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Conor Friedersdorf asks a tough one:

I’ve got a question for Kevin Drum. You and I presumably agree that California Republicans and Democrats are both exceptionally awful, so much so that it’s hard to even think about this state’s politics without despairing. Indeed, I’ll bet that despite our differences in political philosophy, we could hammer out some mutually agreed upon changes that would result in a 600 percent improvement in public policy.

But I also bet we’ll wind up voting differently come November. The last time Democrats controlled the statehouse and the governor’s mansion, Gray Davis and the legislature incurred some egregiously unsustainable costs related to state employees, whose unions are such a powerful interest group here. I’ll be the first to acknowledge the utter dysfunction of California Republicans, our current governor very much included, but I’m terrified to death that the end of divided government is going to maximize the chance that more catastrophic craziness passes into law. And I find it very hard to believe that unified government under Jerry Brown and the current legislature is going to bring about any significant reforms.

Am I wrong?

Wrong? The word hardly has any meaning in this context. A choice between imperious zillionaire Republican Meg Whitman and Democratic retread Jerry Brown is like being asked to choose between dog food and cat food for dinner tonight. Since I’m a cat person, I guess I’d choose cat food because I get to watch my cats lap it up adoringly every night. But that’s not much of a reason, is it?

I have no idea what to do. California is broken and there’s no political will to fix it. And by “political will,” I don’t mean that politicians are unwilling to fix it (though they are). I mean that the people of California are unwilling to fix it. Blaming things on our politicians feels good, but we the people are every bit as fractured.

And look: it’s not just Sacramento. I live in Orange County, ground zero for conservatism in the Golden State. In 2001, right after 9/11, the county board of supervisors unanimously voted to increase pensions for public safety workers by over 50% in a single stroke. Sure, the authorization for the increase was contained in a bill passed by the legislature and signed by Gray Davis. But guess what? Everyone bellied up to the bar, including the supposed fiscal hawks of The OC.

So would things be any better if the former CEO of eBay became our governor? It’s hard to see how. Whitman apparently doesn’t have the leadership chops to even risk talking to the press, let alone the leadership chops to bring some semblance of order to a legislature that’s (a) hopelessly divided and (b) governed by insane rules that practically guarantee deadlock. Would Jerry Brown do any better? I doubt it. But on non-budget issues at least he’s more likely to be on my side of things. So there’s that.

Bottom line: I don’t know what to do. If Arnold is to be believed, our shiny new redistricting and open primary laws will change things starting in 2012. I can’t wait.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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