Conservatives' Populist Tool
Maybe Californians should start calling "the Governator" the "Road Warrior."
In the last few weeks, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, frustrated by a Democratic legislative majority that declines to act on his priorities, has taken to the streets in a Humvee, christened Reform 1, to qualify his initiative reform package, possibly for a November special election.
It's tempting for conservatives to dismiss his penchant to govern by initiative as typical of a celebrity governor. But such cynicism is shortsighted. Schwarzenegger's circumvention of the Legislature allows him to avoid the frequently unproductive dickering that makes up a big part of the legislative process. Hitting the campaign trail also enables him to renew his connection to the people, the primary source of his leverage over the Legislature.
Most important, Schwarzenegger's populism represents conservatives' best chance for structural reform in a political culture dominated by liberals and too impervious to the pressures of the political marketplace.
The initiative process can be problematic for conservatives. When misused, it affronts the representative democracy envisioned by the founding fathers, a system in which the people are supposed to pay attention to legislative decisions and vote lawmakers out of office if they disagree with them. It can force the electorate to grapple with legislative matters better handled by elected officials. And the initiative is particularly damaging to state Republicans because it allows voters to vent their frustrations at (predominantly Democratic) elected officials without having to adopt more sweeping political changes.
But despite their reflexive discomfort with a populist tool like the initiative, conservatives must realize that there are times when it enables voters ignored by their representatives to press principles that conflict with the interests or the ideology of the dominant political class. In California, that means the initiative often can advance conservative causes. For instance, the California Civil Rights Initiative, which bans race and gender preferences in public employment, education and contracting, and the Defense of Marriage Act, which affirms marriage as that between a man and a woman, passed handily.
The four initiatives Schwarzenegger is trying to qualify -- merit pay for public school teachers, spending controls for state government, a different pension system for public employees, and a redistricting scheme using retired judges -- similarly contradict the interests of the majority of the Legislature. All four are worthy of conservative support.
