Brown began his speech by calling the inauguration ceremony “a sacred and special ritual that affirms that the people are in charge.” This invocation of democratic sentiments rings especially hollow in light of the recent election, which was characterized by mass abstention from the polls and disaffection from both political parties, especially among young people.
A mere third of the state’s voting population voted in favor of either of the big business candidates for governor. Little more than a sixth voted for Brown, who served two terms as governor three decades ago (1975-1983).
Only around one in ten young people between the ages of 18 and 29 voted in the election, down from one in five in 2008...The popular will, insofar as it was expressed in the elections at all, was “none of the above.”
Brown’s inauguration speech was in many ways indistinguishable from the inauguration speech that his Republican opponent would have been given. He made the standard flattering references to “our soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan” and “our police and correctional officers.” He stressed the need to make “tough choices” to address “huge budget deficits.” And the speech concluded with the now-obligatory “God bless you.”
In his speech, broadcast to millions of impoverished and struggling Californians, Brown announced that he would demand “courage and sacrifice.”
To explain what he meant, he read from the diary of his great-grandfather, who traveled west from Missouri to settle in California in 1852...
“On the 26th of June, we came to the first sand desert―it was 41 miles. We went there at night and rode 19 hours in it...
On the 26th of July, we came to the second large plain; also 40 miles long. Here we lost seven oxen which died of thirst...
Thousands of cows, horses and mules were lying about dead... The discarded wagons by the hundreds were driven together and burned. We saw wagons standing that would never be taken out again and more than 1,000 guns that had been broken up. Here on this 40 miles are treasures that can never be taken out again.”
The same “courage and sacrifice” would be required of present-day Californians, Brown concluded. In other words, a trail of death, starvation, thirst, toil, loss, suffering, thousands of corpses lying around; this is the program of the Democratic Party for the working class!The state of California faces a budget deficit estimated by the administration of outgoing governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at $25.4 billion, the combined product of the world economic crisis, financial gimmicks that are now collapsing, and decades of tax breaks for the rich and corporations. Rather than increasing social spending to alleviate the widespread suffering brought about by the economic crisis, governments worldwide have responded to the crisis with still further cuts...
To justify the unprecedented cuts, Brown invoked at some length what he called the “philosophy of loyalty.” Attributing this philosophy to the American idealist Josiah Royce, Brown described it as “loyalty to the community, to what is larger than our individual needs.” The word “loyalty” appears in Brown’s speech no less than six times.In his speech, Brown exhorted his fellow politicians to “rise above ideology and partisan interest.” This political euphemism translates to an appeal for both big business parties, the Republicans and Democrats, to collaborate in carrying out the proposed cuts.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jan2011/cali-j06.shtml
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