Back in 2005 when I first moved to California, this state’s politics seemed pretty screwy, but 3.5 years later I can confidently say that fucked up is the norm and that there is no real hope of fixing it any time soon.
As many know, SNAFU is a military term from the WW II era. These days it is most often used to say something went wrong or got screwed up. But the original acronym is a lot more colorful: Situation Normal All Fucked Up.
It is the perfect description for California politics, more specifically the operation of the state government. There are any number of reasons that have caused it to become a SNAFU. They include, but are not limited to the 2/3rds requirement to pass both a budget and increase taxes, term limits and the initiative system.
While there is not a lot of hope for fixing it any time soon, that does not mean that there aren’t sensible solutions and opportunities to organize around them. However, first we have to get past this gawd awful May 19th special election and deal with the fall out from it.
