: What happened to the Golden State?

Washington Examiner ^ | February 24, 2013 | Conn Carroll

[Hojczyk]

California is no longer a model that other states want to or should emulate. It currently has the nation's third highest unemployment rate, its highest poverty rate and more than one-third of the nation's welfare recipients.

To make a long story short, the same political constituencies that have made Brown's Democratic Party invincible at the ballot box have also made the state unable to compete economically.

These unions also make it impossible to improve how government services are delivered to taxpayers. As a result, while California once had the most admired education system in the nation, it now ranks near the bottom in almost every measured educational category.

The state's powerful environmental lobby has secured a slew of green energy regulations, including strict clean air rules, the nation's first carbon cap-and-trade program and an ambitious renewable energy mandate. As a result, energy prices have shot up, consumers now have less to spend on everything else they need to survive, and many manufacturers can't stay profitable in the state

Over the next four days, The Washington Examiner will look at what ails California, and how it got to its current state of failure. We will look at the state's out-of-control budget and debt, the powerful union interests driving it, the decline of its education system, the failure of its "clean energy" initiatives and the environmental regulations that are wrecking the economy in many regions of the state.

[X-spurt]

What happened???

Guv Moonbeam was heard yelling “there’s gold in them there pockets”.

[publius911]

I’m sure that the vast majority of the current residents of Californicate are very happy with the current state of the “Golden State” ... or else they would change things.

Assuming we can agree on a previous post on this thread, that would be a logical impossibility.
I agree that this is the complete, rational and logical explanation :

"What happened to CA is the same thing that happened to New York. You have a high concentration of the population in an urban area that is very very liberal as well as huge “consumers” of government handouts and that same area has the population numbers to control the elections."

Being, literally, too stupid to even imagine that that is an untenable, unstable, temporary aberration.

[publius911]

Although you get points for PC, and seem reasonably informed, you are an as yet unmentioned part of the problem.
Your facile "explanation" of what our future can be is pure Obama. Your opinion on the future does not, and can never, neutralize the reality of the past.

You're arguing like the real losers who advise a rape victim that, if she can't prevent it, she might as well enjoy it. Most Californians, with a long memory of the past, aren't buying your social snake oil.

[doorgunner69]

A tourist?

KMA! Born there in 1947, left in 2006.

How about you, ace? Want to beat that?

I do not give a damn about the statistics of your precious inner city cesspool. I moved further out over the decades and finished with California way out in Ventura county.

Take your "tourist" and shove it. Born in what then was known as Cedars of Lebanon hospital. You have a longer history of living in L.A. bring it on tough guy!

[Othniel]

If you want a good reason for California taking a dump and becoming one, check out some of Victor David Hanson's essays, particularly the one on Two Californias. Hanson nails the reasons, the mentality of those on the coast, and how the left is destroying it for everyone.

[ansel12]

You sure are an example of a typical Californian.

[ansel12]

Texas and California both are 38% Hispanic.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Yes, the North Eastern socialists overran the state and they are still coming.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I’m leaving just as soon as I retire. You can go down with the state and see your vote overwhelmed every election. I will go to a conservative state that needs me to help preserve it.

If we had enough conservative Californians moving to Colorado and Washington, we could save those state from going full on liberal.

I plan to fight by saving a state that is salvageable, not by remaining in one where the fight is hopeless.

All that happens in California is that my vote is swamped and the liberal candidate gets all of California’s electoral votes anyway. What good is my vote anyway? I will go to a state where my vote still counts.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

What happened to California? People write “liberalism, socialism, etc”.

Bullcrap. Pure, unadulterated Marxism via the Communist Party USA infiltrated and subverted every aspect of normal, pro-American life in the state. Such as:

*Movie industry, esp. Hollywood - John Howard Lawson, the KGB’s “commissar” of Hollywood

*Academia - look at how many communists, marxists, sociaists, and far-left sympathizers hold teaching positions in the universities, high schools, and on downward. The Un. of California system has been a hiring hall for the Communist Party USA and its supporters since the 1950’s, if not earlier

*Religion - The CPUSA has run a number of fronts with fake clergymen (Morford, Melish, Fletcher, etc) as well as having sympathizers in large, black churches such as the Glide Memorial Church. They get a lot of attention at demonstrations, in meetings with political figures, etc. Never are exposed as reds

*Crime: Leftist police chiefs and sheriffs allow certain criminal groups to operate almost unhindered. They blame society for the crimes, not the criminals, and you can see the results. LA has has an estimated 10,000 gangs with approximately 100,000 members (as reported over the years - I doubt this figure is accurate, and probably way too high re what a real gang is). Yet the Bloods and Crips are products of LA.

*OJ Trial: For blacks it was “pay back whitey time”.

*Rodney King beating and trial of officers. Another “pay back whitey” bing of killings and lootings (something King would not have wanted at all).

*Rise of black extremist groups, communist terrorist organizations, etc. SLA -Symbionese Liberation Army, Weather Underground (key suspects in the death of Police Officer McDonald in S.F., among others); US; Black Panther Party; Maoists in Chinatown.

*Almost complete control of labor/labor unions by the reds - ILWU - Harry Bridges, Soviet agent and CPUSA leader, of the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Workers Union; SEIU; UE (United Electrical Workers); key teachers unions and federations; etc.

*Communist politicans from Hugh DeLacy (a great friend of Leon Panetta, by Panetta’s own admissions - see www.keywiki.org for documentation); Dellums - traitor re Grenada reds and his aides Carliotta Scott and now Rep. Barbara Lee (as red as they come); Rep. Judy Chu; Mark Alarcon, sister of CPUSA leader Evelina Alarcon; the Burton brothers and one wife; Don Edwards, ties to Soviet spies Dodd and Stern; Ilana Hancock; etc.

*Massive drug use tolerance - Hollywood!, Mexican gangs, liberal customers

*Massive taxes

*Unrealistic environmental regulations which are driving businesses/jobs out of the state and will continue to do so ad nauseum

*Liberal newspapers who only tell you what they want to, instead of what they should be covering

*Pseudo intellectuals from Hollywood who are asked for their opinions and comments on things they are definitely not qualified to talk about

*Cults - Jonestown (Marxist Jim Jones); Heavens’ Gate; The Manson Family, etc.

*Degenerate and degrading music, esp. RAP. THe praising of “gangsterism” in words/music by the rappers, and then them leading such lives. A horrible example for the uninformed to follow.

*Literally no restraints on demeaning and obscene sexual behavior in public. I don’t give a damn what the fringe sexual freaks do in the privacy of their homes, but that stuff does not belong on the streets in front of children and more morality-based folk.

Need I go on?

[WashingtonSource]

A lot of the left’s power in California came from the unionization of government workers. They unionized people saw embracing illegal immigrants as their ticket to permanent power and perks. These two things more than anything ruined California.

[Richard Brandon Abroad]

" So now you’re left with Communism: a rich, upper elite running a system for the happy little peasants."

There it is in a nutshell. BRIBE the voters in the lower income group with money STOLEN from the kulaks (middle class). Works fine until
(a) you run out of the middle classes, or
(b) the middle class run out of cash.

Hat tip to Maggie Thatcher.

[Jim Noble]

“
Liberalism (I know, I know ... Mr. Obvious strikes again) “

If you believe liberalism is the answer, why do you think British Columbia is doing so well?

[dragnet2]

You have a longer history of living in L.A. bring it on tough guy!

Sorry slick, unlike you I never discuss my private life on the Internet.. BTW, you seem angry...lol.

Maybe ya got island fever? Been there done that.

Oh, and since ya go back so far, you seem really ignorant in regards to crime rates and stats.

Cheers!

[dragnet2]

If we had enough conservative Californians moving to Colorado and Washington, we could save those state from going full on liberal.

Uh...feel free...It's just not for me...The weather in those states sucks bad nearly year round...Been there done that too. I'll tough it out here....Be sure to buy some cold weather clothing, umbrellas and get the cars ready for it...Take care.

[Windflier]

After you restore the California I grew up in, I'll consider coming back.

Mega dittos to that, but you and I both know that our California was gone a long time ago.

My only hope is that it crashes and burns so hard, that the common folk turn 180 degrees, and fully reject everything the left's been selling them for so long. Only then, will that state have a prayer of coming back.

[doc1019]

If you read my post, I was BLAMING liberalism.

[Jim Noble]

If you read my post, I was BLAMING liberalism

Yes, I know you were. That's why I wrote what I did.

Let's go deeper.

My example was British Columbia, a California-like geography that's even MORE liberal than California. And yet, it is a lovely and highly desirable place to live.

How about Detroit's sister city, Windsor, ON? Right across the river. Same climate, same natural resources. Run by liberals for 80 years, even more liberal than the ones running Detroit. Unions more powerful than the UAW could dream of being. What do we find there? The City of Roses, a lovely, peaceful place to raise a family.

One could go on and on.

If you think it's the liberalism that has ruined California, and Detroit, and Baltimore, and on and on and on, you have to explain contrary examples like Portland, OR, Portland, ME, Burlington, VT, Vancouver, BC, Windsor, ON, etc. etc - all absolutely dominated by liberals and unions (the other favorite explanation). Liberals alone can't ruin anything.

[foreverfree]

Just look at the crime stats for example.. Crime in the 1980s was *substantially* higher than it is now. In fact, LA's per capita crime rates have been dropping dramatically for many years

Even in South Central?

Ya don't have to believe me, just look it up.

Got links?

ff

[dragnet2]

Last I checked, S. Central LA is still LA.

Got links?

Yeah, I got links and since you have computer, you do to...It took me 5 seconds to pull this up...

L.A.'s Homicide Rate Lowest In Four Decades---L.A.'s homicide rate is the lowest it's been since 1967.

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/06/132677265/las-homicide-rate-lowest-in-four-decades..

Say, are you not in Philadelphia? This below is a bit dated, but you get the message.

________________________________________________________

Philadelphia and Los Angeles Comparative Crime Ratios per 100,000 People

Latest 2006 Crimes per 100,000 People:

	Philadelphia, PA	Los Angeles, CA	National
Murder:	27.7	12.4	7
Forcible Rape:	65.55	27.3	32.2
Robbery:	749.1	370	205.8
Aggravated Assault:	720.1	377.2	336.5
Burglary:	788.1	524.8	813.2
Larceny Theft:	2691.1	1539.2	2601.7
Vehicle Theft:	795.9	654.4	501.5