Contributor

John Campbell

John Campbell (R-Irvine) is a California State Senator representing the 35th District in Orange County. He represents the cities of Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach and Cypress. He can be reached through his Senate website and through the website for his California Senate campaign. [go to Campbell index]

A Party Of Special Interests
California Democrats no longer control their party...
[John Campbell] 5/9/05

Democrats beware. Your party is no longer run by Democrats. It is being controlled lock, stock and barrel (gun control pun intended) by a dark force.

Those of you who are regular readers of this column know that the person writing this is a lifelong Republican. I further confess that I believe in and stand for the principles of the Grand Old Party. which have endured since the party’s foundation in 1856. So, you may suspect some foul play here.

But it’s worth noting that I also firmly believe in our two-party system of government. Neither party can be trusted to provide accountable governance without the check and balance of a vocal opposition party. Consequently, as citizens, we are best served by having two active and viable political parties.

It is for this reason that I am very disturbed to see that the Democratic Party in California has ceased to be a political party in the broad sense of the term. It is no longer a party run by individuals with a shared ideology. Instead, it has become a political action committee (PAC) for unions, particularly government employee unions.

Look at the big issues of the day. On almost all of the issues facing our state, the Democratic Party position is determined by the unions:

Education: Gov. Schwarzenegger wants to pay our good teachers more money, reform the antiquated teacher tenure system, expand the availability of charter schools, and allow non-union workers to perform gardening and other non-essential tasks at public schools. The unions oppose all of these common-sense improvements. Well, guess what? The ads you now see and hear on radio and TV attacking the governor’s plan are entirely funded by the unions themselves.

Budget: It has never been more crystal clear that there is waste in government. But getting rid of waste might mean a loss of union jobs. So, unions (and thereby Democrats) oppose any spending reductions and in fact oppose spending increases that are less than approximately 10% per year. This is bad policy for the state, which is still in the midst of a budget crisis.

Taxes: Higher taxes mean more government employees pay union dues. So, of course unions support them. Because unions support them, so do Democrats. This goes directly against the very citizenry that they represent (of which 90% of us are non-union).

Superstores: Have you noticed all of the public attacks on Wal-Mart and Costco lately? Trust me, the real fight here is that those two stores are non-union, and the other supermarkets are almost all unionized. So, Democrats attack the non-union competition.

I could also mention minimum wage, pension reform, worker’s compensation insurance costs and prison reform. I could go on and on and on. What do these issues all have in common? Every one of them is about a union agenda to benefit them or about unions blocking a reform agenda that they think may limit their power. And elected Democrats in California follow the union positions like sheep because that is where their bread is buttered.

The problem is, only a small minority of California’s work force are members of the government employee unions. So, the Democratic Party agenda is being driven by union bosses who have no interest in the other 90% of us. The union bosses are happy to sacrifice a dozen non-union jobs to see one single benefit-laden union job created.

It is this focus on a very narrow interest that caused the recall and the current battles in Sacramento. Democrats are the majority party in California, but their agenda is driven by an extreme minority that is out of step with the average Democrat, not to mention Republicans, Independents and the rest of the population. So, there is tension between Sacramento’s Democratic agenda and everyday members of the Democratic Party.

I hope that Democrats will take their party back. They do not need to exclude unions to do this. They merely need to avoid slavishly catering to the unions’ every desire, no matter how extreme, unreasonable, or damaging to the state. If this happens, I am still not likely to agree with Democratic Party objectives very often. But at least the political discourse in California will be returned to topics of general interest rather than a single narrow interest. Republican or Democrat, we will all be better off for it. CRO

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