Dems face ethnic Family Feud

04 May, 2014 by John Seiler

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One thing I’ve predicted for years is that once Democrats reached supermajority status, fierce intra-party battles would surface. I regerenced the “Solid South,” meaning the total dominance Democrats had in the U.S. South from the end of Reconstruction through the 1960s. With Republicans back then hardly existing, Democrats split among themselves, such as segregationists like Gov. Lester Maddox vs. New South governors like Jimmy Carter, both in Georgia.

That’s now happening in California — although not along the same fault lines, of course. Steven Greenhut writes:

“Yet the fading of Republican power has not led to an era of Kumbaya. In fact, the state Capitol recently has been plagued by some of the ugliest and most divisive political battles in years as Democrats fight one another over ethnic-related issues. A new bill that recently passed a Senate committee is likely to keep the hostilities boiling.

“The flashpoint was in March, after Asian-American legislators backed away from their previous support of SCA 5, a constitutional amendment that would have asked voters to repeal Proposition 209. That was the 1996 statewide initiative that banned racial and ethnic quotas in the state university systems and other public facilities.

“Asian-American voters feared that their kids would face discriminationin university admissions if the new measure passed — and they put pressure on their legislators to back off. But some of SCA 5’s supporters, who remain intent on reviving the issue, were livid at how it all played out.”

Read the rest here.

I also think that Gov. Jerry Brown currently is the only one who can keep a lid on a massive feud inside the California Democratic Party. He’s an elder statesman now, respected by everybody in the party. He knows everybody and everything. He knows all the buttons to push to keep things going and everybody happy.

But this is his last election. And he’ll be a lame duck after the November election.

Then watch the sparks fly in this Family Feud.