California schemin'

State of Instant Gratification

By Rick Horowitz

Looking back on it now, it all seems so primitive. Yet in its time -- this would have been in the latter part of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st -- the state of California was already considered a trendsetter.

And while records are sketchy (many files were lost in the Great Quakes of 2029), we know that even then, the so-called "Golden State" often had its eye on the future -- and the rest of the country had its eye on California, especially when it came to entertainment, and politics.

It's almost incomprehensible to us from this vantage point, but there was a time when "politicians" were granted fixed terms of two or four or even six years. "Elections" were held on a predetermined schedule, and "voters" focused only periodically on selecting the men and women who would lead them. (Bots, of course, were not yet allowed to hold office.) When this finally began to change, much of the impetus came, naturally, from California.

The first significant stirrings, the records indicate, involved an effort to remove a governor who had been elected (actually, re-elected) to that very office just months earlier. There appears to have been widespread discontent with one Grax Davis, and so political rivals decided to use provisions of California's constitution which had sat largely dormant for decades: Rather than waiting for the next regularly scheduled gubernatorial election, they undertook a campaign to "recall" him -- that is, to remove him from office and replace him with someone more to their liking.

But to do that, Grax Davis's opponents first had to gather nearly a million signatures by hand simply to put the question before the "voters." And then those who wanted Davis's job for themselves had to produce various combinations of signatures and fees just to win a place on the ballot. With all these procedural hurdles to overcome, are you surprised to learn that the "recall" election itself still didn't occur for months? Or that only 37 people qualified for the ballot?

Still, it was a small step forward. But the real progress was still to come, once voters put an early end (or so they assumed) to the Grax Davis years. Davis had been narrowly defeated, and a replacement governor had been chosen, but no sooner had the successor been sworn in than Davis announced another recall effort. And since this new governor had been elected with only six percent of the overall vote -- enough to lead a field of 37, but hardly a mandate -- he soon found himself back on the ballot, and then cleaning out his desk to make room for: Grax Davis!

Who was some months later re-recalled, and then re-re-elected, and then re-re-recalled, and so on, back and forth for years -- and all of it costing California time and money it couldn't afford. Meanwhile, "recall fever" had begun to spread to lesser offices, which meant even more wasted time and money. All the telephone polls and online surveys of the period said that people were fed up with their leaders, and with the cost of dumping them. There had to be a better way.

There was. And the solution was right in front of them: telephone polls and online surveys! By the early years of the 21st century, polling had come to be considered every bit as accurate as actual balloting, while online surveys (not to mention huge numbers of protoblogs) were already sampling public opinion dozens of times a day on issues large and small.

So why not put the technology to better use? That's just what they did. They started by tracking politicians' "approval ratings"; anytime an office holder dropped below 40 percent for more than two weeks, recall petitions would be posted online for electronic "signatures." If enough were collected, they'd post an online "recall" ballot. It made officials nervous -- there was so little time to recover from a stumble, or even to explain a controversial vote -- but most people loved it.

It didn't take long, in fact, before the approval threshold was raised from 40 percent to 45, and then 48, while the approval slump now only had to last ten days, then seven, then just three. Meanwhile, the "Mini Me" movement had begun to snowball; smaller and smaller devices were being used to transmit and collect information. For the first time ever, it became possible to gather thought-data universally, in real time. It was the beginning of the future. The beginning of today.

And now? Utter Responsiveness is our watchword. Implanted brain chips (including the brand-new "Determinator") -- allow everyone to take full part in the political process. Let any leader fall below that magic 50-percent rating for a millisecond, and the system instantly corrects, with an array of ejector seats, injector belts, oath waves and the like. On a good day, an average state can go through a half-dozen governors -- on a better day, even more.

And we have California to thank for all of it.

Posted 7/29/03. See the future (and laugh at the present) with award-winning commentary from syndicated columnist Rick Horowitz!

Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist, TV commentator, writing coach and public speaker

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