I make no claims to be the next-great Thomas Sowell, Charles Krauthammer, or George Will, but I am a concerned Californian who continues to be disappointed--time and time again--with mounting frustration, to boot, at the lack of common sense, lack of common decency and lack of logic here in the once-Golden State on the Left Coast.
Case in point is the defeat of each and every one of Governor Schwarzenneger's bold (but smart) propositions put out there for a people--who, at least, I thought voted him into office for this very reason (other than to see "Gray-Skyes" Davis get the boot)--for CHANGE--not just any change, however, but realistic and necessary change for the better, for the future.
What truly frustrates me is the utter lack of any backbone or resolve on the part of conservatives (including self-professed Evangelical Christians who's values SHOULD line up more closely with the GOP than with today's Democratic Party) to stand up, sound off and say to "you-know-where" with political correctness. But, as with most folk in my home state, it's "whatever out there is popular is what I'll do--as long as I don't step on anybody's toes or offend my fellow citizen." It's the "go-with-the-flow" mentality, I guess, that gets my dandruff up more than anything else.
So, in the end, folks like me who actually take a stand for morality, decency and common sense are automatically branded as "religious, right-wing zealots who want nothing less than to shove one's Bible down one's throat!"
Well, off of my soapbox for now.
I actually sent this same commentary ("California's 'Stuck on Stupid!'") to the editor of our local High Desert (Victorville) newspaper--though, I'm not holding out any hope that they'll be printing it anytime soon.
Thanks for allowing THIS disgruntled Californian to sound off.
Rick Victorville, CA
The recent election was a real tragedy for the state that WAS once great. I know, I have lived here most of my life and saw the state when it was VERY good. Now, it is a cesspool of liberalism, illegal immigration, radical liberal taxation, and a thriving welfare state.
The people of the state can only thank themselves for the destruction of what we had.
I am a NATIVE CALIFORNIAN, we have the best state in the entire USA that is why everyone wanted to come here and some have ruined the great state it was, but the ones who were born raised here and have roots will do there part to help heal this state and bring it back to the wonderful place it was for so many many years...
California Dreamin!
Note to the last guy leaving California: Don't bother turning out the lights, there wont be any power to worry about anyway.
California, they say, is the first state to implement socal things...so California naturally would be the first American State to be totally destroyed by socalism, greed and stupidity.
Note this:
This memorable quotation is from Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813). Scottish jurist and historian, he was widely known in his time and was professor of Universal History at Edinburgh University in the late 18th century.
The quotation is from the 1801 collection of his lectures:
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
from bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to complacency;
from complacency to apathy;
from apathy to dependency;
from dependency back again to bondage."
So....you see...the socalists, welfare class and other "progressives" outvoted you. Probably because most of the people who love freedom and free markets were working and didn't bother to vote. On the other hand, you can bet your ass that the union bosses, the 'rat party, the communists, socialists, naacp, et al got out the rock bands, free lunches and had plenty of transportation to take all the "progressive" voters to the polls after they all got up....sometime after noon.
The same senario will soon spread everywhere.
My contention is that none of the founding fathers ever intended for everyone to vote....for they understood that before long, the welfare class would be in charge.
California is just the first to fall and it won't be long now that they will come whining to the feds to bail them out.
The "governator" needs to get out now, or he will be blamed for the coming disaster.