Why we need the California Progress Report

Most importantly, this is where we live. What we allow to happen in Sacramento and elsewhere in this state affects our daily lives directly-- our kids’ education from early years to college that is the basis for our future, the air we breathe, the jobs and careers we have, our health care, the fairness and justice of our courts and political system. The list of how state government affects our lives in the Golden State goes on as long as we can think about it.

What we allow to go on politically affects our state’s policies. Hence the need for the daily briefing for politics, policy, and progressive action. Whether it is a quick read in the morning to get our bearings as a busy day begins, or looking in detail at many of the rich and detailed sources of information that are available, together we will know what each other is doing and how it fits in with our own action. That action can be as varied as telling others what we have learned, living our lives as thoughtful citizens, or contacting our elected officials and working in campaigns.

While there are plenty of organizations and websites that focus on either national issues and politics or narrow California policy issues, there is no one site that provides across the board information to California progressives and the means to get information from them and the public to the media. There are conservative sites, aligned with the Republican Party, and a number of sites that provide summaries of the news or analysis.

California’s progressive organizations and individuals often work on their specific policy areas in isolation from each other and do not have the infrastructure for a coordinated message that resonates from shared principles. The right, on the other hand, has many think tanks, institutions, and propaganda organizations that act in concert with, but apart from the Republican Party, and repeatedly hammer their “big lies”- that progressive state proposals are “job killers,” will raise taxes on average Californians, and are for “special interests” and not for the common good.

There is a decline in voter registration by party in California and a dramatic increase in Decline to State registrants, especially amongst the young. Many voters do not understand what state office holders and the parties stand for or why their election makes a difference, and hold the legislature in very low esteem. The Public Policy Institute of California, in their November 2005 survey, found that 66% disapprove the performance of the state legislature. A recent California Democratic Party report documents the extent of the state’s voters’ alienation from the formal party structure, the need for delivery of a message, and use of the internet in this regard.

A number of reporters including Carla Marinucci of the San Francisco Chronicle have noted the ability of the right in this state to deliver a message and organize through web pages and blogs. Not only does this get the message out instantly to their base, but it is also disseminated much more widely by the media to the public at large. In this age of the shortened news cycle, rapid responses, and a dwindling presence in the state’s capitol by news organizations due to their decreasing readership, this can often frame the debate and draw first blood. In a time when more and more Californians are getting their state news through blogs and the internet, having a progressive website is essential.

Frank D. Russo