Lutness, Carole
Carole Lutness is a Valencia resident, Democratic activist and chairwoman of Democratic Neighbors of the 38th Assembly District. Her column reflects her own views and not necessarily those of The Signal. "Democratic Voices" appears Tuesdays in The Signal and rotates among local Democratic writers.
In a Democracy The Majority Rules
By Carole Lutness
A cornerstone of our democracy is when you elect a legislature, the majority rules.
That means when one party gets 50 percent plus one of the vote, they are the majority.
If they agree on a legislative program, they pass it.
If the majority of the people disagree, then they will vote the majority party out and put the other party in power.
We all agree with this. It speaks to our sense of fairness.
We may not like what the majority party does but we need to behave as the "loyal opposition," do what we can do to shape public opinion and persuade the majority party to buy into our position.
This seems obvious but unfortunately it isn't happening in Sacramento.
A majority of the people has overwhelmingly voted in a Democratic majority and yet the minority party, the Republicans, who represent just 36.6 percent of the legislators, are controlling our destiny.