California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown - Essay Example

 California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown In the 1900s, California was avowed to be the most populous state in the nation (Rarick, “California Rising” 1-3). California was described by writers as the place “where the new American society is coming into full view” and where everything would take its shape. It was seen as the American rebel who opposes the nation’s norms rather than establishes them. For John Gunther, it was an expanding nation—a “world of its own.” But for Carey McWilliams, California was the “Great Exception” and “California is the future.” It was viewed as the state who “assembled itself as the cutting edge” of the nation’s story. And it all began because of one man’s unselfish and noble direction to produce the best results for California disregarding the growing population and his own political career. Edmund Gerald Brown had an early prediction of having a business and political career set before his eyes. He was the grandson of Augustus Schuckman and Joseph Brown, the father of his father, Edmund Joseph Brown who were one of the early successful business men who came to California in the 1800s (Rarick, “California Rising” 8-14). Resembling the same courage and desire as his ancestors’, Edmund Brown abandoned his old life, hunted for a brighter future in the West, and considered California as his homeland. Edmund learned how to become a young entrepreneur from his father. Edmund and his brother learned the world of commerce by selling newspapers and snapped cheap pictures in the streets. During the World War I, Edmund encouraged people to buy liberty bonds by giving four-minute speeches in school. During this time, he acquired the name Patrick Henry Brown that has shortened to “Pat” because at the end of his speech, he would shout: “Give me liberty or give me death!” In high school, he had used his organizing skills by being a leader of the groups he joined into. When he graduated in 1923, he worked for his father as a cashier for awhile before he decided to pursue law in San Francisco Law School. Because public speaking was a gift for him, he was given the roles of the yell leader and debating club president. While he was studying at law school, he was offered a job as a personal assistant by a blind lawyer named Milton Schmitt. He graduated law, top-notching his class. And upon Schmitt’s death, he took over the practice. Pat Brown’s political career started when he altered from being a republican to a democrat. He believed that prioritizing the nation’s woes are necessary (Rarick, “California Rising” 25-26). “For the first time in his life, he was a democrat, the political label that would define his career. In the long years that follow, he never thought of going back.” He stated that, “changing parties was akin to finding a new religion” which meant that he wanted to become a democrat for the rest of his life and “wanted to do things for people and felt that the government had a part in it, felt that the government should aid and assist.” Brown took on campaign chores for the democrats’ candidate for governor, Culbert Olson. He headed his fund-raising committee and speaker’s bureau for all of North California and he won. But Brown did not land a job with Olson and though disappointed, he built his own course instead in hometown politics. In 1939, he had run for incumbent district attorney in San Francisco as a democrat still though he had no experience in criminal issues. Even though he lost, he considered it as “an opening wedge.” In 1943, he pushed his luck again and won, serving for seven years. He became the Attorney General of California after that for eight whole years. In 1958, he was the democratic nominee for Governor of California. Pat Brown became the “activist governor” of California in 1959 when he defeated William F. Knowland. His first term was regarded to be full of vigour and accomplishment (Rarick, “California Rising” 3). He funded the development of public colleges and universities, built vast system of dams and canals called the “California Aqueduct” or "The Governor Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct" to make way for the water to move from the wet north to the dry south, enacted the California Master Plan for Higher Education, signed a major civil rights bill to increase funding of social programs, proposed a major tax increase, enacted fair employment practices, state economic development commission, and a consumers' council. He also ended his practice of cross-filing for his political candidates, and backed the used of computers in state government. Ironically, Rarick described Brown’s first term was a combination of policy successes and political impediments (280). All of his achievements were truly appreciated for a time but his failures were obviously pointed out. One of his greatest debacles led many Californians to believe that their governor is a weak and indecisive person. Even the people who approved his work could not name a specific work as his major accomplishment. The catastrophe Edmund Brown has faced started when he was re-elected as the Californian governor (Rarick, “California Rising” 1-3). He has defeated two of the country’s most famous Republicans, the former majority leader of the U. S. Senate, Bill Knowland and the former vice president of the United States, Richard Nixon. His was nicknamed as the “Giant Killer.” Nixon described California in Pat Brown’s second term as a “mess. California’s government was too big, it’s crime rate too high, its economy too sluggish” (230). But Brown was confident that he had not beaten an ideological opponent but had ended a career of a bad man hunting for power instead. Being only the third California governor elected to a second term and the first democrat, Brown was supreme in the most dynamic state in the most important country in the world (Rarick, “California Rising” 230). But Brown was just facing the point of his life and career when he announced in December 1962 that the “the balance of the most powerful nation in the world will shift from the Atlanta to the Pacific,” shifting from east to west. The people of California saw this as a threat, bringing problems rather than possibilities. As result, Brown’s ceremonies became “sparsely attended and mostly mocked.” California was swirling in a world of post-war optimism, sixties activism and conservative backlash. The Sixties Rebellion washed through the state, leaving Pat Brown to be the authority figure to be cited particularly by the anger and protest by college students and the least favourable kind of the race, the blacks in Watts section of Los Angeles. His absence during mobs and in the cities and campuses worsened his reputation to the people. It was far worse when he made a dispute about the killing of Caryl Chessman (Rarick, “California Rising” 177). He had granted him a 60-day reprieve convicted of rape and kidnapping with bodily harm which was a very controversial move at that time. He fought for capital punishment to be abolished for he believed that is morally wrong for government to kill people and “justice does not require death.” Already standing at the edge of a cliff, Pat Brown’s personality became his one and only weapon (Rarick, “California Rising” 177). “Friendly and charming and affable, he saw the best in other people and made them see the best in him. His was the world of useful benevolence. Getting along with people, showing a genuine and sincere ability to sympathize with them, liking them and being liked, trying earnestly to be a decent fellow—these traits had brought him success, had made him yell leader and the community organizer and the respected prosecutor, and finally the governor of his state. They had brought him power and prestige.” Despite the greatest tragedy he was facing, he tried to resolve the problem in the same way—“he looked for the best in people: he saw the appeal of his son’s youthful optimism, hoped for a spark of mercy in the legislature, perhaps even dreamed of some remaining virtue in Chessman himself.” His compassion and sympathy led him to write a book about death penalty, ending it about his last thoughts on the Chessman case, “I firmly believe all of that, he added. “I also believe that I should have found a way to spare Chessman’s life.” But deep down, he knew that it was impossible. And yet, he fought for what he thought was right until he realized he had failed. Brown was pitched from office in favour of the conservative movement and a highly death penalty supporter, Ronald Reagan. But even though he was already overthrown, Pat Brown was entitled the “Grand man of the California boom” (Rarick, “California Rising” 4). The whites who make up mostly of the ethnic diversity of the state are already a minority aline with the blacks that are starting to spread across the country in the past recent years and in the future as well. “For good or ill, California still leads the way to the nation’s future. The digital revolution launched in Silicon Valley is transforming culture and commerce alike. The ethnic diversity of the state, where whites are already a minority, will spread the country as a whole in the years to come.” McWilliams proved to be right: California is the future for “an extraordinary percentage of Americans will be Californians.” When Edmund Brown was elected as governor, the population of California was rising by 500, 000 a year (Rarick, “The California Agenda” 1). It was nearly surpassing New York to become the populous state in the country which meant the triumph of the age-old American migration to the West. Brown visibly used his eight years of service to endorse a series of public policy initiatives that equipped the state for its growth that has already been taking place and for the development that was sure to follow—the State Water Project, Master Plan for Higher Education, and tougher laws against racial discrimination, glittering public achievements, etc to name a few. In order to pay for all of his projects, he enacted a massive tax increase that resulted in an extraordinary burst of public energy, investment and accomplishment. He laid down a state for the people that seemed to offer “a better life than could be lived anywhere else in the country.” He once said to an interview: “My son asked me what I hope to accomplish as Governor. I told him: essentially to make life more comfortable for people, as far as government can. I think that embraces everything from developing the water resources vital to California’s growth, to getting a man to work and back fifteen minutes earlier if it can be done through a state highway program.” Pat Brown did not succeed because he was a genius nor because of the pure and honest politics that exist of his day but he succeeded because “he pursued a set of policies that improved the lives of average Californians” nor he has created capital improvement projects that lasts longer than his term. He believed in the power of the government as a useful agent of change—doing good things and offering a way to solve the problems of the state (Rarick, “California Rising” 25). More than at any other time in his political career, success had blend with failure, although in the long run his world slowly disintegrated from the joy of political triumph to the bitterness of political rejection. He did save California, but he did not find time to save himself. Bibliography Rarick, Ethan. California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005 Rarick, Ethan. “California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown.” The California Agenda Public Policy Lecture. 3 May 2005. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs. 8 Nov 2008. Read More