Opinion: In today’s pages: elections, gay marriage and the disappearing GOP
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The state Supreme Court heard oral arguments for and against Proposition 8 today, and although the editorial board strongly supports marriage equality, it hopes the court ignores the political and emotional heat on the subject and focuses squarely on whether Prop. 8 amends the Constitution, as its backers maintain, or revises it, as opponents aver. By contrast there was pathetically little public interest in Tuesday’s elections. Even though Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa cruised to an easy victory, the board writes, the low turnout and lackluster support he garnered should tell him that voters aren’t happy with City Hall:
Against opponents with little political experience, a dearth of funding and no political apparatus to match the machine he has constructed, the mayor ended up with a lower percentage of the vote than he had four years ago...That feeling--that Angelenos are bit players in a politician’s personal story or a prize to be bargained for among parties to a political coalition--is back.
But if enthusiasm for the mayor has lessened, support for the Republican Party in California is in danger of disappearing entirely, writes Harold Meyerson over on Op-Ed. Demographic changes are giving a blue-tinge to once staunchly Republican districts, and if the GOP continues to oppose policies that its less conservative voters support then trouble is in the offing. Columnist Rosa Brooks writes that the memos released by the Justice Department laying out the legal justification for overweening presidential power weren’t just savage attacks on the Constitution, but are also ‘outrageously bad’ legal arguments.
Two other columnists take aim at structural problems with government: Patt Morrison says the California’s budget disaster, term limits, redistricting and bad fiscal habits can only be fixed by a constitutional convention. George Kenney, a diplomat during the George H.W. Bush administration, calls for the Senate to change the supermajority rule requiring 60 votes to end a filibuster and force a vote. The nation’s urgent business requires the smooth passage of legislation and the Dems shouldn’t miss this opportunity.
Cartoon: Rob Rogers/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette