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California Comeback: How A "Failed State" Became a Model for the Nation
An in-depth look at California's remarkable 21st century turnaround, focusing on the role played by the state government under Jerry Brown.
In the most economically important state in the country―and the 7th largest economy in the world―a political revolution of historic importance has occurred which has not been sufficiently covered by the media. In the state where the Reagan Revolution was born, there has recently occurred a remarkable progressive revolution under the leadership of another governor, four-term Democrat Jerry Brown.
Over the past several decades, as it has evolved from a red state to solid blue, California has boldly reinvigorated the notion that government is not a dirty word but rather an instrument for uniting people and improving their lives.
From raising taxes on those with annual incomes over $250,000, to shifting money toward the schools in low-income communities, from seeking environmental alliances with other countries to limit climate change, to the rejection of militaristic solutions to illegal immigration, California has been a laboratory of innovation.
Californians have rejected the "race to the bottom" right-wing philosophy that catapulted conservative politics in recent years. That model of endorsing privatization, deregulation, reductions in government spending, and a tax system that disproportionately favors the wealthy, is exemplified by conservative governors and rejected by the pragmatic liberal Jerry Brown.
In California Comeback , award-winning journalist Narda Zacchino, who has covered California politics for over three decades, clearly lays out the history of California's initial experiments with progressivism under Brown, its swing to the right under Reagan, near financial collapse under Schwarzenegger, and recent return to stability―bulwarked but the progressive policies made possible by the second coming of Jerry Brown. This progressive mindset, forged in the crucible of the tumultuous last half century, is California's true contribution not only to the country, but to the world.
In the most economically important state in the country―and the 7th largest economy in the world―a political revolution of historic importance has occurred which has not been sufficiently covered by the media. In the state where the Reagan Revolution was born, there has recently occurred a remarkable progressive revolution under the leadership of another governor, four-term Democrat Jerry Brown.
Over the past several decades, as it has evolved from a red state to solid blue, California has boldly reinvigorated the notion that government is not a dirty word but rather an instrument for uniting people and improving their lives.
From raising taxes on those with annual incomes over $250,000, to shifting money toward the schools in low-income communities, from seeking environmental alliances with other countries to limit climate change, to the rejection of militaristic solutions to illegal immigration, California has been a laboratory of innovation.
Californians have rejected the "race to the bottom" right-wing philosophy that catapulted conservative politics in recent years. That model of endorsing privatization, deregulation, reductions in government spending, and a tax system that disproportionately favors the wealthy, is exemplified by conservative governors and rejected by the pragmatic liberal Jerry Brown.
In California Comeback , award-winning journalist Narda Zacchino, who has covered California politics for over three decades, clearly lays out the history of California's initial experiments with progressivism under Brown, its swing to the right under Reagan, near financial collapse under Schwarzenegger, and recent return to stability―bulwarked but the progressive policies made possible by the second coming of Jerry Brown. This progressive mindset, forged in the crucible of the tumultuous last half century, is California's true contribution not only to the country, but to the world.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published August 16, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 2, 2018
This was a great recent history of California. Really helpful in understanding some key players and recent policies. I especially enjoyed the insights into Gov Jerry Brown's political life and the background on the campaigns for Prop 13 and Prop 30. This was written from a fairly moderate/liberal perspective - pointing out issues of inequality and the need for regulation and importance of state support for education, but not very critical of the huge influence of business, the real estate lobby, and tech has on our cities and economy. People who have worked or now work on public policy in Sacramento - especially during the Brown years - would get a lot out of this book. I would also love to a similar book about CA from a more left-wing perspective and/or more books like this one that focus on how state and local policy impacts people's lives in both rural and urban parts of the state.
October 26, 2019
Was intrigued by the title and was thinking a bit about some of the parallels to history. Texas and California are often pointed at for where the US may go, for good or for ill. Calling California a "failing state" is a common meme for its "liberal policies" and blah blah blah so I thought I'd read something about its "comeback."
Author Zacchino takes the reader through highlights of the state, from some basic history to more recent times and how the state has "come back" in recent years with the return of Jerry Brown as governor. Overall it was a good overview at a lot of the highs and some of the lows that put the state where it is as of this writing.
That said, I'm a little skeptical. While it was interesting and I certainly did learn stuff, it seemed a bit too "sunny" and less balanced. It also didn't help that Narda Zacchino is a journalist and for me, books by journalists perpetually don't work. Still, overall I did think it was worth the read but in retrospect I wish I had borrowed the book from the library instead of buying it.
Probably not a bad book if you're at all interested in the state of California specifically.
Author Zacchino takes the reader through highlights of the state, from some basic history to more recent times and how the state has "come back" in recent years with the return of Jerry Brown as governor. Overall it was a good overview at a lot of the highs and some of the lows that put the state where it is as of this writing.
That said, I'm a little skeptical. While it was interesting and I certainly did learn stuff, it seemed a bit too "sunny" and less balanced. It also didn't help that Narda Zacchino is a journalist and for me, books by journalists perpetually don't work. Still, overall I did think it was worth the read but in retrospect I wish I had borrowed the book from the library instead of buying it.
Probably not a bad book if you're at all interested in the state of California specifically.
August 30, 2016
This is a Goodreads win review. Well I found this book quite insightful. I lived in Calif for 60 years and moved away on purpose. I do not need the crime, smog, freeways of people driving 100 miles an hour, traffic, high crime, gangs, our places of employment going under, breakins, no rain, everlasitn heat, high taxes and an out control cost of living. Myself I have never vote for or endorsed Gov Jerry Brown, he is way too liberal. I was there and my town was not having any innovative modeling going on. The city council cannot even their budget.
October 4, 2017
"He [Jerry Brown] often navigated through political waters following a course from his earlier tenure that he once termed a 'canoe theory of politics,' which loosely translates to paddle a little to the right, then a little to the left, and glide down the middle." (44)
March 7, 2017
Excellent, readable overview of many issues Californians face and the history of key propositions over the years. Some may call this left-leaning but there are plenty of critiques looking at both sides.
January 22, 2018
I received this book as a First Read. It provides a good history of California politics but has a very clear bias and Zacchino isn't afraid to voice opinions on people, parties, and laws.
January 27, 2019
An excellent book covering the modern political history of California!
September 21, 2016
California Comeback begins with the author’s description of how her mother and father, both Marine Corps veterans, settled in California after the Second World War buying a small home in a suburb of San Diego. By 1978, her mother, still in the same house and living on Social Security and veteran’s benefits felt as if she might be forced to sell because of skyrocketing property taxes. She was one of many Californians in the same situation. Half-hearted efforts to fix the problem had failed leaving rapidly increasing homes values automatically increasing property taxes. In California such a situation opens the door to a ballot initiative by which citizens (and organizations such as unions and corporations) have the ability to propose laws and constitutional amendments without support from the legislature. By their very nature such initiatives also carry risks of causing as many problems as they solve. In 1978 Proposition 13 proposed to solve the problem of rapidly escalating property taxes with a constitutional amendment. It promised, among other things, to cut property taxes by more than 50% and tie all future tax bills to 1% of the 1975 assessed value. On Election Day, to the surprise of no one, California voters approved it and in doing so fundamentally changed how property in California is taxed plunging many functions of state government, including the entire education system into chaos. The new tax policies tied state finances in knots and, according to California historian Kevin Starr, established “an unfair and dysfunctional two-tiered system of property taxes [that] brought California to the edge.” The central narrative in California Comeback traces both how close the state came to economic collapse and how the extraordinary recovery was managed.
The game changing Proposition 13 was approved in the middle of Governor Jerry Brown’s first two terms. When he left office in 1983 he was followed by four governors both Democratic and Republican who, working with the state legislature in a post-Proposition 13 reality, continued to pass a series of gimmick-laden “balanced” budgets that resulted in a constant need to borrow causing the state to amass cumulative deficits of more than $100 billion from 2000 to 2010. The path to recovery is instructive. How the debt was eliminated and how the state managed to establish a rainy-day fund carry important lessons for other states now mired in a cycle of budget cuts and debt. This recovery is essentially the story of the second coming of Jerry Brown who returned to the governor’s office in 2011. Zacchino presents his political biography in two fascinating chapters “Moonbeam to Laser Beam” and “Jerry Brown 2.0” and, after reading the book, it is hard to imagine California’s comeback without him.
Less than a month after Brown began his third term, she writes, “… he implored the legislature to pass an emergency measure to ask voters to extend temporary fees they had been paying since 2009 to avert $12 billion in cuts to education and public safety.” Unsurprisingly, the legislature did not cooperate and Brown was faced with only one alternative: to ask the voters to increase their own taxes. This did not promise to be easy. Zacchino’s captivating account of how Brown led the fight for Proposition 30 includes the last minute appearance of $11 million in “Dark Money” targeted to defeat the measure. Despite powerful opposition Proposition 30 passed, in 2012, 55.4% to 44.6%.
Other issues in the book are equally significant and they offer important lessons in what works and what does not. She examines the perils of scapegoating immigrants in her analysis of Proposition 187. She recounts the evolution of environmental protections in California, which has often led the nation in the fight for clean air. She details the problems that developed in California following massive increases in the state’s prison population reporting that by 2005 “… the state budget for corrections grew to nearly 8 percent of general fund expenditures, roughly the same as what was spent on public higher education.” In “The Enron Assault” she details the dangers inherent in mindless deregulation. In “A Tale of Two States” she contrasts California’s recovery with the disintegration of the oil-supported “Texas Miracle”.
California Comeback is an important book not only because it is a step-by-step description of what a responsible state government looks like, but also as a counterpoint to ongoing efforts to eliminate virtually all regulations and to fetishize lower and lower taxes in states like Wisconsin, Louisiana, Texas and Kansas. Of course California continues to have significant problems, but it has become a model of rationality, realism, and responsibility. For that reason alone California Comeback is recommended reading for American voters everywhere. Buy it, read it, and discuss it every chance you get.
The game changing Proposition 13 was approved in the middle of Governor Jerry Brown’s first two terms. When he left office in 1983 he was followed by four governors both Democratic and Republican who, working with the state legislature in a post-Proposition 13 reality, continued to pass a series of gimmick-laden “balanced” budgets that resulted in a constant need to borrow causing the state to amass cumulative deficits of more than $100 billion from 2000 to 2010. The path to recovery is instructive. How the debt was eliminated and how the state managed to establish a rainy-day fund carry important lessons for other states now mired in a cycle of budget cuts and debt. This recovery is essentially the story of the second coming of Jerry Brown who returned to the governor’s office in 2011. Zacchino presents his political biography in two fascinating chapters “Moonbeam to Laser Beam” and “Jerry Brown 2.0” and, after reading the book, it is hard to imagine California’s comeback without him.
Less than a month after Brown began his third term, she writes, “… he implored the legislature to pass an emergency measure to ask voters to extend temporary fees they had been paying since 2009 to avert $12 billion in cuts to education and public safety.” Unsurprisingly, the legislature did not cooperate and Brown was faced with only one alternative: to ask the voters to increase their own taxes. This did not promise to be easy. Zacchino’s captivating account of how Brown led the fight for Proposition 30 includes the last minute appearance of $11 million in “Dark Money” targeted to defeat the measure. Despite powerful opposition Proposition 30 passed, in 2012, 55.4% to 44.6%.
Other issues in the book are equally significant and they offer important lessons in what works and what does not. She examines the perils of scapegoating immigrants in her analysis of Proposition 187. She recounts the evolution of environmental protections in California, which has often led the nation in the fight for clean air. She details the problems that developed in California following massive increases in the state’s prison population reporting that by 2005 “… the state budget for corrections grew to nearly 8 percent of general fund expenditures, roughly the same as what was spent on public higher education.” In “The Enron Assault” she details the dangers inherent in mindless deregulation. In “A Tale of Two States” she contrasts California’s recovery with the disintegration of the oil-supported “Texas Miracle”.
California Comeback is an important book not only because it is a step-by-step description of what a responsible state government looks like, but also as a counterpoint to ongoing efforts to eliminate virtually all regulations and to fetishize lower and lower taxes in states like Wisconsin, Louisiana, Texas and Kansas. Of course California continues to have significant problems, but it has become a model of rationality, realism, and responsibility. For that reason alone California Comeback is recommended reading for American voters everywhere. Buy it, read it, and discuss it every chance you get.
June 17, 2017
With clear and lucid writing, Narda Zacchino documents the key events of California's recent past including the governorships of Jerry Brown and many of the controversial propositions in California's recent memory. Zacchino's thesis of California's rise is well supported despite the naysayers of today's political climate. Of particular interest is the 'California Comeback' chapter on the undeclared rivalry between California and Texas. She makes cogent observations on why Texas' claim to a better way of life somewhat specious.
Overall, this is enjoyable reading for those who want to understand California politically and want to read the behind the scenes details of California's recent history.
Overall, this is enjoyable reading for those who want to understand California politically and want to read the behind the scenes details of California's recent history.
February 3, 2017
California Comeback: How A "Failed State" Became a Model for the Nation by Narda Zacchino is an interesting read. I do not like the policies of Governor Jerry Brown but this does explain the policies. This book does try to explain why California is in the mess that it is. It is a complex problem. This book adds to the information available in a way that is easy to understand.
I review a copy thru a Goodreads Giveaway.
I review a copy thru a Goodreads Giveaway.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews