Conventional wisdom tells us that California did not have a budget for the past year, and will not have a real budget in the near future, because the state's Republicans and Democrats now work only to please the extremists of their parties. They do so, says conventional wisdom, because they run for office in gerrymandered districts that guarantee their election.

As proof positive of this assertion the press usually points out that leaders of both parties call each other "extremists". Now Wonks Anonymous would accept this description of the California Republican Party which seems driven by talk radio and operates under the belief that the budget would balance if we just sent all of the Hispanics back to Mexico. He deeply suspects the pronouncements of the Republican Party about extremism. These are people who just accused President Obama of trying to "restructure America along socialist lines."

In fact the chief sin of the California Democratic Party has been its rabbit like timidity. In order to keep their jobs safe our leaders have repeatedly failed their constituents.

The party has gerrymandered electoral districts to assure that they would keep their seats with minimal effort. About 61% of the state voted for Obama but, if we had apportioned our electoral votes by congressional districts, he would have gotten maybe 55% of our electoral votes. Safe Democratic districts pack Democratic voters into electoral ghettos where they are unable to influence election outcomes.

Safe districts do not maximize the power of the party or of its voters they maximize the probability of reelection for incumbents. But, until the last election, all reapportionment initiatives have been dreamed up by Republicans and rejected by Democrats. We finally got reapportionment this last cycle, thanks to a non partisan initiative. It will not take effect until 2010.

Despite its safe position the Democratic Party of California has repeatedly failed to take sensible fiscal stands. When times have been good, the party has increased spending without also pushing for increases in taxation. It has also gone along with our beloved governator in his quest to finance state spending through increased debt.

This is the path of least resistance. You can always find a group of "moderate" Republicans who will raise spending in good times which gives you the 2/3 majority required to pass a budget. If you ask for higher taxes you get into serious conflicts. Bunnies don't like conflicts.

While Democratic voters have long recognized the structural problems that plague the State of California their leaders have been missing in action on these very issues.

The State of California does not have a stable tax base mainly because Proposition 13, passed in the 1970' s, prevents any reasonable reassessment of properties as long as they are held by one owner. Since that time most private residences have turned over many times and the value of the property has risen to market rates. Most homeowners now pay reasonable property taxes. Large firms, for example Pacific Gas and Electric and Chevron, still pay taxes based on 1970's property values.

The Democratic Party of California has not touched this issue, choosing instead to spend our political contributions on their own campaigns etc. They have also been quite content to live with the 2/3 majority requirement for the budget.

Maybe they would have lost, as they continually tell us. Maybe they could have tried.