Diary: As California Goes, so Flounders the Nation

It could be said that gender, incumbency and ethnicity are prominent in California where two offices--US Senator and Governor--are being played out with gusto. Three women and a retread governor are on primary ballots. Through it all hangs a huge deficit (Illinois vies with them).

My contention is that the future of Democrats in the 2012 presidential campaign is predicted by a state "too big to fail" and an electorate too eclectic to see the dangers ahead. Whichever political party prevails makes less difference than whether the man in the White House recognizes that a sound federal treasury depends on less need for huge block grants flowing from Uncle Sam. It's hard not to take into account that Medicaid, affordable housing. food stamps and other fabric in the safety net will stretch to red ink in Washington.

It's time to admit it. More Americans are living on the brink of desperation. Poverty does not diminish simply because a few new jobs appear in happy talk.

The United States of America is in denial. Instead of a rallying cry for the middle class as a way of recovery, citizens must bite the bullet and admit that it takes the example of the New Deal's WPA, CCC, and NYA to structure a lifeline to a generation of young people who have seen a whole decade of treading water.

This is not your great grandfather's Great Headache.