Paradise Lost Essay -- essays research papers

Peter Schrag presents the ills of atomic number 20?fs current politics in an huffy and persuasive tone. He says California used to be ?gboth model and attraction for the nationin its economic opportunities, its social outlook, and its high-quality public services and institutes?h however, California started to fade after the passage of Proposition 13, the initiative of value limits (7). Schrag?fs spring clearly shows what is the problem in today?fs California, and it is easy to take care even for those who have little knowledge of politics. By boil downing on issues of ?gneopopulism?h which is easy to find in California?fs diversity, he succeeds in giving his readers the sense of crisis not only about California?fs politics, besides too the national wide politics because California is the place ?gwhere the rising American society is first coming into full view?h (23). Schrag says, about California politics, that For nearly a generation, there has been increasing focus among scholars, politicians, and journalists on the growing gaps in California value orientation, social, economicbetween those who elaborate policy-making power and the big population, and particularly those who are the most prompt users of its public services. What has gotten little discussion is the dynamic of the plebiscitary process itself. While it?fs ad hoc in natureeach measure is decided by voters on its own apparent merits without much reference to the wider contextit has a larger cumulative effect through which statewide majorities restrict the powers of local political majorities, which are often nonwhite. Almost by definition, it is also a blind of impulse that tends to be only marginally respectful of minority rights or interests, and that lends itself to demagogic wedge campaigns designed to boost voter turnout for other political purpose. (21) Schrag divides his project into five sections. The middle sections, ?gThe Spirit of 13,?h and ?gMarch of the Plebiscites,?h in which he carefully discusses each important measure in the delay two decades, show why so many issues rose. In the first section, ?gGolden Moment,?h Schrag describes ?gCalifornia?fs heyday of post-World War U optimism?h and how it crumbled. Citations from magazines turn up that California was a really paradise even from the nationwide view. Schrag also notices that the demographic change deeply relates to California?fs politics in the last t... ...comes clear in this chapter is that the plebiscitary process is problem in California. Most voters and a large portion of media pay attention not on the giving medication and the social welfare, but on their individual benefits. Much amount of capital was spent on each measure, and supporters and opponents vehemently argued by using the messiness media. Schrag says that the state government of California became a ?gmedia-based?h government. It is clear that California had anti-immigrants climate by Schrag?fs selection of measures. California politicians attacked programs for low-income Californians precisely at the sequence when California?fs demographic was changing rapidly. Politicians have been urging white voters to lie with back on beneficial public services to original Californians. Finally, Schrag concludes his work with some suggestions for ?gthe possibilities for a new political integration and a amend social ethic in California?h while he describes ?gthe contrary forces pushing even further toward a market-based governmental ethic?h (20). His work gives us a good opportunity for rethinking new-fangled California and how voters, not only California?fs voters but also the others, should be.