Widespread public disdain for a dysfunctional Legislature – just 13 percent of voters approved of the job it was doing in a recent poll – has spawned a rhetorical game in political, academic and media circles that goes something like this:
"Everything would be OK if only they would just (fill in the blank)."
Of course, the phrases offered to fill in that blank vary widely, depending on the player's ideological or cultural orientation. And that's why reforming the Capitol in any meaningful way is, at least so far, as elusive as balancing the horribly imbalanced state budget.
Thursday's joint hearing of two legislative committees appointed to explore "improving state government" was an official version of the game, with witnesses and committee members offering nostrums for raising politicians' reputations above those of mortgage bankers.
The most popular prescription, judging by how many times it was mentioned, was loosening up the state's 19-year-old legislative term limit law. Democrats, Republicans and academics took turns criticizing term limits – six years in the Assembly and eight years in the Senate.
Changing the limits would be the "single best thing you could do," opined Karl Kurtz of the National Conference of State Legislatures, to nods of bipartisan agreement.
"Term limits is just an awful thing," offered Republican Assemblyman Tom Berryhill of Modesto.
Even setting aside the reality that voters last year rejected modification of term limits, blaming them for the Legislature's wheel-spinning is revisionist history. Voters adopted them because they perceived, accurately, that the Legislature of the 1980s was ineffective and corrupt, as demonstrated by a federal undercover sting that sent many Capitol denizens to prison.
In reality, California's governmental dysfunction is much more fundamental than term limits, campaign contributions, gerrymandered legislative seats and other oft-cited factors, even though they have contributed to the institutional malaise.
Bill Lockyer, who's held state office for 35 years and is now state treasurer, came very close to the truth when he told legislators, "We're part of a system that was designed not to work."
The much-vaunted checks and balances of the American system, designed by the nation's founders who had revolted against a king and feared centralized power, create stasis in a society with as many rival factions as California has.
What may have worked in post-colonial, mono-cultural America doesn't work very well in a postindustrial, multicultural state such as California, especially since we've added even more hurdles to decision-making, such as ballot measures and two-thirds votes.
Until and unless we realign government to 21st century reality, another Lockyer observation will probably prevail: "You are the captive of this environment, and I don't see any way out."
Call The Bee's Dan Walters, (916) 321-1195. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/walters.
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