And something more.
When nation-states face a threatening Emergency, they're sometimes forced to form a Unity government. All the normally-warring parties must come together and agree, for a time, to support a leader who can build democratic consensus.
No prominent California Democrat speaks more often than Lockyer about bringing back the good old days of bi-partisan agreement he remembers from his many years in the Legislature. Maybe he grimly suspects those days are gone forever. But at least his nostalgia prompts him to continue to seek something of immense value that's been lost and nearly forgotten.
I'm not a politician. I have no clue about how Lockyer, disdaining an exhausting battle with other Democrats, could emerge as the Party's gubernatorial nominee next year.
It would probably take a political miracle. But with Barack Obama in the White House, maybe this is the age of miracles.
It could begin with some very important people giving serious thought to that peculiar idea of Unity in time of Emergency.
Far-sighted corporations might conclude that their interests lie with a progressive Democrat who understands finance and is committed to promoting an efficiently-regulated and favorable business atmosphere to create jobs for the unemployed.
Public employee unions and educators and advocates for social justice might decide that if more budgetary slashing is inevitable, the knife might best be wielded by a Democratic master of fiscal realism who has demonstrated, through years of past accomplishment, that his heart is always with them.
All the special interests of this State might for once think about the general welfare of California and ask themselves what public official is best suited to halt its feared decline and fall.
A few large contributions, a few influential phone calls. That's how the miracle could begin.
And then Jerry Brown might do some hard thinking of his own. He is a brilliant man. Just not the right man for this State of Emergency.
Brown has not yet officially declared his candidacy. Everyone is certain that he will. Everyone, perhaps, except Jerry Brown.
Maybe he could think of a preferable alternative in which his unique talents and experience could be put to best use. He has run twice for the Presidency. His eyes have looked beyond California to Washington. They might again.
The Senate of the United States could use a witty, quotable, eccentric gadfly, a latter-day Wayne Morse or Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who could sound off on any issue that strikes his fancy and immediately gain national attention from that bully pulpit. Isn't the prospect of twenty years in that luxurious club preferable to four thankless years in sweaty Sacramento?
As for how and when Brown might get to the Senate, that's not for me to say. I'm not a politician.
But I am an historian and, as such, I claim the literary license to recall highfalutin words that you won't often hear in these days of popular cynicism.
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