[Tolik]

... All these explanations may be valid. But less discussed is the underlying culprit: a weird sort of utopian mindset. Perhaps because have-it-all Californians live in such a rich natural landscape and inherited so much from their ancestors, they have convinced themselves that perpetual bounty is now their birthright — not something that can be lost in a generation of complacency.

Californians count on the wealth of farming but would prefer their rivers to remain wild rather than tapped. They like tasteful redwood decks but demand someone else fell their trees for the wood. Californians drive imported SUVs but would rather that you drill for oil off your shores rather than they off theirs. They pride themselves on their liberal welfare programs, but drive out with confiscatory taxes the few left to pay for them.

Californians expect cheap imported labor to tend their lawns and clean their houses, but are incensed at sky-high welfare and entitlement costs that accompany illegal immigration. Lock ’em up, they say — but the state is bankrupted by new prisons, constant inmate lawsuits, and unionized employees. 

In short, after Californians sue, restrict, mandate, obstruct, and lecture, they also get angry that there is suddenly not enough food, fuel, water, and money to act like the gods that they think they have become. 

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

       Let me know if you want in or out.

Links:    FR Index of his articles:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
                His website: http://victorhanson.com/
                NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
                Pajamasmedia:   http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/

[wizr]

Thanks. Been here, seen that. All true.

[Scanian]

Great stuff, thanks!

[Loud Mime]

Wow. VDH brought out some great thoughts here.

Thanks for the ping.

[kellynla]

“What went wrong in CA?”

The same thing that has brought down the rest of the USA.

LIBERALISM

Now that we know the problem; we MUST resolve it.

We MUST start encouraging, supporting & ELECTING true blue conservatives to local, state and federal offices!

It ain't rocket science! LOL

[GOPJ]

Californians count on the wealth of farming but would prefer their rivers to remain wild rather than tapped. They like tasteful redwood decks but demand someone else fell their trees for the wood. Californians drive imported SUVs but would rather that you drill for oil off your shores rather than they off theirs. They pride themselves on their liberal welfare programs, but drive out with confiscatory taxes the few left to pay for them.

Whoa - so California was the country's archetype liberal elite - hypocritical illogic was born there? Stunning.

[cricket]

They are their own 'irony' and our 'worst. . .if these paradise-settlers lived by the mandates they now demand; there would be no luxury living; much less human life - 'destroying' the west coast. . .Only once ensconced - entrenched in their environments; do they mandate for wilderness protections and prohibitions - elsewhere.

They have 'their' heaven; and like the little gods they imagine they are; they will mandate a hell for the rest of the population; by all means and measures.