Jerry Brown: An Enlightened Despot?

July 2, 2012

By Katy Grimes

It is becoming rather difficult to distinguish California as part of a Representative Republic, when the Democratic party is able to hold budget “negotiations” without any Republican input, and the Governor attempts to manipulate the November ballot to favor a vote of his tax increase.

On Friday a Sacramento Superior Court judge stopped the Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, from assigning ballot numbers for the November election, thus preventing Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative from appearing on the ballot ahead of a competing tax initiative, for now.

The Molly Munger tax initiative campaign filed suit on Thursday to stop Brown’s manipulations from placing his initiative ahead of hers on the ballot, where most agree it would have a better chance of succeeding.

Judge Timothy Frawley ordered the Secretary of State to wait to do anything on ballot initiative placement until after a July 9 hearing.

Molly Munger’s tax increase initiative should have qualified ahead of Brown’s, leading many to believe that Bowen, also a Democrat, was in cahoots with Gov. Brown. The Munger campaign submitted signatures before Brown’s campaign, and in prior elections, ballot order has been determined by the date the initiative qualified. Munger’s initiative qualified before Brown’s.

The Judge wants the time to analyze election procedures, as well as a new law recently signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, which would help his initiative.

Brown appears to be signing laws that benefit his taxing plans. What country is this?

Worse than jury rigging

Brown’s antics are making Democrats in other states look like Boy Scouts, with this latest attempt to manipulate the November election.

Brown and state Democrats have so much riding on the passage of his income and sales tax initiative, that the Legislature just passed a bogus budget using anticipated revenue from passage of the hefty new taxes.

The Legislature and Governor not only increased spending this year, they obviously are confident they will squeeze it out of taxpayers one way or another. Democrats have become so cocky, this budget isn’t just out of balance, it is banking on futures.

This is a textbook case of counting your chickens before they hatch.

Budget hanky panky

Last week, while passing the remaining budget trailer bills, the Legislature passed a special bill which will place constitutional amendments above other propositions on state ballots, the Los Angeles Times reported. Brown’s initiative is a Constitutional Amendment. “The bill sailed through both houses of the Legislature without a committee hearing or any Republican votes,” the Times reported.

Since taking total control of both houses of the state Legislature, Democrats count on the end of the legislative session to pass many of the bills they couldn’t get through legitimately, by placing bill language into an empty “spot bill,” and then ramming it through for a legislative vote, without publicly held committee hearings. It is a sneaky, underhanded and dishonest way to pass legislation, and an obfuscation of the proper process–by any political party.

“During Brown’s 18 months in office, they have passed laws that could undermine initiatives they oppose and give a leg up to those they favor,” the Times reported.

Brown is increasingly using political tactics more commonly seen in despotism, when he doesn’t get his way, or when Democrats can’t get an agenda item through the Legislature. And his tactics closely resemble those of the Obama Administration, where Executive Orders prevail when the President cannot get Congress to do his special interest bidding.

Executive Orders and abuse of power

Brown has his own lengthy list of Executive Orders:

In April, Brown issued an Executive Order directing state agencies and state departments to take immediate steps to make state government buildings more sustainable and energy efficient, and meet the new, stringent “green” criteria. All new building will have to meet the state’s green building laws, and clean-energy retrofits of state buildings have already begun.

While this may make sense from an energy usage standpoint, the state is broke and needs to clean up its financial house before any more government expansions take place.

In May, Brown ordered the Secretary of the Health and Human Services Agency to establish a “Let’s Get Healthy California Task Force” to develop a 10-year plan “for improving the health of Californians.” Brown ordered all state agencies under his direct authority to cooperate. What an open checkbook for publicly funded health care in the largest welfare state in the nation.

In March, Brown ordered state agencies to begin to replace state vehicles with plug-in electric and fuel cell vehicles. While state officials vehemently deny that this is a carte blanche order to replace and buy all new state vehicles, anyone with half-a-brain can see where this order will lead.

Remember all of the clean, green Toyota Prius’s the Department of General Services bought, and then let sit unused? The General Services Department and Caltrans spent more than $5.5 million on new trucks and cars in 2009, but most of them sat idle.

These orders may make Brown think that he looks as if he is an Enlightened Monarch, but it feels more absolute power, and much more despotic, when rulers tended to abuse their power and authority to oppress the people.

Once the Golden State of opportunity, California has become the welfare state of nanny government, entitlements, and oppression, with continually increasing taxes on those who work, increasing government control, more and stiffer regulations on businesses and individuals, and far fewer individual rights.

Right under our noses, oppression and government dominance, using the overarching threat of punishment, has crept in. Starting at the top with the governor, lawmakers on every level in California seem to feel unrestricted by the state’s constitution, laws or by the opposition of the people.

What would you call this?