The political landscape is making a lot of people mad at "elites." Populist resentments are common these days – even in affluent Marin.

When the mood turns bitter and corrosive, appeals for civility are nice. But they won't accomplish much unless we can address some key underlying causes of distress.

Read the full op-ed

By NORMAN SOLOMON

     Democracy
is dangerous — for those who are eager to concentrate power in the hands of a
few.

     For many
years, in California’s legislature, a minority of lawmakers — Republicans
enjoying an inordinate proportion of corporate backing — have thwarted moves
to boost state revenues with more progressive taxation. The conservative
legislators have been able to send the state budget into a tailspin.

     Right
now, as the California Democracy Act Coalition notes, “one third of the
legislature can block the will of the majority on both the budget and revenue.
This means that the majority of our representatives, who are elected by the
people, are unable to run the state the way voters want them to. As a result,
California, one of the wealthiest economies in the world, is billions of
dollars in debt and can’t protect and empower its citizens.”

     A
solution is a proposal called the California Democracy Act, which would amend California’s
constitution with 14 words: “All legislative actions on revenue and budget must
be determined by a majority vote.”

     This
effort, sometimes known as the California Majority Rule Campaign, has a steep
uphill climb to gather enough signatures for getting the measure onto the
statewide ballot in November. (To find out how you can help, go to www.CaliforniansForDemocracy.com.)
It’s a growing campaign, but it doesn’t have big money behind it.

     In sharp
contrast, Proposition 16 has very big money behind it — PG&E, the massive investor-owned
utility. Mega-dollars have already financed signature-gathering that secured a place
for Prop 16 on the June statewide ballot.

     A
detailed critique is at www.PowerGrab.info.
It’s not necessary to agree with everything on the website to see that its opposition
to Prop 16 is fundamentally sound. The ballot measure is an outrageous attempt
to set up a blockade of election democracy with a two-thirds requirement.

    
The Prop 16 initiative “is about a monopoly seeking to expand its fossil
empire based on captive customers who have no alternative but to pay for it,”
PowerGrab.info says. “PG&E doesn't want Californians being able to find
other suppliers that might reduce local need for their foreign fuels and their
power transmission infrastructure. The power grab would strategically threaten
California's energy security by eroding local control over energy and climate
planning — the very ability of local governments to govern themselves.”

     Many
millions of dollars are in the chute from PG&E to try to convince voters to
support the measure — the purpose of which, in the words of a state filing by
proponents last summer, is “to guarantee to ratepayers and taxpayers the right
to vote any time a local government seeks to use public funds, public debt,
bonds or liability, or taxes or other financing to start or expand electric
delivery service to a new territory or new customers, or to implement a plan to
become an aggregate electricity provider.”

     But the two-thirds requirement goes way
beyond guaranteeing people the right to vote on major decisions.

     The
reason we should support efforts to get the California Democracy Act initiative
on the ballot is the same reason we should work to defeat Prop 16 — in a word,
democracy.

     In one
instance, activists across the state are trying to end the tyranny of the
two-thirds rule in the legislature. In another instance, PG&E is trying to
establish the tyranny of a two-thirds rule for local approval of efforts to
change electricity arrangements.

     These are
issues of process that go to the core of democracy. And here in West Marin,
where passions run high and civic engagement is widespread, we have vital
opportunities to stand up for democratic principles.

     We can —
and should — vigorously debate proposals on revenues and budgets in
Sacramento. We can — and should — scrutinize any proposal for a deal that
commits local governments to energy contracts.

     But
requiring a two-thirds vote? That’s corporate obstructionism, not democracy.

________________________________________________________

Norman Solomon is a national co-chair of the
Healthcare Not Warfare campaign and the author of many books including “War
Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” He is a
co-chair of the Commission on a Green New Deal for the North Bay.

[This article appeared in the March 18, 2010 edition of the West
Marin Citizen newspaper.]

Spring greetings!

OK, this isn't the spring we wanted.

The new healthcare law doesn't even have a non-robust public option.

Wall Street is soaring, but Main Street is sagging with unemployment.

Climate protection is stalled in Congress.

And war keeps escalating in Afghanistan.

But here's a positive note: This Wednesday (March 31) at 8 p.m., KQED TV Channel 9 will air a special one-hour report on Martin Luther King — "A Call to Conscience" — focusing on his profound decision to oppose the Vietnam War. As the war effort in Afghanistan intensifies, Dr. King is speaking to us.

President Obama's speech to troops in Afghanistan on Sunday kept me up all night. Yesterday, the Huffington Post and other websites published my article "A Bomber Jacket Doesn't Cover the Blood."

While we shouldn't succumb to what King called "the paralysis of analysis," the quest to understand the context of our warfare state is essential. I've tried to be helpful along that line with a couple of recent articles — "War Politics: Numb and Number" and "War in a Box."

As a national co-chair of the Healthcare Not Warfare campaign, I often think about the grim effects of distorted budget priorities. As elsewhere, the figures are devastating in Marin County and Sonoma County. 

Close to home, during the next couple of weeks, I'll be speaking on the radio and at events in Corte Madera, Berkeley and Oakland. For schedule details, please click here.

Last week, after Congress passed the healthcare bill, I stood under an archway at Union Station, near the Capitol, and did an interview with The Real News Network.

Later, I noticed some words chiseled into the marble overhead. The florid language was from a long-gone era, but the meaning could be summed up this way: The people of a nation should do unto others what they would like done unto them.

That's a pretty good summary of the progressive quest as we pursue the goals of healthcare for all, peace, gender equality, environmental protection, labor rights, humane immigration reform and so much more.

No matter how bad the news gets, we won't give up! 

Best wishes,

Norman

During the last couple of weeks, I've spoken to Democratic Party clubs and other activist groups from Santa Rosa and San Rafael to San Mateo County and the East Bay — some chartered by the state party, others affiliated with Democracy For America or Progressive Democrats of America, still others with no partisan affiliation.

In the process, I've listened to hundreds of pointed questions and deeply felt comments. And I can tell you this: Many people at the progressive base of the Democratic Party are getting very upset with the direction of the Obama administration.

While they haven't forgotten that we need to do all we can to defeat Republican candidates in November, it's painfully clear that progressives must build grassroots political power — to move the White House and Congress away from current policies.

Policies such as escalation of war in Afghanistan; tepid responses to the global warming emergency; massive bailouts to Wall Street; huge new federal subsidies for nuclear power; feeble job-creation programs, heavily reliant on GOP-style tax cuts and credits for businesses; disregard for habeas corpus and other basic civil liberties; "healthcare reform" largely crafted by the insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital industries . . .

A few days ago, responding to President Obama's latest embrace of Wall Street, the Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote in his New York Times blog: "How is it possible, at this late date, for Obama to be this clueless?"

Sad to say, the title of my article this week — "Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life" — was not hyperbolic.

The major military offensive that the Pentagon launched on Presidents Day weekend in southern Afghanistan made me think about young refugees who I met at a miserable camp in Kabul last summer. I wrote about one of them in an article titled "A Little Girl in Kabul."

I hope you'll take a couple of minutes now to click and watch some rare and stunning footage of Senator Wayne Morse as he spoke about war and congressional responsibility — at the outset of escalation of the Vietnam War — in ways that are not being heard today on Capitol Hill.

I'd be surprised if Senator Morse doesn't move you. His spirit is still with us.

Please share with others.

Best wishes,

Norman