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Many citizens are fed up with California politics

We are almost a month overdue on the state budget—does anyone notice anymore? City managers, council members and the chief of police in the tiny, relatively poor city of Bell are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year—sure there’s outrage, but is anyone surprised? In the various stages of grief, Californians have moved beyond disenchantment with their dysfunctional governments, from local to state to national, and into acceptance. The state’s government, in particular, simply does not work anymore. Field Poll survey data from last week backs up these sentiments of surrender to a woefully lost California: 22% of Californians approve of Governor Schwarzenegger’s job performance; just 16% approve of the Legislature’s work; and a mere 13% say that California is headed in the right direction. How did we get this low point and how can we dig ourselves out?

Guest:

Cathleen Decker, state politics editor for the Los Angeles Times