Whatever happened to our American version of democracy, the one that says "majority rules"?

By Robert S. "Rob" Means

Republican-backed schemes have caused legislative gridlock at both the state and national levels.

In a time of political upheaval, environmental collapse, off-the-chart weather disasters, and widespread corruption, our representative government at the state and federal levels is stalled and gridlocked. Instead of being quick on our feet, we are dead in our tracks. Although a majority of our representatives can agree on changes that would address the challenges around us, a minority that represents corporate and wealthy interests stops those changes. And they can do it because of two rules: filibuster and two-thirds majority.

The filibuster rule allows 40 senators to stop legislation already passed by the House. When you consider that those 40 could represent as little as 18% of the U. S. population, you realize how undemocratic the filibuster can be. For example, Republicans (and a few so-called Democrats) abused the filibuster rule to stop the will of the people over 200 times in the last legislative session.

The two-thirds rule in California started with Proposition 13 in 1978. People were upset over skyrocketing property-tax assessments. Republican Howard Jarvis used that anger to pass both a freeze (of sorts) on property taxes -- and a two-thirds vote requirement for the passage of any new taxes. Because of the "2/3 rules," it takes more than 2/3's of the Assembly and of the Senate to pass any legislation that requires revenue, and almost everything does. It takes only 27 out of 80 Members of the Assembly OR 14 Senators out of 40 to block legislation. This situation is unique to California. No other state has total minority rule in the legislature.

So, here we are 30 years later with a fiscal crisis. Democrats and moderate Republicans have attempted to live with Proposition 13 while continuing to provide the state services Californians expect -- freeways, higher education, prisons, assistance to needy families and essential funding to local government and school districts. But you can make a dollar stretch just so far. A certain level of per-capita revenue is needed by the City to maintain infrastructure and services. As we fall below that revenue threshold, expect a lower quality of life here in Milpitas and the County. As they say, taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.

Both revenues and expenses of cities have been falling the past few years, but revenues have been leading; thus our fiscal problems. As Milpitas Councilman Armando Gomez has said "We don't have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem." That statement is supported by a USA TODAY report that in 2009 Americans paid their lowest level of taxes last year since Harry Truman's presidency.

Even in this fiscal crisis, and presented with a realistic solution from the Governor, a minority of legislators is intent on scuttling the solution. Republican legislators here and in Washington, D.C. are committed to the failure of the resident executive. Rather than work with the majority to solve our problems, they dig in their heels desperately trying to stop change, i.e. maintain the status quo that is destroying the middle class and bankrupting this country. One is tempted to ask "How un-American is that?" Instead, I ask "Why keep rules that allow this kind of behavior?" Let's return to the days of majority rule when the middle-class was healthy.