f ights to ref orm government and make it work, to strip away unnecessary f rills and patronage posts, to disempower bureaucracies and return control to citizens and to create a regulatory and legal f ramework that can bring start ups and jobs into inner cities could change the balance of power in American politics. We wouldnt be surprised to see some of the young people whove gone into programs like Teach For America, or been active in movements like the ef f ort to rebuild New Orleans begin to think outside the blue box about what kind of agenda Americas troubled cities really need. When and if that happens, the politics of the 2oth century will f inally begin to shut down, and the politics of a new and more hopef ul era in American lif e will get under way.

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