Proposition 50 has very little to do with democracy; it is quite the opposite. The California representatives in the House are currently 43 Democrats and nine Republicans. This is 83 percent Dem and 17 percent GOP, yet California’s registered voters are only 45 percent Dem, 25 percent GOP, and 30 percent “other.” This is nowhere close to equal representation.
If Proposition 50 passes, Democrats will have 92 percent (48-4) of the representatives, and the GOP will have 8 percent. How does this save democracy? The GOP and “other” are already significantly underrepresented and will be even more so if this passes.
This is pure partisan politics. Not “democracy,” which, I might remind you, the USA is not. It is a constitutional republic in which we are represented by officials who mirror our states or districts. (As you can see above, our California representatives already do not mirror the people of the state.)
Democrats in California are doing exactly what they accuse the U.S. government of doing: trying to create a monarchy. This state has been run by people named Pelosi, Newsom, Brown, and Getty my entire life of 66 years. Proposition 50 is not for “the people,” it’s for the 45 percent of the state that belongs to a certain party.
For the record, I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I am “other.” I’m just extremely disappointed with California. We complain about our worthless president trolling and tweeting, but when our governor does it, we think it’s hilarious. We hate Texas for gerrymandering, yet we do the same after leading the nation in having an independent agency draw the boundaries for the last 15 years.
Pure. Partisan. Politics.
We are better than this.
Gary Stites
Arroyo Grande
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 6, 2025.