What is Revealed in an Inaugural Speech?

Transcription

1 What is Revealed in an Inaugural Speech? Classroom activity As you read primary source excerpts from these inaugural addresses, you may use the chart as you take notes on what each governor believes is the purpose and responsibility of government. Keep in mind that these speeches occurred over the course of nearly 90 years. The accompanying secondary passages provide historical context for each period. To do that, consider where each governor stands on the following issues: 1. To what extent does this governor believe that government should influence society through its programs and policies? 2. What is the role of the government in the economy? Is it to step out of the way so that private endeavors have the greatest influence in shaping the state s society and economy, or to regulate the economy for the good of all, or is it something in between? After reading and analysing the inaugural speeches, answer the following: 3. Based on these primary sources, do you think there is something enduring about what it means to be a Democrat or Republican in California? Or do the parties shift over time in terms of how they approach social and fiscal issues? Do you think party platforms or specific historical considerations (e.g. the state of the economy or wartime imperatives) had influence on the speech? 8 Teach the 2016 Election Copyright 2016, Regents of the University of California

2 Governor Culbert Olson Goddwin Knight Pat Brown Ronald Reagan Pete Wilson Jerry Brown Date of Speech Context Amount of influence government should have... (Rate 1-5 & give your reasoning)... over economy... over society Sum up in a sentence or two what each governor believed was the purpose of government Copyright 2016, Regents of the University of California California Politics 9

3 Governor Culbert Olson (Democrat) California, like the rest of the country, was in the throes of the Great Depression throughout the 1930s. Compounding the severe economic downturn in California was a large influx of new residents who came from other parts of the country and often settled in shack towns throughout the Central Valley in hopes of finding work in the nearby agricultural fields. The state s economy struggled in all respects, with a quarter of the working population unable to secure employment. Californians explored extraordinary measures during these years, such as cooperatives and automatic government payments, to help keep residents housed and fed. With the popularity of President Roosevelt s New Deal, registered Democrats in California jumped from 22% in 1930 to 60% by Culbert Olson, elected in 1938 by this increasingly Democratic electorate, was a liberal who, as a state senator, had helped pass laws that repealed the sales tax on food, set a moderate income tax, and helped increase the amount of aid going to the elderly in poverty. Texas tenant farmer in Marysville, California, migrant camp during the peach season. Inaugural Address, January 2, 1939 The people of California want employment, a decent standard of living, education, opportunities for youth, social security, old age retirement, protection against pauperism and starvation. Activities in private industry and individual enterprise must be guided by these social objectives, if our present economy is to survive. Owners of capital and means of production and distribution must realize their responsibility to society, not to radically engage in human exploitation, but to conservatively engage in management for human advancement. Governor Culbert Olson, Inaugural Address 10 Teach the 2016 Election Copyright 2016, Regents of the University of California

4 Governor Goodwin Knight (Republican) The experience of the Great Depression and the Second World War led to a significantly larger and more active federal government. California felt the enormous economic benefit of this federal activity. During the course of WWII, California received $35 billion of federal dollars to invest in military defense. Compared the wartime federal spending in California (about $6 billion a year) with the year 1940, before the U.S. entered the war, and federal dollars in California reached $728 million. Before the New Deal policies of the Great Depression, the federal government invested much less in California $191 million in It became impossible to ignore the influence of the federal and state governments in defining the state s economy. At the height of the anti-communist sentiment of the Cold War, it was politically unwise to challenge government policy during the 1950s, leaving political conservatives to champion private enterprise as uniquely American (and anti-soviet). Goodwin Knight held such views. Goodwin Knight is remembered for his work on water conservation and development, including the Feather River Project, which included the Oroville Dam. Second Inaugural Address, January 3, 1955 I am a staunch proponent of the fundamental American principle of private enterprise. This system has made the United States the greatest Nation on earth. It has brought our people more of the finer things in life than are enjoyed by any other people in the world I believe in maintaining our State Government at the highest possible point of efficiency Governmental procedures tend to become more complex and more burdensome if allowed to develop unguided. Constant review is essential in keeping them simple and preventing the development of unnecessary routine and resultant rising costs. Governor Goodwin Knight Copyright 2016, Regents of the University of California California Politics 11

5 Governor Edmund Pat Brown (Democrat) The early post-war era was a remarkable time for California. The state was growing faster than any other in the nation, and there seemed no end to the potential for the good life to be had in California. People flocked to the state for the high-paying defense jobs, the scenery and temperate climate, the popular beaches, parks, and attractions like Disneyland (opened in 1955), and the relatively young and flexible culture. Pat Brown, like President Lyndon Johnson, was a liberal who believed in an active government with a broad reach intended to benefit all citizens. Second Inaugural Address, January 7, 1963 The Disney empire began at Disneyland in Orange County, California, in 1955 Under the banner of responsible liberalism, we have moved strongly and confidently. We are on schedule with a bold program to duplicate in ten short years a tuition-free system of higher education which already is the best in the world. Men and women of all races are guaranteed equal access to jobs under a law you and I wrote together four years ago. We have new master plans not only for education but for highways and parks, hospitals, and mental health clinics. Our social welfare programs place new emphasis on the principle that those receiving public assistance want a chance for honest work, not government charity for life. Our social insurance programs for the unemployed, sick and injured, have been returned to their earlier proud position in the vanguard of the states. The economy which supports all these programs, and is, in turn, supported by them, leads the Nation. Governor Edmund Pat Brown, 1964 Let me underscore that all this has been done with sound, prudent financing. Fiscal responsibility has been, and must continue to be, our first concern. 12 Teach the 2016 Election Copyright 2016, Regents of the University of California

6 Governor Ronald Reagan (Republican) The mid to late 1960s was a period of cultural upheaval in California and around the nation. The Civil Rights Movement awakened the nation to the severe social and economic discrimination that the America s non-white citizens faced. California too wrestled with these issues, as a majority of Californians voted in 1964 to repeal a fair housing act that had made housing discrimination illegal. The following year the non-violent tactics of the Civil Rights Movement seemed shattered in the neighborhood of Watts, when a police arrest sparked a week-long riot from some of the most economically and socially-marginalized residents of California. The students involved in the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley in 1964 took on the established order and called for social and political change, eventually becoming a base for the anti-war movement opposed to U.S. involvement in Vietnam. After eight years of liberal governance under Pat Brown, Ronald Reagan rose to power on a conservative platform calling for law and order and a smaller, constricted government. Photograph of the Civil Rights March on Washington, 8/28/1963 First Inaugural Address, January 5, 1967 The time has come for us to decide whether collectively we can afford everything and anything we think of simply because we think of it. The time has come to run a check to see if all the services government provides were in answer to demands or were just goodies dreamed up for our supposed betterment. The time has come to match outgo to income, instead of always doing it the other way around. The cost of California s government is too high; it adversely affects our business climate. We have a phenomenal growth with hundreds of thousands of people joining us each year. Of course the overall cost of government must go up to provide necessary services for these newcomers, but growth should mean increased prosperity and thus a lightening of the load each individual must bear. Ronald Reagan being sworn in as Governor of California Copyright 2016, Regents of the University of California California Politics 13

7 Governor Pete Wilson (Republican) California experienced an economic depression in the early 1990s as the state reeled from the loss of Cold War-era defense spending. The end of the Cold War decimated California s defense industry (between 1988 and 1993, 800,000 jobs disappeared), crippled the state s real estate market, and exacerbated the poverty and tensions that launched the Los Angeles Riots of 1992 (better known by the name Rodney King). By 1992, 93 percent of those surveyed by California pollster Mervin Field, said the state was undergoing bad times - up from 24 percent in Field, who had surveyed Californians for nearly fifty years, noted that he had never encountered so much pessimism about the present day and the state s future. California had always been a diverse state, but new immigration policies established in the 1960s had, over the years, led to a remarkably international population in California, while a high number of immigrants continued to enter the state illegally. Fears about the state of the state caused backlash from some voters, who in 1994 voted in favor of Proposition 187 to deny public services to immigrants without legal status, including public education. Pete Wilson ran for reelection supporting Proposition 187. Second Inaugural Address, January 2, 1995 We must choose whether California will be the Golden State or a welfare state. It can t be both. On that, my fellow citizens, there can be no question. We must be wise enough, tough-minded and honest enough to repeal programs that fail their stated noble purpose and fail expensively, incurring fiscal and human costs that are unaffordable. The people agree. They are out of patience with misfired good intentions that defy sense or fairness To produce that economy and all the work our people need, we must lift the burdens that government has placed on risk-takers, on the people who create California s jobs. If we over-tax and overregulate, if our workers are not well-educated and our streets are not safe, we will drive these job-creators to other states By lifting from them the restraints, regulations, and burdens that government has imposed, we free them to seize opportunity and create more. California Governor Pete Wilson, during his visit at the Pentagon, 1993 So, we will deliberately shrink government to expand opportunity. 14 Teach the 2016 Election Copyright 2016, Regents of the University of California

8 Governor Edmund G. Jerry Brown Jr. (Democrat) Jerry Brown is the only California governor to serve four terms. His first and second terms were from He followed in the footsteps of his father, Governor Pat Brown, but he presided over a very different social, political, and economic era. It was in 1978 that Californians passed Proposition 13 to restrict property taxes and ulitimately to reduce the amount of governmnent spending and support for school, highways, social services, and more. Brown returned to office in 2011, during California s economic recession. Brown s prorities during his thrid and fourth terms have included reducing the state s deficit and debt, reforming schools and prisons, and addressing climate change. The first all-electric school bus in the state of California pausing outside the California capitol building in Sacramento. Fourth Inaugural Address, January 5, 2015 the state budget, after a decade of fiscal turbulence, is finally balanced more precariously than I would like but balanced. California has seen more than 1.3 million new jobs created in just four years and the unemployment rate has dropped to 7.2 percent. Thanks goes to the Legislature for cutting spending, the economy for recovering and the people for voting for temporary taxes. California has made bold commitments to sustain our environment, help the neediest and build for our future. We are leaders in renewable energy and efficiency; we have extended health care to millions; we are transforming our educational and criminal justice systems; we are building the nation s only high-speed rail system; we raised the minimum wage; we are confronting the drought and longer-term water issues; and last, but not least, we have enacted real protections for our hardworking immigrants, including the issuance of long-awaited driver s licenses. Governor Jerry Brown Copyright 2016, Regents of the University of California California Politics 15