Maviglio bashes Reps on diversity — but what about Dems?

Dec. 10, 2012

By John Seiler

I seem to be the last person in California that votes only on the issues, not by groups, or “diversity.” It wouldn’t matter at all to me if every top state office and every seat in the Legislature included only Latinos, Asians, women, etc. Just so they voted for much smaller and better-run government.

One who’s playing the diversity game big time is Democratic activist Steve Maviglio, who like me is a white guy. He attacks the reeling GOP for supposedly lacking diversity and for not having exactly the same ultra-left views as the Democratic majority.

Let’s start with the issues, or the few he mentioned:

“Whether it’s the DREAM Act, environmental justice, or education funding, Assembly Republicans (with the exception of GOP Caucus outcast Brian Nestande) have voted in lockstep against legislation these [diverse Democratic] voters care about.”

Let’s see. The California DREAM Act gives Californians’ tax money to students who aren’t even U.S. citizens, something that doesn’t happen to students from Arizona, New York, New Hampshire or other states. “environmental justice” means AB 32, which is killing 1 million jobs, especially for the “diversity” folks he claims to be advancing.

And “education funding” means opposing the Prop. 30 tax increases that actually are going not to the classroom, but to CalSTRS to fund retirees’ pensions. In any case, California schools are so poorly managed, and produce such dismal results, especially for Latinos and blacks, that only a complete overhaul could help. But the teachers’ unions will prevent that.

So let’s move on to “diversity.” Maviglio tallies the racial sins of the Republicans:

“The Democratic majority in the Assembly is the now the most diverse in the nation. It features 16 Latinos, seven members of the American Pacific Islander community, seven African-Americans, 14 women, and 4 LGBT members.

“In comparison, the GOP Caucus has just seven women and, as mentioned earlier, two Latinos. There are no African-American members, no Asian-American members, and a the median age that AARP would love.”

But Democratic backbenchers in the Assembly have no power.

Undiverse Dems

Let’s put up a list of the most powerful politicians in California, all Democrats: Gov. Jerry Brown, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Barbara Boxer, House Democratic Leader (and former Speaker) Nancy Pelosi and pottymouth Democratic Party Chairman John Burton. All are white septuagenarians. On Dec. 15, Burton will be an octogenarian.

All of these Anglo bigshots are from the Bay Area. None is from Southern California or Bakersfield or Humboldt or Salinas.

Why didn’t Democrats, for example, run a Latino instead of Feinstein in this year’s Senate race? The Latino candidate, like Feinstein, easily would have beaten the Republican nominee, Elizabeth Emken. Or how about Kamala Harris for U.S. Senate? Right now, she would be preparing to take her oath of office.

But, no. Instead of bringing some new ideas and energy — and diversity — to the seat, they stuck with a persona and the ideas of the 1970s.

It looks like Brown will be running for re-election again in 2014. Aren’t three terms as governor enough? Plus two terms as attorney general and one as secretary of state? And being mayor of Oakland? Can’t he step aside for a diverse candidate, such as Asian-American Controller John Chiang? Or how about Harris, the attorney general whose background is Indian-American and African-American?

Strangely, Maviglio even attacks Assembly Republicans as being too old. Yet on average his party’s sclerotic leadership is two decades older than them!

He attacks Assembly Republicans for not being diverse enough. But the Democratic party bigshots aren’t diverse at all.

Before Democrats keep attacking Republicans for lacking diversity, they first should diversify themselves.