…and future governor?
Note to Jesse Walker. The California comsat thing was one of the reasons for the “Governor Moonbeam” appellation, but a more significant one (as was mentioned) was the Stewart-Brand/Whole-Earth-Catalog connection. Stewart was one of those promoting the ideas of Gerry O’Neill and L-5, and Brown was reportedly quite fascinated by the concept, and space in general. The only time I saw him in person was in April, 1981, when we shared a flight to Orlando from LAX (though he was in first class) for the first launch of the Shuttle (I flew back to see it land as well — he may have as well, but if so, it was on a different flight). And in an “n degrees of Jerry Brown” thing, I sat next to Linda Ronstadt at a concert at McCabe’s in Santa Monica a few years later, but I think they had broken up by then.
One thing not mentioned was the ignominious end to his governorship, in which he took a lot of flak for the fruit-fly spraying, first dithering and delaying it, and then changing his mind and infuriating his supporters on the left. It probably wrecked his chances for Senate. But as the article notes, he’s a resilient guy.
I wish Jerry Brown every bit as much luck in pursuing the California governorship in 2010 as Tony Knowles had in pursuing the Alaska governorship in 2006.
I will say as far as the Donkeys go, you could do a lot worse than Jerry.
We could do worse. The thing I like about the concept of Jerry Brown is that he’s not a wholly-owned subsidiary of the public-employee unions, like Gray Davis, and practically every other high level Democrat in the state. In principle, he’s unwilling to sacrifice his own vanity and success to keep the tax money spigot flowing to them. He may also be a little less likely to get rolled the way the Governator did, and maybe less of a pussy about it, too.
But I don’t think it matters anyway. Cailfornia is in such deep shit, so massively dysfunctional, the pain necessary to solve the problem so severe, that I don’t think anyone has the political skills to (1) get elected to the job and (2) want to actually do it. I think the state will continue to head to fail, and only after some truly shocking collapse (worse than Michicagn’s, more like East Germany’s) will it be possible to change the state’s direction.
For that reason, I’m kind of in favor of the state continuing its conventional solidly Democrat leadership, so that the bloody wreckage of the state has Democratic Party stickers all over its bumper. Kind of like those scary highway wreck movies they used to show in high-school driver’s ed classes. This is what happens when you let Democrats drive.
As a resident of the state, there is a part of me that is looking forward to seeing what a post-apocalyptic California might look like. Kind of a morbid curiosity. Something like Blade Runner I imagine, except without the carbon belching flying cars. I guess we’ll find out pretty soon.
“Something like Blade Runner I imagine, except without the carbon belching flying cars. ”
And also without Sean Young as the hot-babe Replicant?
For that reason, I’m kind of in favor of the state continuing its conventional solidly Democrat leadership, so that the bloody wreckage of the state has Democratic Party stickers all over its bumper. Kind of like those scary highway wreck movies they used to show in high-school driver’s ed classes. This is what happens when you let Democrats drive.
A tempting idea … but that isn’t how the media will report it. No, it’ll be “This is what happens when there isn’t enough regulation of evil, greedy capitalists.”
That’s how the media reported the meltdown of the real estate market and the failures of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For that matter, everyone knows that the reason we don’t already have completely fair, completely free, completely effective government-run health care is that it’s being blocked in Congress by the evil Republicans.
It’s pretty damned appalling that Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown is now seen as a reasonable, rational candidate compared to the other flakes and nitwits.