Election Post-Mortems

Now that the election’s done and the decision is finally in on the “deep pocket” initiative, we should congratulate the concerned citizens involved in the Proposition 51 campaigns (both for and against) for running one of the most deceptive, libelous, and uninformative bits of electioneering over a public policy issue in the history of the country.

The losers were the voters of this state, who were victimized daily by a barrage of deliberate misstatements, evasions and mud-slinging from two powerfully self-righteous interest groups far more intent on how “deep” their bank accounts were going to get than whether or not this was a fair or just tort liability reform. If the persons responsible for these garbage-style propaganda assaults had been required to answer to the same advertising standards as McDonald’s or Bayer aspirin, they would have finished their campaigns in jail.

It has always been my belief that the initiative process is a way we can try to introduce or change laws; it means we can attempt to make the world sometimes a little more “fair” or “just” than it was before. But a law hangs around a lot longer than the situation that created it, and the $10 million spent for a “debate” that rose in its most lucid moments to shrill accusations against “greedy trial lawyers” and “fat-cat insurance companies” or “toxic waste manufacturers” ad-libbing “let’s dump it in California” sickens the airwaves (not to mention stomachs) and makes a mockery of responsible public debate. Rhetoric of this caliber should be confined to quarreling 4-year-olds in their playpens, not a serious reform of public law.

CLIFF MARTIN

Los Angeles