Fixing California

According to this NY Times piece, California's leaders are finally giving up on the state constitution and considering a rewrite. Not a bad idea, but you could fix a lot of the problem by embracing George Lakoff's idea of using the current outrage toward Sacramento to get rid of the two-thirds budget passage rule:

The Democratic leadership should immediately take the initiative on a 2010 ballot measure, a supremely simple one-sentence measure. It would go something like this:

All budgetary and revenue issues shall be decided by a majority vote in both houses of the legislature.

One sentence. Simple. Straightforward. Understandable. And democratic. It should be called the California Democracy Act. From grade school on, we associate democracy with majority rule. It will make sense to voters - at last! [...]

People understand that majority rule means democracy. 55% means nothing.

Even if you don't address taxes and just address the budget process, the Republicans will still say you're going to raise taxes. You may as well go for real democracy.

I'm guessing it'll be easier to pass such an initiative than to completely redraft the Constitution. I'd also strongly support an initiative to ban all further initiatives, but I won't hold my breath.