Category: Practical Politics

The obvious theme of this week’s column could be and maybe should be the vicissitudes of the Michael Brown killing. But I’m not an obvious kind of writer.

Daily we are assaulted in the media with opinionated judgements regarding President Barack Obama and other political leaders, ostensibly offering up evaluations of some aspect of the president’s character. Unfortunately, the vast majority of those evaluations are nothing more than vapid vituperations based on hot air and gusty emotions. Messy and relevant facts controverting these blowheart opinions are readily ignored or merely denied in passing.

We are all aware that once the media, in one form or another, labels something or someone, and that label sticks, it’s relatively impossible to uncork that particular genie. Truth and facts have nothing to do with it.

Many of us have friends or acquaintances who say and/or do things that eventually ensnare us in trouble they caused. Often our defenses against the ensuing criticisms and controversies just deepen the hole we find ourselves in, and we stand or sit stalled in place trying to figure out what the hell happened.

One of the most cherished and distinctive ingredients of American democracy is the right of constituents to expect their elected representatives to have a residency among them. That has been part of a belief from the outset that in order to properly represent citizens and residents of an electoral district or territory, one must know the issues and challenges of that geographical area. The best way to do that is to live, or at least have a legal residency, in the territory one runs to represent.

Since California became a state in 1849, there have been attempts to divide its territory into smaller areas: In those days, the major issue was to have a non-slave state North California, and a slave state South California. That battle was lost by the slave staters. Since then, there have been at least 219 more proposals to divide California into smaller states.

’m usually a strong supporter of President Barack Obama. I’m sure when all is said and done, he will go down in history as one of America’s best presidents. Of course, how well the Democrats organize their base to get out for the November 2014 Congressional elections will have a big influence on the president’s legacy, one way or the other.

This is a hard column for me to write this week. Africa is in trouble. That’s not a comment that is hard to believe or one that is new to make.

This is not the first time this column has discussed public integrity and ethics in elective office in California, and it probably won’t be the last. But, gosh, another California State Senator indicted on federal charges of corruption, fraud, and even gun-running? And another democrat, too? Is it raining California political crooks now? Water, we certainly do need, but this is more like hot, moldy lard streaming greasily down onto our heads. Is this one of the pitfalls of living in the California paradise? You can’t trust the folks who take an oath to promote your best interests?