Accounting for California’s Suicide

NRO ^ | 05 mar 09 | Victor Davis Hanson

[rellimpank]

What went wrong in California? I think we can all agree on at least three observations.

First, California is by nature the most richly endowed region in the world. Nowhere else is there so much fertile land, watered by gravity-fed winter runoff from the majestic Sierra. California has ample supplies of oil and natural gas. Millions of acres of timber abound in its coastal and mountain forests. Temperate climate and weather allow outdoor activity almost year round. The coastline is over 1,300 miles long — with two of the great natural ports of the world at Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay.

Second, prior can-do generations of Californians created an unparalleled infrastructure of dams, canals, and hydroelectric generation that once provided the state with ample energy, irrigation, and recreation. Its three-tier higher education system — 110 junior colleges, 23 state universities, and ten University of California campuses — once ensured a literate populace.

[rellimpank]

—ping—

[goldstategop]

Socialism led to the death of California. The higher taxes being imposed there will accelerate the outflow of people from the state.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Clock King]

Nailed it again. It really is a liberal utopian mindset that is bringing this nation down.

[goldstategop]

What liberals did to California, they plan to do to America: hit it with a huge wrecking ball!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Tolik]

... All these explanations may be valid. But less discussed is the underlying culprit: a weird sort of utopian mindset. Perhaps because have-it-all Californians live in such a rich natural landscape and inherited so much from their ancestors, they have convinced themselves that perpetual bounty is now their birthright — not something that can be lost in a generation of complacency.

Californians count on the wealth of farming but would prefer their rivers to remain wild rather than tapped. They like tasteful redwood decks but demand someone else fell their trees for the wood. Californians drive imported SUVs but would rather that you drill for oil off your shores rather than they off theirs. They pride themselves on their liberal welfare programs, but drive out with confiscatory taxes the few left to pay for them.

Californians expect cheap imported labor to tend their lawns and clean their houses, but are incensed at sky-high welfare and entitlement costs that accompany illegal immigration. Lock ’em up, they say — but the state is bankrupted by new prisons, constant inmate lawsuits, and unionized employees. 

In short, after Californians sue, restrict, mandate, obstruct, and lecture, they also get angry that there is suddenly not enough food, fuel, water, and money to act like the gods that they think they have become. 

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

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[3catsanadog]

I lived out in Denver, Colorado between 1975 and 1989. Even back then, you could buy a bumper sticker that said "Don't Californicate Colorado."

The pestulance from California was evident there years ago. The Hollywood liberals were buying property at the fashionable ski areas of Aspen and Vail; Willie Nelson had a home in Evergreen. John Denver, even as he sang and lectured the rest of us from his ranch in Aspen about how we should conserve and save Mother Earth, had his own private gas tanks on his property.

[wizr]

Thanks. Been here, seen that. All true.

[Scanian]

Great stuff, thanks!

[ROLF of the HILL COUNTRY]

A QUOTABLE QUOTE:

“In short, after Californians sue, restrict, mandate, obstruct, and lecture, they also get angry that there is suddenly not enough food, fuel, water, and money to act like the gods that they think they have become.”

[Loud Mime]

Wow. VDH brought out some great thoughts here.

Thanks for the ping.

[McGavin999]

In short, after Californians sue, restrict, mandate, obstruct, and lecture, they also get angry that there is suddenly not enough food, fuel, water, and money to act like the gods that they think they have become.

Yep, liberals kill everything they touch.

[kellynla]

“What went wrong in CA?”

The same thing that has brought down the rest of the USA.

LIBERALISM

Now that we know the problem; we MUST resolve it.

We MUST start encouraging, supporting & ELECTING true blue conservatives to local, state and federal offices!

It ain't rocket science! LOL

[Loud Mime]

I wish I could find that Doonesbury strip where Uncle Duke was using a high powered rifle to shoot icicles off John Denver’s roof.

[tubebender]

GOOD ONE! Thanks...

[kellynla]

” I lived out in Denver, Colorado between 1975 and 1989. Even back then, you could buy a bumper sticker that said “Don't Californicate Colorado.”

Don't be silly...it doesn't have anything to do with a particular State of the Union...it's the Liberalism/Socialism/Communism that students have been inundated with in our colleges & universities throughout America for over 40 years! And until we start electing true blue conservatives to our local, state & federal offices, we will NEVER turn this mess around! We need to start “taking out the trash!”

[CharacterCounts]

And until we start electing true blue conservatives to our local, state & federal offices, we will NEVER turn this mess around!

And that will not happen until a substantial number of those brainwashed over the last 40 years come to understand they have been brainwashed. How will that happen? I don't think I like the apparent answer to that question.

[GOPJ]

Californians count on the wealth of farming but would prefer their rivers to remain wild rather than tapped. They like tasteful redwood decks but demand someone else fell their trees for the wood. Californians drive imported SUVs but would rather that you drill for oil off your shores rather than they off theirs. They pride themselves on their liberal welfare programs, but drive out with confiscatory taxes the few left to pay for them.

Whoa - so California was the country's archetype liberal elite - hypocritical illogic was born there? Stunning.

[kellynla]

"How will that happen?"

it “may” take another American Revolution...
but the alternative, Socialism/Communism, is just not acceptable.

[cricket]

They are their own 'irony' and our 'worst. . .if these paradise-settlers lived by the mandates they now demand; there would be no luxury living; much less human life - 'destroying' the west coast. . .Only once ensconced - entrenched in their environments; do they mandate for wilderness protections and prohibitions - elsewhere.

They have 'their' heaven; and like the little gods they imagine they are; they will mandate a hell for the rest of the population; by all means and measures.