Opinion: California’s budget: Facebook ‘friends,’ unite!

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Should we let the ‘Party of No’ spoil California’s party?

This week, Times columnist George Skelton and Op-Ed writer Harold Meyerson weighed in on Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to have voters decide whether to extend ‘temporary’ tax hikes for another five years, to help close California’s budget shortfall.

Both Skelton and Meyerson argue that GOP legislators, who don’t want to put the issue on the June ballot, are wrong. Skelton also parcels out some blame to Brown, saying he shouldn’t have backed himself into a corner on this issue.

But there’s an easy way out. Forget that costly and messy voting stuff. Brown should just ‘friend’ every one of California’s voters, and then take a quick Facebook poll.

You say you aren’t on Facebook? Then get on it.

Don’t want to? Then the government will make you.

It can’t do that? Think again. If the government can require you to buy health insurance, then surely it can require you to join Facebook, which is, after all, free.

Still skeptical? There’s a word for people like you: Luddites.

Just get with the program. Heck, my 17-year-old son is a ‘friend’ of Barack Obama, and he can’t even vote.

It’s democracy, 21st century style. After everyone sees how easy it is, we can expand it. Soon, we won’t need a Legislature. ‘We the Facebook people’ will decide. We’ll instant chat with the governor. We’ll propose laws at noon, and vote on them at midnight.

And we won’t need those pesky legislative analysts to evaluate bills -- we can just go to Ask.com or Wikipedia.

And we can do all this while linking to YouTube videos of cats on water skis and posting pictures of our kids graduating.

RELATED:

California budget editorial: Give it to us straight

Why Jerry Brown’s proposal won’t feel like a tax hike to most Californians

--Paul Whitefield