California Republicans haven't offered a cogent platform in more than 15 years. Their recall pitch was worse than ever, writes columnist hiltzikm.
One would have expected the state GOP to put its best foot forward during the recall campaign just ended. To set its best foot forward in an election that, thanks to its procedural peculiarities, presented its best opportunity in more than a decade to break the Democratic stranglehold on state government, if only temporarily.The Republicans couldn’t even coalesce around a single credible candidate as an alternative to Democratic Gov.
In a perfect world, the party out of power would serve the public interest as an effective counterweight to the policies of the party in power. A truth rarely acknowledged is that a sensible opposition is healthy for majority parties too. It may even produce ideas that can be incorporated in legislation, lending bipartisan coloration to policy if not in fact, at least in effect. A smart party leadership will do well to keep its eyes on what the opposition is thinking and where it’s finding strength.Some cautioned that the recall and initiatives would become playthings of the powerful. That’s what’s happened.
The measure explicitly barred immigrants without documentation from state social and economic programs, but in reality it was an attack on all immigrants, especially Latinos. In effect it opened the door to racial profiling by law enforcement officers and others acting under color of law.Proposition 187 passed with 59% of the vote but was subsequently invalidated in the federal courts.
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