There is an unwritten law in California.
In California we believe that if you don’t think it’s broken, your standards suck.
Following this law has given us a whole new election process.
A Dictionary of American Politics, Comprising Accounts of Political Parties, Measures and Men, Etc. (Photo credit: Cornell University Library)this law, Californians have gone from being the best state in the union when I moved here in 1970 for such things as roads and schools to being last today. Having ruined the state infrastructure, the focus these days is undermining governance.
Yesterday was the primary election. Californians never expect to have an impact on the candidate for President. Still we get to express our preference and vote to determine who should be on the ballot in November. But California has decided that regular primary elections are just too ordinary for the Golden State. This is a primary election with a twist. This year everybody gets to vote for everybody; parties don’t count.
What I mean is that no matter what your political party preference, you get to see the entire list of candidates and vote your favorite. No more of those arbitrary distinctions between candidates and voters. Everybody is as good as everybody else. The idea that you should limit yourself to one party when you vote in the primary is like believeing that the Earth is flat. No flat Eathers alowed in Califronia. California is challenging the tired old routine of elections. They shook everything up by putting all the candidates on one ballot. No matter your political party you can vote for any candidate and only the top two vote getters will appear on the November ballot.
Why? you ask. In California you learn not to bother asking.
Nobody I know has offered a rational explanation for this change or any evidence that it is an improvement over what we used to do. I can’t even remember how this new process got established. It was probably one of the plethora of ballot initiatives that confuse California voters each election. Nobody can understand what the language means and both supporters and opponents lie like rugs.
Whatever, the result is that instead of all the miscellaneous political parties having a candidate on the Primary ballot in November, there will be only two candidates and there is no requirement about what party they represent. The voters will choose.. It might be two Democrats. It might be two Republicans. It might even be two Greens or a mix with one Democrat and one Republican or even a Libertarian and a Peace and Freedom. There are no petty rules about party representation.
Tradition never looked better as California improves itself to death.
As I watch California deteriorate these days I’m appreciating tradition more and more. Change isn’t always good. I don’t much like this change but it is something you have to accept when you live in California. It’s what they like to do in California, shake things up. Like they did a few years back with the ‘new’ math back when my kids were in elementary school. I have no idea what ‘ new’ math is, or was. I couldn’t make heads not tails of it. I always assumed that the teachers understood but there is no clear evidence that they did either. All I know is that my kids never understood math, new or old and hate math to this day, in spite of tutors hired to remedy the failings of the California education tyranny.
They never admit failure.
Eventually, (after my kids were past saving) California abandoned ‘new’ math and without fanfare or explanation returned to ‘old’ math. It’s a tradition in California to do new things, just because they are new. They rejected phonics as well but lucky for my kids they were already reading by then. They went back to phonics without skipping a beat or admitting failure. We shudder to think what might be next – new traffic laws?
So, it remains to be seen how this new election practice will fare. I fully expect that Californian’s will shrug the new practice after a year or two off and return to the old ways. I fully expect that the politicians will shrug it off as well just like they shrug off any responsibility to the people who elected them. What I do anticipate is that whatever the intent of the bureaucrats that designed this monstrosity, they will be upset when nothing much changes. That isn’t good either. I can’t believe that they will be satisfied with letting things go back to normal. Fortunately there are always plenty of new ways to do things.
Even California normal.
I thought the mix of English right next to Spanish was confusing and a distraction.
Hansi,
I guess I’m so used to seeing Spanish from living in California that I never even noticed.