Why I'll never go back to California

wnd.com ^ | 6/13/2014 | Patrice Lewis

[rktman]

California is the embodiment of Margaret Thatcher’s famous quote, “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” It is depressing that even with the evidence of years of repeated collectivist failure, people keep trying to make a communist silk purse out of a rotting sow’s ear.

Just keep this in mind if you decide to flee the socialist stench of California: Please remember why you left. Don’t Californicate your new home.

[rktman]

While I completely understand Ms. Lewis' thoughts on Cali and would not live there either, there are those that for some strange set of circumstances, be it financial, family or whatever are there to stay. I even have an old work buddy that just retired and is moving to San Diego from AZ. WHAT? I keep asking him, "Are you sure?" Family ties for he and his wife and a nice sail boat docked there. I don't get it. Heck we're close enough to the border that sometimes we can feel this weird vibe in the distance. Big cities, no thanks. But as everything else in life, it everybody's own choice. Choose wisely my FRiend. :>}

[madmominct]

I grew up in LA and went to UC Berkeley in the early 70s. I left in 1979 and never went back except to visit family. Now I live in CT, almost as bad but not quite. My family is pushing me to move back, but I really am having trouble with it, as much as I love them. Just visiting there and being forbidden to use plastic bags at the stores pisses me off. The smug self-righteousness of the left permeates everything. I don’t think I could take it.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My folks and I sailed in to Oakland back in ‘61, after being stationed overseas for nearly a decade. We came in on the MSTS ship General W. A. Mann, under the Golden Gate Bridge.
California looked damned good to me at the time.

[Uncle Chip]

Please remember why you left. Don’t Californicate your new home.

They left because they screwed everybody they could and had nobody left to exploit.

Once they make their money and retire with those generous public pensions they head for greener pastures in Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho -- and then turn those states into mini-Californias.

[bert]

I visited California in ‘12 and traveled all over.

The state is overpopulated.

[ExCTCitizen]

Connecticut or California? I will take CT over CA since CT do have some areas of conservatives. I love the four seasons of CT and the hills, too.

[Rusty0604]

CA has areas of conservatives also. Better weather too.

[rktman]

I know I couldn’t take it and we only live about 12 miles from the “border”. NorCal on the eastern side of the state is beautiful and most of the folks are conservative but like most places, the big lib/prog/socialist cities control what gets passed and the little guys in the boonies are left with their pants down. Kind of like why we have a electoral college for national elections. Popular vote? No thanks.

[Prince of Space]

We left San Diego for Scottsdale, AZ almost 20 years ago. We go back every year or two to visit family, but other than the ocean, I don’t miss California one bit.

[latina4dubya]

I will take CT over CA since CT do have some areas of conservatives. I love the four seasons of CT and the hills, too.

so does California... and other than filling out an R4-Affidavit each year, there are no homeschooling laws--a big fat plus in my book...

[svcw]

Are you sure, all over?
Between Santa Barbara an salinas on the 101, hardly anyone
Drive the 5, nothing.
Los angles county and San Francisco Oakland are crowed otherwise not bad.

[glennaro]

Your's is a most accurate analysis. Except for a few "progressive" enclaves such as the university cities of Sacramento, Davis and Chico, nearly all of California 25 to 30 miles inland from the coast is conservative ... no, it's very conservative. The Valley farmers who own a good portion of the land have very little need or respect for "progressive" big government that is shoved regularly down their collective throats!

[hecticskeptic]

Well… Californication is going on in lots of other places. Take for example Ontario, Canada which is a good comparison for California due to its significant size (population of 14,000,000 which would make it the 5th largest state if in the U.S.). The provincial election was held this past week with a rather unbelievable result. Everyone acknowledged that the Liberal government in power were socialist thugs and involved in so much corruption that it would be a cinch to replace them with a conservative government, right? Well, not only was the Liberal minority government not defeated, when the smoke cleared on Thursday, they now hold the majority in the legislature. How did they do it? Think about de Tocqueville famous quote of “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.” Up until the point when they can no longer ‘endure’, a lot of spending of other people’s money goes on. What has happened in Ontario is almost the same as California… Between the union controlled public service, businesses that depend on government programs and initiatives for their revenues and a whole host of others who depend on the government for their very existence in some way, shape or form, there’s no point in even suggesting that spending should be reined in….it won’t happen due to the vested interest of what is now the majority (greatly encouraged in that process by the Liberals since it is a perfect fit for their DNA which naturally repulses the concept of living within one’s means). Ontario’s election wasn’t about choosing which party should be in power….. it was a referendum on fiscal conservatism itself and guess what was defeated?

Like California, Ontario has managed to find itself well beyond the tipping point. The possibility that public service unions would get so big that they (along with others who have a vested interested in a particular party winning) would be the deciding factor as to who would be in power was always out there……Everyone should be dead against all public service unions for this very reason but the argument is typically always poo pooed on the grounds that the unions weren’t quite large enough to influence an election and besides, “they would have a breakdown of voting preferences that would be reflective of the general population”. Ya right..… Can you believe that the Ontario Provincial Police Association (union)even ran their own commercials that essentially laid out a threat to Ontarians that if they voted for the Conservative (Alinsky tactic Rule 12), we would be virtually guaranteed labour strife? It is mindboggling that the citizenry wasn’t up in arms about this…. oh wait, it was the POLICE who did it. If the idea of being held hostage by the police doesn’t strike fear into every citizen of Ontario, I don’t know what will. I was chatting with a young nurse just before the election and she said that she and all the nurses that she knows have been told “if you vote Conservative you will lose your job.” Well….it worked and she voted Liberal. Somehow these types of threats and the general demonization that went on against the Conservatives by all these groups means that the Province isn’t really going to be run by the Liberals for the next 4 years… it will be run by fear as spread by public service unions whose plans will be readily implemented by the Liberals. And so what the citizenry is left with is no mechanism to rein in spending short of Ontario’s credit rating going completely in the toilet.

The tipping point has been exceeded….. Conservatives in Ontario can never win again since the block of potential voters with their vested interest is guaranteed to vote against them every time. The party may as well as go into a state of total dormancy until the province crashes and burns… which history dictates it will.

[bert]

That was my impression and I was on the royal road ( butterfield trail) for a lot of the time

[rktman]

There is a prog/lib/socialist belt/corridor along I-80 from around Roseville all the way in to the bay area. I’m guessin’ there’s about a 20-25 mile zone on either side of I-80 that has succumbed to or toes the prog/lib/socialist mantra. Outside that, pretty conservative.

[Old Retired Army Guy]

They pretty much succeeded in Californicating Oregon and Washington. They are half way there in Colorado. AZ and Idaho are still Red though.

[rktman]

Like Maggie said, sooner or later you run out of other peoples money. But that must be okay since the Federal Reserve will just print a new batch to hand out. Soon to become monopoly money if we keep going. Have the conservatives (your choice of defining that) become so disgusted that a lot don’t even bother to participate any more? As long as the lsm keeps hammering home the point that the libs/progs/socialitst are going to sweep the elections and conservatives buy it, there isn’t much going to change. It really boils down to which group of “promisers” each individual chooses to believe. Or which ones they feel are lying more, or less, to them.

[k omalley]

I live in the Los Angeles area and when I moved here I found a network of conservative, deeply religious folks. I was surprised at how many there actually are. We are in the minority to be sure but we are here and we are fighting for our principles and beliefs.

I also get to enjoy the beautiful weather, quiet, and light traffic in the area where I live. I plan on staying here unless cost of living gets beyond what I can afford.

[LongWayHome]

Young Canadians (under 40) in my experience, seem to be very radicalized. I’ve heard them spew anti-Americanism & anti-Western nonsense that would put the French to shame.

[hecticskeptic]

The liberal media played a very active role in this election. They first did a phenomenal job of making it look early on as if the Conservatives/conservatives were going to win and win big…. in retrospect, it was all part of the game of striking fear into the Liberal/liberal base to ensure that they went to the polls. The Conservative Party did really run a poor campaign which compounded the problem of overcoming the insurmountable block of ‘those with a government vested interest’ and I’ve heard that for this election, there were more ‘withdrawn ballots’ than for any other…not sure if you are familiar with this term but ‘withdrawing your ballot’ is the formal way of saying that ‘none of these clowns are fit to represent me’ (as opposed to just spoiling one’s ballot). I think that for the most part, the answer to your question is yes.