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epilogue: liberal Politics in california in an “era of limits” “in the age of anti-politics,” said cBs evening news anchor Walter cronkite in a March 1976 interview with the governor of california, “Jerry Brown is the consummate anti-politician. He’s impossible to classify—a mixture of liberalism , conservatism, populism, existentialism, Zen Buddhism, Puritanism.”1 Brown’s policy legacy added to this image of the contradictory politician working in an era of contradictions and mixed messages. The late 1970s witnessed a blizzard of legislative activity in the state legislature, prompting the aFl-cio to proclaim that more “legislation of lasting significance to california workers was enacted during the 1975 session than at any time in the history of the state.”2 Yet a developing public storm over high taxes, combined with an increasingly self-confident social conservative wing of the state GoP, suggested that Brown was right to refer to the years of his administration as part of an “era of limits” that would significantly circumscribe the expansion of the boundaries of california liberalism. indeed, though Brown himself owed his election in 1974 to a coalition of traditional liberal forces in state politics, as lines at gas stations lengthened and simmering discontent over high taxes and prices became increasingly hard to ignore, he quickly sought to tap into this heightened public awareness of quality of life issues. “life is tough, life is a struggle,” he told cronkite, in a somewhat downbeat, solemn tone that presaged Jimmy carter’s politically unfortunate comment to the american people later in the decade that dark times lay ahead, “and it’s going to get tougher because we occupy a very special place in the world and the other countries are going to demand a greater share and that means our share is going to decline.”3 a study of two ballot initiatives of 1978, one that saw a victory for antitax conservatives and the 270 epilogue other a startling defeat for the religious right, places this period of california history into a longer trajectory of the development of quality of life politics that bridged party affiliation and linked economic rights to individual civil rights. neither right nor left could claim the final triumph in these battles, but the fortunes of the movements for and against Propositions 6 and 13 shed light on the long-term significance of the grassroots political currents that have been the central theme of this book. jerry brown and the Politics of Managing expectations Perhaps the greatest frustration for left-leaning democrats committed to the maintenance and extension of the welfare state liberal compact established during the Pat Brown years was that despite the difficult prevailing economic winds in the mid-1970s, they still held a considerable amount of political clout in sacramento and in party circles in these years. to clinch the democratic nomination for governor, Jerry Brown had to do a good deal of reaching out to labor and activist liberals in order to prevail over state senator George Moscone, assembly speaker Bob Moretti, and congressman Jerome Waldie, all on the labor-left side of the party. Brown’s campaign for the nomination demonstrated the extent to which democratic politics had become totally dominated by those whose ideological outlook was to the left of mainstream america, regardless of the factional position of individuals. His campaign literature focused on his support for eugene Mccarthy and the peace movement in 1968, and his answers to an ada questionnaire on key issues attempted to place him firmly in the Burton-Willie Brown wing of the party. “i have always believed it is the responsibility of government to guarantee adequate health care to all citizens,” he wrote, “regardless of economic status. likewise, any civilized society must provide for those who cannot care for themselves—especially the children of those unable to provide for their families .”4 The California Journal remarked in February 1974 that darlings of the left like George Moscone had fared poorly in the democratic race (Moscone had dropped out in January) because “he was unable to identify himself as the only fully credentialed liberal in the pack. He finished second to Brown in a preference poll taken last year by the southern california americans for democratic action. . . . Brown contends that he, not Waldie, is the most liberal candidate in the race, although he prefers to say that he has the most intense commitment to change.”5 He appealed especially to left cdcers in rapidly growing southern california, mindful...

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