Hiram Johnson Had It Right : ’86 California Vote Supports His Faith in Grass-Roots Wisdom

Hiram Johnson, God rest his soul, must be grinning from ear to ear as he contemplates the results of the 1986 elections in California, which overwhelmingly vindicated his faith in the collective wisdom of ordinary Americans.

Johnson, who died 40 years ago, was the populist governor of California who, early in this century, was passionately dedicated to the idea of recapturing control of the state from railroad interests. Toward that end, he promoted fundamental reforms that allowed the people to overrule the Legislature and the courts by voting directly on ballot propositions.

To the frequent discomfort of elected officials and assorted elitists who don’t really trust voters in the mass to know what’s good for them, Californians have made vigorous use of the initiative process since its inception in 1911. The process is untidy, but it’s a fascinating and usually impressive exercise in grass-roots democracy.

This was never more evident than in last week’s general election.

Democrats nationwide are crowing about their recapture of the U.S. Senate, while Republicans console themselves with the gains in governorships that put the party of Lincoln and Ronald Reagan into a better position to build for the future.

Overshadowing the whole process, however, was the discomfort with the mind-boggling irrelevance, negativism and sheer dishonesty of most of the major political campaigns in the country. This is indeed a cause for genuine concern to anybody who takes American democracy seriously.

With precious few exceptions, candidates of both parties did not run against their opponents’ real records or stand on the issues, nor did they bother much to discuss what they would do differently. Instead of debating the trade-offs that are really at the heart of democratic decision-making, they used 30-second commercials for character assassination, pure and simple. Nowhere was this more true than in California.

In terms of election to specific offices, the wisdom or the stupidity of the choices that are made by the electorate is in the eyes of the beholder. But no rational observer can look at the election results, in terms of both electoral offices and propositions, without concluding that the people of California were neither an unthinking mob nor docile wearers of somebody’s horse collar.

The people elected a Republican governor but a Democratic senator, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird likes to think that her removal from office resulted from the nefarious influence of vested interests who seized on the death-penalty issue to get rid of justices who got in their way. But while some business interests may indeed have played this game, it is an insult to the intelligence of Californians to suggest that this was the reason for the overwhelming public rejection of her continued service on the state Supreme Court.

The people of this state voted in 1978 to legalize the death penalty. This may or may not have been the right thing to do, but it became part of the body of law that Bird and other members of the court were sworn to uphold. Yet in 61 of 61 cases since that time Bird found sufficient error by police, prosecutors or judges to nullify the application of the death penalty.

No one should be surprised that the electorate perceived this as judicial arrogance, and reacted by using the processes provided by the California Constitution to retire her from office.

Now look at what happened to the propositions.

Some folks are wringing their hands over the supposed racism or xenophobia reflected in the heavy yes vote for the initiative to make English the official language of California.

The proposition might have been worded better, and indeed there may be lawsuits seeking to use the initiative for extremist, ridiculous assaults on the multi-ethnic character of California. But anybody who thinks that most people were voting for extremism is simply out of touch with reality.

As the broad-based vote in favor of the proposition demonstrates--support that showed up in every geographic area and ethnic group in the state--that isn’t what the people meant to be doing. If the courts are not capable of separating sense from nonsense, they are in even worse shape than many of us thought.

On other propositions the majority of Californians voted in favor of bonds to build prisons; they also voted in favor of more money for schools and universities.

A seemingly attractive proposition to sharply limit state and local salaries went down to defeat; the people managed to comprehend that a measure that would drive police officers, firefighters, state university professors and other public servants into early retirement was not in the public interest. Similarly, despite deep concern over AIDS, the mischievous proposition that was pushed by political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. was soundly defeated.

Individual Americans range from stupid to brilliant, from good to bad and from generous to unconscionably greedy. Collectively, we are a pretty sensible bunch.

The bottom line is that direct democracy, California-style, is working. Hiram Johnson wouldn’t be surprised.