Posted on 03/05/2018 8:12:01 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It finally happened. After 22 years in Los Angeles -- 13 on its West Side -- I threw half my life into boxes, the other half into dumpsters, and returned to my native Arizona. It wasn't a decision I had been pondering for very long. After the first of the year I began to kick the idea around rather casually, then a few things fell into place quite unexpectedly and, by the middle of January, getting out seemed like the only logical thing to do.
Emotionally, it was a different story. I love California. More specifically, I love Los Angeles. There have been many people I've known both in and out of the entertainment industry who seemed to be working on an exit plan as soon as they arrived in L.A. They were regret-free when they did get out, which was usually sooner rather than later.
My time in California may have begun solely because I was an entertainer. However, I had always been politically active too and my years there saw my most intense activism. Alas, I was perhaps focusing too much on national issues when I should have been throwing some effort behind keeping my home state from rushing headlong off of a progressive cliff.
Some of my efforts were actually spent at home. While so many conservatives in California were longing to get to more politically friendly states, I was relentlessly advocating for staying and fighting. States that were already electing conservatives and/or Republicans didn't need more conservatives there, I maintained. It was the places in America that were becoming liberal wastelands that were in need of some opposition voices.
It was a pitch that could have been applied to any number of states, but I meant it for California. I don't care what the libs do to the likes of New York, Chicago, or the Pacific Northwest. Let the progressive loons have cities and states that are already cold, wet and miserable.
But, as I often asked audiences, why should we let them have a place as glorious as California?
Apparently, no one was listening.
When the Democrats gained a super-majority stranglehold on the California legislature, they didn't waste any time letting their far-left freak flag fly. As soon as some bills were floated, then passed, people began asking me in private and in public interviews about the legislative madness issuing forth from Sacramento.
I thought most of it was boilerplate liberal lunacy that wouldn't stand up to any strict legal scrutiny, which made me shrug it off.
Last summer, however, the extent of the lunacy started to really come into focus and made it more difficult to keep at arm's length.
The far-left progressive Democrats in the California Assembly went to war with their still quite left "moderate" Democratic colleagues for not being fully on board with a single-payer health care bill that was problematic, to say the least.
This escalated quickly, which led to an effort to recall Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, who, by the way, is progressive.
Not progressive enough though, it would seem.
Rendon is a proponent of single-payer health care. His only objection to the bill in question was its funding, which was practically nonexistent.
Now firmly in the grip of the super majority, California politics had devolved into an ideological battle between the far left and people who think Fidel Castro was too conservative.
Forget hoping that moderate Republicans would have a voice in Sacramento, the moderate Democrats didn't even have a chance.
Conservatives? Yeah...no.
It was at this point that I began to wonder if the two progressive factions had pulled California's political center so far to the left that it could never be brought back to a sane place on the spectrum. In years past, I would dream of a day when control of the state would return to the adults and there would be a huge correction.
The legislative madness of 2017 was bad enough, but the state hit full "hold my beer" mode in 2018.
One Democratic legislator actually proposed fining wait staff in restaurants for offering plastic straws to customers. Ian Calderon, the legislator behind this, isn't some newbie back-bencher who is trying to make a name for himself, he is currently the assembly's majority leader.
The only people who aren't rich who seem to be moving to California from other parts of the United States are young, idealistic people who want to be in the entertainment industry. They usually get jobs in bars and restaurants when they arrive.
The Democrats now want to make their lives more miserable.
That idea is the kind of thing that makes people from other parts of America see all of California as a literal lunatic fringe of the continental U.S. It's too insane to worry about because it probably won't ever come to be.
More problematic is the open hostility that the Democrats running California have for things like the rule of law and lower taxes. You know, things that sane, rational free people enjoy.
It was when the state's attorney general said he would prosecute hard-working citizens who were providing jobs if they obeyed the law that I began to take a serious look at how far away from me California had drifted.
We'd never been a good fit politically. I used to live in Maxine Waters' district. I went from there to Henry Waxman's. My senators were Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, who was then succeeded by Kamala Harris.
Put very mildly, I wasn't feeling very well represented in this country that is supposed to be a representative republic.
It was then that I began to ponder a return to the desert.
As many have pointed out, the politics in my hometown (Tucson) aren't much better than California's, which is true. However, the governor here is great and, with any luck, we will be getting an upgrade from Jeff Flake soon. Also, it's easier to fight for some change in a medium-size city than in the most populous state in the union.
Most importantly, I don't feel fire-breathing hatred from the state capital.
It's quite refreshing.
I still love you, California, but you're hanging around with some really awful people.
Call me when they're gone.
Oh, but the beach is so far away from Arizona.
Lived in CA in the 80's - helped vote out Rose Bird as state supreme court chief justice.
Have not been back (except for visits) since. I am beginning to think the only way to fix it is martial law.
A salute from a 40 year CA resident who is now is Oregon.
OR? Its as far Left as CA and throughly Democrat-dominated.
The Pacific Coast states all share similar demographics and are called the Left Coast, for good reason.
Another salute from a 40 year California resident who is now in Nevada.
Still here and no plans to leave yet. Understand the frustration in the article though. Happy Monday all!
Gone the way of CA.
Democrats took over Nevadaistan’s legislature in 2016.
Left in 95. Take away statehood and return it to a territory. Property will be cheap once we get rid of illegals and/or stop welfare to non-citizens.
——then a few things fell into place quite unexpectedly -—
Serendipity rules
Still here, too, but we are talking to a realtor. Grandkids in NJ - New JERSEY??? No thanks. Sibs in western Colorado. Moving from So Cal to the NE is out of the frying pan/ into the fire to me. Anyone know good spots up that way??
At some point we will have to acknowledge that Mexico has taken California back.
Before they take the whole country.
Highest taxes. Highest utility rates. Highest cost of living. Corrupt politics. And yes, hard hard left in most of the major cities - moderates have almost zero representation in decisions and are routinely belittled . Used to be very nice place in fifties but destroyed and getting even. worse. Shame! ( Californians who can are leaving. Communist China mostly and other mostly Asian countries are buying the place up )
Your only choices are the Mountain States, Midwest and the South.
The coasts are throughly liberal. Good luck with wherever you decide to live.
with any luck, we will be getting an upgrade from Jeff Flake soon.
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The Bush League Republicans who run the AZGOP have already picked McSallycain as the next Amnesty Senator.
Many years ago, I had the fine priviledge to work in the power industry in CA during the Gray Slave-us governorship.
I found it to be a very beautiful place to visit, but the politics really sucked bad even way back then...and that’s putting it mildly.
A fellow Texan and I were turned off by it so bad, we thought about sneaking out under the cover of darkness to the Lone Cyprus at Pebble Beach, cutting the damn thing down and putting up a pole in its place with a nice, big ole Lone Star flag on it. Fortunately, we were too inebriated at the time to actually pull it off. I guess that would have been considered “domestic terrrorism” and we’d probably still be in jail.
Now, I’m retired, but there still ain’t enough wild horses in all of Texas to ever get me to go back. Sad...such a beautiful place yet so full of kooks.
The communists will never leave. It is their stronghold. Their Cuba.
I lived and worked in California for 45 years. Am now happily living in the north woods of Georgia. My kind of work ain’t done here but I am much happier. Been here five years already and I am doing my best to keep Georgia conservative
What’s happened to CA makes me terribly sad. I have never been to the state, but I know the left have ruined a perfectly good place.
And the rest of the country will suffer for their insanity. It’s like having a dysfunctional relative. Like it or not, the rest of the family is going to get sucked into their drama and mess.
My state of Colorado is changing and growing rapidly. The mess that is CA is part of the reason...I have no doubt.
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