CA Democrats to reality: We will never, never, NEVER give in!

Recently, I posted a brief piece on Pat Brown’s early responses toward his competitors in the 1966 CA governor’s race, making note of Brown’s complaint that his opponents were, “[running] around the state telling people what a bad governor I've been…Wait until I start telling them what a good governor I've been..."

In light of Brown’s own words, I found Brown-backer Marianne Means’ comments in The Tuscaloosa News, April 1, 1966 rather ironic:

As it always is during the Governor’s campaigns, all the interest this time is focused on the other fellows—on his primary opponent Los Angeles Mayor Samuel Yorty and the GOP contenders, Actor Ronald Reagan and former San Francisco Mayor George Christopher.  Nobody seems to be talking up Gov. Brown, except Gov. Brown.

But, like it says in the ad, he must be doing something right.  He has been an effective and honest governor and he has moved the state dramatically forward in education, welfare and conservation.  And the only ones who seem to notice these things are the people who vote.  

The narcissism of those in power is truly breathtaking.  Means acknowledges that no one was boosting Brown except Brown himself…yet never seems to entertain the possibility that this was because most Californians didn’t think there was much to praise. 

In grasping for specifics to validate her celebration of the eight-year reign of Pat Brown, Means pointed to the “dramatic forward movement” Brown had effectuated in the areas of welfare and education.  Conveniently, however, these forward movements were left remarkably vague (hope and change, anyone?).  One wonders, which was more forward-thinking of Brown:  his ineffectual handling of radicals on the Berkley campus, or his triumphant expansion of the welfare rolls?  Perhaps more to the point, why would anyone with a functioning cerebral cortex conclude that putting more people on the government dole for subsistence equates to “progress”?