Opinion: California Über Alles: Why we ♥ Jerry
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To add a little more color to Robert Greene’s Ahab-like search for Attorney General Jerry Brown, you might want to take a look at Chris Bray’s nearly decade-old appreciation of the mayoralgubernatorialjudicialalmostpresidential veteran. While acknowledging the weirdness and air of general fun-making that surround Brown, Bray makes a point that has become even sharper since 1998:
But it’s also hard to overlook the fact that ‘Governor Moonbeam’ earned his nickname during not one but two consecutive terms in his state’s highest office, terms that followed his service as California’s elected Secretary of State; so he was, you understand, silly, crazy, ineffective, embarrassing, and repeatedly embraced by a majority of the voters--including, in 1978, the majority of the voters in conservative-stronghold-of-conservative-strongholds, Orange County, which includes the home district of former US Representative Bob ‘B-1’ Dornan. Makes all the sense in the world--and explains why leftie writer Alexander Cockburn once wrote that Brown ‘has one of the most consistently decent, innovative records in US politics,’ the full exploration of which would take even more columns than the cranky-tortoise stuff. Note also that Brown built up a budget surplus while earning those plaudits from the political left, explaining this interesting fact to reporters with two words: ‘I’m cheap.’
Tom Carson once made the devastating observation that the saga of the Kennedys eerily resembles the saga of the Corleones, except that in this case the brother who ends up on top is Fredo—the truth in the joke being that if you line up all the political achievements of the Kennedy brothers, it’s Ted who, through sheer longevity, has the most to show. I would rank Jerry Brown quite a bit higher than Ted Kennedy in my list of less-loathed politicians, but I think there’s something similar at work in the political legacies of Big Edmund and Little Edmund. As Jerry Brown completes a generally successful tour as mayor of Oakland and assumes yet another statewide office, burnished by several presidential runs and a shoutout from that great political thinker Jello Biafra, you have to ask whether Jerry’s just the son of Pat or Pat was just the father of Jerry.