California politics: What will Schwarzenegger do?

Schwarzenegger has so far given few signals about how he will proceed when he takes office. One of his campaign issues was to oppose the new law allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain state driver's licenses. This is a bellweather issue for many Latino voters. Since California agribusiness is completely dependent on illegal immigrants, I'd sure feel safer knowing the ones driving met minimal qualifications.

Schwarzenegger may also wind up bringing the structural crisis in state government closer to a head by trying to "go to the people" via referenda. Using referenda as a bludgeon against the Democratic Legislature could provoke the kind of confrontation that would put constitutional reform on the public agenda. Peter Schrag writes:

[T]here's a good chance that if the Legislature drags its feet on Schwarzenegger's reform program, he'll become the ringmaster for a wave of ballot measures all his own: a new measure imposing spending limits on the state budget and one shifting control of the decennial redistricting of Assembly, Senate and congressional seats from the Legislature to some kind of independent commission.

Schwarzenegger has already said that, if necessary, he wouldn't hesitate to go over the heads of the Legislature and directly to the voters. ...

[H]owever charmed some futurists are by the notion of some sort of instant electronic democracy, where people vote constantly on every conceivable question, the world is too complex, the need for expertise, deliberation and compromise too great, for good government to survive such a system.

Democracy may be in danger from domination by money, political venality and systemic dysfunction, but it's in at least as much danger from solutions that quick-fixers have tried to impose. Representative democracy needs restoration, not replacement.

Tags: california politics, immigration, latino vote, peter schrag, eschwarzenegger