Posted on 09/26/2005 1:24:26 PM PDT by calcowgirl
Elementary schools start with the fundamentals, the building blocks, the three R's: reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic. The California Comeback starts with its fundamentals, its building blocks, too. They are a different three R's: recovery, reform, rebuild.
When I took office 22 months ago, I had no illusions about how difficult the job would be, no illusions about what it would take to turn around a state $22 billion in debt. But in that time, we have accomplished the first R - recovery. We saved the state from bankruptcy, increasing state revenues $6 billion without raising taxes. We rolled back the unfair car tax increase, reduced workers' compensation insurance premiums 30 percent, created a positive business environment and brought huge numbers of jobs back to the state - more than 400,000.
You put your full faith and trust in me when you sent me to Sacramento to fix a broken political system. I was - and remain - determined to reach your goal. I knew there would be challenges, but I believed I could get Democrats and Republicans to work together. Initially, we did. We got a lot done, and we did it quickly.
I am proud of the economic recovery, just as I am proud of our other accomplishments: supporting stem cell research, victims' rights, the three-strikes law and environmental initiatives such as the hydrogen highway. I'm proud I set aside more land for public parks than any governor in California's history.
I also know that while meeting those challenges, I made some mistakes and learned many vital lessons along the way that make me a better governor.
I've learned that it is a good idea as governor to listen more and talk less, especially lines best left for "Saturday Night Live." ...
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
I'm undecided on a couple of them and may not decide until the very end,, regardless of what polls say either way.
Being a citizen doesn't get any easier , much less being a taxpayer and a property owner in this state and antion.
Votes really do matter and should not just be thrown like a dart at a dartboard in hopes of hitting a bullseye.
I want to know why it is debt is so acceptable for government but not for individuals? Which means each initiative deserves to be weighed carefully and the histrionics and hype put aside.
I agree
This kind of crap has been pulled by courts, but there is no
way that the governor could raise taxes.
The problem is, my FRiend, is that politics has morphed by pressure from the fanatical left into a virtual war, complete with weapons of mass personal destruction, along with weapons of mass deception via the MSM!!!
Without solid anchoring in conservative/constitutional PRINCIPLE, we drift into mass confusion! Lawyers will be quick to remind you that their job is to confuse, then clarify! (on their terms) Political activists on the left are becoming even more deft at this!!!
The Rules Have Changed!!! We can no longer afford "Moderate" leadership! No Moderate has ever made sweeping improvements to the condition of mankind!!! All they know how to do is drift to where the ruthless, relentless and remorseless leftist activists pressure them to be...
"out of date platitudes"
Sez you.
Your argument is very persuasive. There are in fact nuclear battles being waged on both sides. But it's a very small percentage of people who are moved by such things. I know it's difficult to perceive when you spend all your time in this and other echo chambers, but it's true. Most people are not moved by, and do not believe, your type of rhetoric, regardless of whether it's objectively "true" or not.
Sure, you'll get calcowgirl and CarryOkie and NormsRevenge to nod in agreement, but, well, how you doing in the polls? Or in actual California elections? Some victories on initiatives, but lots of losses in the Legislature.
I expect that you and I would like to end up in roughly the same place. I think we will arrive there incrementally, by changing hearts and minds to reject liberalism, like I did (Caveat -- I was never very far to the left. Some people will never be convinced, but as I'm sure you've seen on this board, there are a lot of people who can be.)
You think that it will only be through the political equivalent of nuclear annihilation that we will arrive there. Neither one of us has any proof of which way is going to work better. In my opinion, people are waking up to the ruin of liberal rule, and will move rightward over time. You would prefer to throw bombs. I think that will only harden positions.
I guess we'll see who's right.
About 40 years ago... And especially after the first Apollo spacecraft circled the moon and sent back that picture of Earthrise over the dead moonscape... leftist groups like Greenpeace started creating what they themselves called media "mindbombs!"
I was living in Davis during the first "Earthday" that soon followed and have observed the "mindbombs" that exploded in America and especially CA with highest intensity in the 1964-1968 period. I can still remember sitting in the corner office of the then most prominent insurance company over by El Macero and hearing that militant blacks were marching across the Yolo Causeway the day MLK was assassinated!!!
I then watched the mindbombs explode as Reagan, S.I. Hiakawa and other pioneering CA conservatives did battle with Mario Savio, Country Joe McDonald and other now proven Commies and Paul Gann and Howard Jarvis led a conservative tax revolt in CA that shook the nation!!!
I am NOT pursuaded to except the attempt at a self-fulfilling prophecy that we conservatives should all lie back and try to enjoy the incrementalism you insist must take place. That is self-limiting timidity and will achieve nothing, either short-term, or long-term!
What if those pioneering CA conservatives had resigned themselves to your point of view? I expect we wouldn't have even taken the Assembly in 1994 and Willie Brown would STILL be the Speaker to this very day!!!
So get up out of your rut, and dream up some "mindbombs" of your own and cultivate members of MSM AND alternate media. I've been there and done that in 1994. That's why I'm content to sit here and ping the others you mentioned. I don't have anything to prove, but you and the others reading this DO!!!
Engage!!! Organize!!! Strategize!!! Subvert the predominant paridigm!!! (that's a bumpersticker I first saw in Davis on the first Earthday) And don't forget to "Question Authority!!!"
Outstanding response, with this as the best part.
I do what I can. I try to persuade people through my writings of the problems with liberal rule. I think that if you took a person who trends left but is not committed, and had them read some of my writings, then had them read some of yours, mine would be more persuasive in pulling the person our way. Not because mine are "better" in any sense, but because you can't expect people to move from 3 to 10 without any steps in between.
There are a lot of people who don't want to vote Dem but can't imagine themselves voting Republican (other than for a celebrity). To move them our way, we can offer them reason or bombs. I think my way is more effective but I don't presume to be all-knowing.
"I am NOT pursuaded to except the attempt at a self-fulfilling prophecy that we conservatives should all lie back and try to enjoy the incrementalism you insist must take place."
Somewhat of a mischaracterization. I did not "insist" anything. I didn't say you should "enjoy" anything. I discussed what I thought was your "all or nothing" philosophy earlier. Right now we've got "some" and are moving to "more." In my opinion, your call for an immediate "all" will result in "nothing." As I see it.
"What if those pioneering CA conservatives had resigned themselves to your point of view? I expect we wouldn't have even taken the Assembly in 1994 and Willie Brown would STILL be the Speaker to this very day!!! "
The 1994 takeover was not a Conservative revolution, at least in California. The Republicans eked out a narrow victory, led by a moderate governor. And before long the Dems were back in control with an iron grip.
You mention CA conservatives specifically, which as far as I can tell, republicofdavis is not from California or at least the FR state list of folks doesn't reflect his or her name amongst 2418 or so other FReepers in this state.
While this is probably just a database irregularity, maybe republicofdavis might verify he or she is or isn't from or currently in California, was at one time or wishes he or she was today.
The blank profile page with no state or flag is typical of someone who likes to gather info and dispense comments about California and its political climate in a truly anonymous role, and that is fine too.
I seem to even recall the offering last night that he or she is leaning more to the right, which makes me wonder how left he or she was or currently is, and if he or she doesn't vote here, why is it so important he or she post of recent on some of the latest California threads?
Maybe it is all quite innocent and he or she would like to move here but wants to help with the cleanup now in the works before he or she moves here.
No reply is necessary. I'm just curious, like my cats.
You're kidding right? All he needs is 2 Republican Senators and 6 Republican Assemblymen on his side to get the 2/3 votes to raise taxes (since we know all the Dems would go along). Arnold could get those votes. Conversely a Democrat Governor could not.
Great post.
You must be making sense to generate such personal research!
I will be happy to post my particulars. I didn't know it was so sinister to fail to do so. I am somewhere between 40 and 50. I have lived my entire life in California. I lived for 27 years in the East Bay, then moved to Davis (I would think the name would have been a giveaway, being such an expert on California) from where I just recently moved to Sacramento.
I voted in the first election in which I was eligible and have not missed a single election since. I was a pretty solid Dem voter (although on a 0-10 liberal to conservative scale I was about a 3) until about 1998 when all the Clinton stuff was going on. I think I discovered this site around then and became a reader, but not a poster until much later. This site was very persuasive and beginning in 2000, I became a solid Republican voter, and have done what I can to persuade others to do so as well. However, I am not in any way affiliated with any organization. It's just me.
I'm a he. I love California and believe, despite all its flaws, that there's nowhere on earth I'd rather live.
May I continue to offer my thoughts?
"You must be making sense to generate such personal research!"
Thanks, dl. I guess that's a matter of opinion, of course!
Oh, its not sinister, call it vetting.
If ya swing much further left, we'll have to teach ya the secret handshake and nod.
Cool, the Golden Goose State too, wow.
if mosquitos weren't so darn bad, I'd finish up where I started from , Minnesota, but I have a california affliction as well, and have been bay area'd since '81 and LA before that. I have cousins who were born and still live here in the area.
Dang, my eyes may have missed your name (plus I hit 50 too and need glasses but am resisting getting them and paying for it with long hours at the keyboard)
I wish I had found FR a few years earlier as well. Lots of good discussions and info and such to be found here, for sure.
I have voted R since my first vote for
Nixon in '72 There, that wasn't so painful .
Thanks
Thanks for the correction. I didn't think I really wanted to learn the secret handshake on the left!
I hear ya.. lol
Yes, because the Repubs were so giddy that Willie was finally gone, they acted like a pack of dogs that had been chasing cars for so long, they didn't know how to act once they caught one!!!
This is the disaster insurance the lib/dems depend on. Repubs stuggle so hard to win that they haven't boned up on how to govern and blow it after one short term!!! The MSM just love to facilitate this "end-around" as well!!!
There is one thing we can all be certain of... Whenever a Conservative wins ANYTHING political, "they" will become ruthless, relentless and remorseless in rubbing out the victory and ANY of it's effects, along with any records of it as quickly as possible!!!
They truly believe they rule by devine right!!!
Next!!! :-) :-P
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