My byline:
That's Not Change, That's More of the Same!
California voters have once again been bamboozled by the powers that be and ballot officials in California. Namely, the prison guard union, and questionable presentation on the ballot. I know because I am a California voter, and I've been filled to the brim with the "drug dealer's Bill of Rights" garbage. That, and when I first looked at Prop 5 in the ballot, the first words about it were how much it was going to cost me as a taxpayer.
Hardly a good introduction, considering that Prop 5 would actually save me money in the short and long term. In fact, in terms of first impressions, it was incredibly bad - we've got a tanking economy, and you want to introduce me to Prop 5 by telling me how much it's going to cost?
No more crying about our first impressions. Now it's time to get angry about how the media, namely the newspapers, and the advertisements, a.k.a. the standard lies spouted by the prison-industrial complex, still managed to sew fear and dismay into the hearts of California voters.
Arianna Huffington put it best: five governors that did nothing but exacerbate the prison overcrowding crisis got together to oppose the only policy suggested in the past eight years (since Proposition 36, to be exact) to do something to solve the problem. They "reached across the aisle" in a bi-partisan money groveling exercise to continue gleaning monetary support from the prison guard union.
The newspapers haven't been much better - a majority panned Proposition 5, even though, once again, it's the only policy promoted to do something about prison overcrowding. It's also the only policy promoted that would finally provide some serious drug prevention and treatment to adolescents in California.
The most serious indictment of all? That nowhere has anyone, in the media, or from our opponents, suggested any solutions whatsoever. We're on a train headed for a cliff, and rather than allow us to re-tool the track, or try to stop the train, the powers that be state, "keep things as they are."
So, it's now the day after elections. There won't be buyer's remorse on Prop 5, but mark my words, there will be regret. The California voting majority just looked at an attempted solution to our prison overcrowding crisis, a prevention and treatment program for juveniles that desperately need it, and chose to do nothing.
Doing nothing in the context of these two problems? That's just more of the same.
Posted by Malakkar Vohryzek