Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing factor by launching “Marketing campaign for Democracy” towards authoritarian governors who’re limiting freedom in Republican states like Alabama and Florida.
However what he’s campaigning for isn’t democracy.
If democracy had been his mission, he’d be campaigning in California — as a result of our state has a deficit of it.
Newsom’s “Marketing campaign for Democracy” — the identify he’s given to a collection of occasions in Republican states and to the political motion committee paying for them — isn’t only a misnomer. It’s a part of an epidemic of leaders who painting no matter they’re doing as “democracy,” and their political opponents as a risk to it.
To grasp the issue, let’s begin with a definition: Democracy is on a regular basis individuals governing themselves.
However Newsom’s marketing campaign has little to do with getting collectively along with your neighbors to apply self-government. The governor as an alternative is main a big nationwide media marketing campaign to confront sins of politicians with whom he disagrees.
On the Marketing campaign for Democracy web site, the acknowledged mission is all about battle — “patriotic People should go on offense,” the location says, “bringing the battle” with an “aggressive” marketing campaign “to confront and defeat unAmerican authoritarianism.” Who’re these authoritarians? They’re all “extremist Republicans.”
Like most Californians, I agree with the marketing campaign’s criticisms of the Republican Celebration for bullying susceptible individuals, criminalizing free speech, denying rights to girls and dehumanizing immigrants. I feel it’s good that Newsom is providing robust phrases and a few protections for individuals beneath right-wing assault.
However Newsom’s slender cherry-picking of targets undermines his good intentions. Democratic decline is a world drawback that touches all events, and anti-democratic authoritarians can also emerge from the political left — like Joko Widodo in Indonesia or Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico.
That, nonetheless, isn’t the best omission within the “Marketing campaign for Democracy.” The web site gives hardly any concepts for extending democracy and the apply of presidency. One a part of the location, referred to as “California Management,” focuses on progressive social and environmental insurance policies, with solely a short point out of democracy.
Why? Maybe as a result of there isn’t a lot democracy in California to defend.
For the previous century, California has been centralizing energy in state authorities in Sacramento, and lowering the ability of individuals to manipulate themselves regionally. Choices about taxation and spending are particularly centralized, with communities lowered to lobbying Sacramento to get their a refund.
Newsom, and former governors, have prolonged their powers, particularly in emergencies. Accountability is tough as a result of state authorities is a extremely secretive entity. California companies routinely cover knowledge, ignore public and press questions, and refuse to offer fundamental data.
In the meantime, our democratic mechanisms have develop into much less helpful. Our system of direct democracy is so pricey that solely the richest and strongest individuals and organizations can afford to make use of it. The state’s Brown Act, an open conferences regulation, is now an anti-democratic gag rule limiting the flexibility of native officers and residents to fulfill and have broad discussions.
State officers love to speak about efforts to make it simpler for Californians to vote. They don’t discuss a lot about the truth that our elections are not often aggressive, or that the state’s strongest entites — unions, companies, varied commissions — can’t be voted out by the individuals.
In California, we additionally ignore the truth that large shares of Californians aren’t eligible to vote — as a result of they’re too younger, or as a result of they don’t seem to be U.S. residents. One quarter of voting-age adults in Los Angeles, and greater than one-third within the Salinas Valley, and greater than half in Central Valley cities are disenfranchised due to their citizenship.
If Newsom wished an effort worthy of the identify “Marketing campaign for Democracy,” he’d pursue a brand new structure that gives common suffrage and restores the ability of native communities to find out their very own fates.
The governor is deeply conversant in democratic innovation, as he demonstrated in his 2013 guide “Citizenville.” However will he tackle democratic reform?
The politics argue towards it. It’s simple to level out red-state fascism. It will a lot tougher to surrender energy and lead a marketing campaign to let Californians govern themselves.
Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Sq..
