Then too, CA has given us the Michael Jackson verdict, the OJ Simpson verdict, yesterday the banning the Pledge of Alliegence. I know that I sound wacked, but I am just plain tired of them, it, whatever you want to call it. I am sick of how they have just about destroyed the moral fiber of this country. How they spit on our military, our president, the freedoms that they enjoy, because of our military. I am tired of paying way too much in taxes, only to be called greedy, because I think that everyone should get off of their rears and work for it, like I do. I'm tired of the free ride so many are getting. I am the first to donate or help someone out who needs it, I realize that there are people out there that need help, can't do it themselves, but it has gone so far over the edge, I don't see how it can ever get back to where it needs to be. Sorry to rant on, but again, I see CA as basically a losing battle and if they don't like it, they can leave. But you don't see the Baldwins or Streisand or the rest of that loser crowd doing it do you? They are quick to condemn you and I, but they think that they are above it all.
You're a saint. You're self-righteous. You feel sorry for yourself, you place blame. And if only California was wiped off the map, you would be happy and everything would be okay in the U.S.A. California is responsible for all the evil in the world and Indiana is a model of virtue and patriotism.
I do not spit on the military or our President. I support both in a very active way. It's amazing how you persist in flinging out your ignorance.
And THAT is precisely where your problem lies; California is FAR from a losing battle. conservatives have been making, and continue to make, headway in turning this state around. Our greatest obstacles are: the left, the mushy middle (which includes the State Republican Party apparatus), and pessimist conservatives.
My work schedule prevents me listening to Limbaugh regularly, and I'm not one of his many idolators, but I did catch, and wholeheartedly agree with, an awesome monologue of his talking about the left being primarily fear-driven and pessimistic versus conservatives being primarily hope-driven and optimistic. Essentially, if you think you're a conservative, but you're so cynical as to have fallen into pessimism, you have become more a part of the problem than you are a part of the solution. Fix your mental state, and the outlook for your State of residence will be less gloomy. If we could just get pessimistic, self-described Conservatives in California thinking in more hopeful terms, that would go a great way toward cranking up the voting horsepower of the conservative base here.
The mushy middle presents a different challenge. You have people who are divided in their mentality on fiscal vs. social issues and, because of this double-mindedness, they have difficulty with commitment to solid conservative candidates. That's why we ended up with Ahnold instead of McClintock as Governor: the body of voters that pulled the lever for a Republican candidate are decidedly divided on several key social issues that impinge upon morality and ethics. The only reason some of these people didn't vote for Bustamante is because fiscal restraint matters to them. Take that away, and they're just another moderate Democrat voting bloc, but we're not writing them off because we're optimistic that these moral relativists can be shown that the same conservative ideals they laud for fiscal management are applicable, reasonable AND, in fact, desirable in social arenas, as well for a multiplicity of reasons, not the least of which are their long-range fiscal impacts.
In making that argument to them, we also impact the left, itself, because the left espouses counterpoints on social policy that strike a harmonious chord with social moderates in the mushy middle. Some on the left have hardened themselves against all reason and will not be swayed, but we remain optimistic that many are open to reasonable arguments, will engage legitimate debate and can be swayed by a logical sequence of demonstrable, factual information. These are not the screaming-on-the-street-corner liberal flag-tramplers, these are the quiet democrats that find themselves wondering what has happened to their party? Our strategy to win these people is as old as the art of argument: it's people meeting face-to-face and discussing the issues point-by-point, in a knowledgeable, wise and diplomatic fashion; practicing the art of winsome persuasion; presenting Truth without guile and backing it up with demonstrable, factual evidence.
That's how conservatives will eventually turn California around: by at all times happily, optimistically, appealing to people with the plain-sense, factual, honest-to-God Truth. A pessimistic attitude is anathema to that goal and needs to be ditched at the earliest possible opportunity.