Settling Scores

Arnold, still smarting from last month's whipping at the hands of the public sector unions, has decided to use the governor's office to settle the score. He backed down from all the initiatives he placed, or wanted to place, on the ballot, but is now opening a proxy war by threatening to endorse a so-called paycheck protection proposal, one of these anti-union initiatives that would force unions to get permission from each individual member before using any portion of dues for political work.

But you know what? I'm willing to support him on it. I am. I'm willing to give Arnold the benefit of the doubt. Yes, I'll support him the moment he brings this proposal to its logical conclusion. Corporations, clearly, should have to inform every single one of their shareholders before using funds to influence politics. Wait -- no, they should actually include a little piece of paper with each product, service, or negotiation that would break down how their lobbying works, how much goes to each party, and ask for a signature in assent before the product could be bought or the negotiation closed.

So I'm with Arnold. Let's get the money out of politics! Let's let the unions spend on organizing and the corporations spend on wages (which are stagnating beneath the rate of inflation, you know), we'll finance campaigns publicly or something. But let's not have this exposed as a cheap trick to defund Arnold's political opponents and pass a nice sounding (why shouldn't folks control where their dues go?) initiative that singles out one big Democratic funder and ignores all large Republican sources. And, frankly, California's got too many huge problems and policy snarls waiting to be solved for our governor to waste his time pursuing fits of pique.