While the California Republican Party was busy excoriating certain Republican legislators for having voted to increase taxes a couple of weeks ago, the rest of the state was sighing with relief that a budget was actually passed. While this relief may turn out to be temporary as many Republicans have argued it will be, there is perhaps a larger political point that Republicans may be missing.
 
Despite the seemingly perpetual state of crisis that California has experienced over the last decade, it is puzzling that the Republicans have not been able to make any headway in improving their brand in the state. The fact that a technology sector collapse, an electricity crisis, structural budget deficits, high gasoline prices, and a housing bust, have not enhanced the long-term electoral prospects for Republicans is perhaps an indication that the Party may be fundamentally out of step with the state's voters. Arguments about tax increases and the brand-ruining actions of six Republican legislators miss the point that Californians have not given Republicans a working majority in the legislature in a generation. The election of two centrist Republican governors over the last 20 years cannot necessarily be described as a success for the Party's brand, given that even a state such as Massachusetts has managed to have Republican governors for 16 of the last 20 years to act as a brake on a liberal legislature.
 
While the Republican Party certainly needs to get back to its fiscally conservative, limited government roots nationally, the Party never really strayed from those roots here in California. While fighting for lower taxes and smaller government at a state level are certainly worthwhile goals, it is not impossible that the people of California actually want a government that is functional, rather than one that is necessarily smaller. While few would argue with the assertion that the current system of government in California is both Democrat and
dysfunctional, the Republicans have yet to formulate and articulate a serious set of comprehensive systemic reforms to allow the state to be governed in a more competent and efficient manner.

If Republicans are to become politically competitive in this state, they must show that they are a serious Party with serious ideas about how the state should be governed. As frustrated as many of us are with the tax increases that were approved, not approving them and driving the state off a financial cliff cannot really be described as a serious alternative. While the Party can always work behind the scenes to mount primary challenges to the legislators that broke ranks if that's what it wants to do, publicly censuring them sends the message that the Party would rather that the state have run out of cash. As emotionally satisfying as this outcome might be to some, a Party that takes this position cannot reasonably expect to be trusted with the serious responsibility that comes with being the majority Party. A permanent Democrat majority is what has led to the current state of dysfunction in California government. If Republicans ever decide to offer Californians the opportunity for a functional state government,instead of confining their message to tax cuts and spending reductions, they might actually find an electorate that is willing to listen to them.