Public interest vs. special interest

There is a difference between the public interest and a special interest. For economic issues, the difference usually amounts to which interest gets most of the benefits or advantages of policy or law. That may favor the public or special interest. For most social or religious issues, e.g., abortion, the difference generally amounts to which personal or religious belief interest 'wins'. Supporters argue their view helps the public. The opposition argues the opposite. Regardless, the outcome may help, hurt or do nothing to the public interest.

Where does the balance lie?

The interesting question is one of balance. How much net benefit or harm there is to the public interest compared to the special interest. It isn't always a matter of one side wins and the other loses. For some political policies, there is more benefit than hurt. Sometimes all sides are hurt more than helped. Sometimes its a wash.

Spinners step in: Unfortunately the balance is usually hard for the public to see. Political issues are usually complicated. A law affecting one area of the economy can affect things in related or unrelated areas. For contested policies, both sides generally spin as hard as they can to win their argument or benefit. Facts and truth are hard or impossible to get at. In political debates, truth is the usual first casualty. Despite the smoke and mirrors, when a special interest has money and lobbyists, the special interest tends to benefit at the expense of the public interest.

It is just entrepreneurial: Ignoring or downplaying the public interest is mostly capitalist. Politicians follow their political incentives, e.g., reelection, just like capitalists follow theirs in the economic arena. Unfortunately that is a big problem. If political incentives favor the special interest, that is what most politicians will favor most of the time, if not always.

Trying to get a win-win or equal balance would be an improvement when it could be done. Favoring the public interest over the special interest would be fine if a win-win or reasonable balance could not be found. At the least, approaching California's political problems and issues from that viewpoint would be different.