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Is California crazy?
TownHall.com ^
| Saturday, October 11, 2003
| Thomas Sowell
Posted on 10/11/2003 12:20:41 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
The California recall election and its surrounding hoopla may have confirmed the suspicions of some people in other parts of the country that Californians are crazy. But not all Californians are crazy -- just the most affluent and highly educated ones.
Although the state as a whole voted to remove the disastrous Governor Gray Davis from office by 55 percent to 45 percent, he received a solid majority of support in most of the upscale northern California coastal counties.
In San Mateo County, where the average home costs more than half a million dollars and the environmentalists reign supreme, keeping the vast majority of the land off-limits to building, 63 percent of the voters wanted Gray Davis to remain in office. In even more upscale Marin County, 68 percent of the voters were for Gray Davis. And in San Francisco, the furthest left of them all, no less than 80 percent voted to keep Gray Davis as governor.
There is a certain irony here, since the Democrats like to portray themselves as the party of the working people, with special solicitude for "the children" and for minorities. But working people, families with children and blacks are precisely the kinds of people who have been forced out of these three affluent and politically correct counties.
All three of these ultra-liberal counties have been losing black population since the previous census. Kindergartens in San Mateo County are shutting down for lack of children. The number of children in San Francisco has also gone down since the last census, even though the population of the city as a whole has gone up.
Out in the valleys to which those who are not as affluent have been forced to flee, in order to find something resembling affordable housing, the vote was just as solidly against Davis as it was for him among those further up the income scale. Out where ordinary people live, the vote against Governor Davis was 64 percent in Merced County, 72 percent in Tulare County and 75 percent in Lassen County.
The time is long overdue to get rid of the outdated notion that liberal Democrats represent ordinary people. They represent such special interests as trial lawyers who keep our courts clogged with frivolous lawsuits, busybody environmentalists who think the government should force other people to live the way the greens want them to live, and of course the teachers' unions who think schools exist to provide their members with jobs.
Many of these people are over-educated, in the sense that they have spent many years in institutions which have propagandized them with the politically correct vision of the world -- even if they have not taught them much history, economics, or other mundane things.
Someone has said that people are not born stupid, but are made that way by education. Certainly that is true of what too often passes for education these days. You don't have to be crazy to want to keep Governor Gray Davis in office, but it helps.
This is the same Gray Davis who recently signed a bill to allow illegal aliens to get California driver's licenses. Using driver's licenses as identification, illegal aliens can now do pretty much whatever a citizen can do. Given our lax election laws, that probably includes voting.
Although Governor Davis is best known for the blackouts that his crazy policies on electricity brought on, he has been versatile in the havoc he has wreaked. Nor is he through yet. He could get writer's cramp from all the bills and appointments he signs before leaving office.
What can Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger do for California? Given the Democrats' solid control of the state legislature, Arnold is unlikely to get any laws passed reflecting his own views.
Nevertheless the new governor will have a line-item veto to cut back on some of the reckless spending that California's liberal Democrats specialize in. More than that, Schwarzenegger can use the bully pulpit of his office to educate the public on what is wrong with the bills he vetoes.
In short, he can promote sanity among the electorate, so that they do not keep putting in office the kind of people who make others wonder if Californians are crazy.
TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: californiacrazy; catrans; thomassowell
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To: All

Let's keep the Dem's on the run!
Click the Pic!
2
posted on
10/11/2003 12:22:45 AM PDT
by
Support Free Republic
(Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
To: JohnHuang2
well duh, we know they're crazy. Always have been. Thats why California has become the official asylum of the US
**I think we might be the only ones here besides that Support Free Republic dude who seems to be a computer program as he's always here.
3
posted on
10/11/2003 12:25:25 AM PDT
by
GeronL
(Please visit www.geocities.com/geronl)
To: JohnHuang2
A spot on article from TownHall.. A shame that a political earthquake couldn't clean out the Bay area to make life better for the rest of us.
4
posted on
10/11/2003 12:33:01 AM PDT
by
kingu
(Just helping...)
To: GeronL
who seems to be a computer program
We call them "bots" where I come from. Yes, I think he is one.
To: kingu
that would take a real earthquake, firestorm, tidal wave and a giant flushing sound
6
posted on
10/11/2003 12:43:46 AM PDT
by
GeronL
(Please visit www.geocities.com/geronl)
To: kingu
Yeah, an earthquake might help. I live in the Bay area. Everyone else in my extended family thinks about as much of Bush as I do of Hiltery, except my poor kid, who can't make sense of the political fault line separating his Dad from everyone else he knows.
To: JohnHuang2; ALOHA RONNIE
Yeah, we're crazy.
But, sometimes the most crazy relative is really the
most sane!
We just elected Arnold to be our Governor
and that act may save America from Hillary!
We're crazy and giddy
and just-darned pleased
with ourselves! :)
To: JohnHuang2
To: JohnHuang2
10
posted on
10/11/2003 5:01:38 AM PDT
by
rhema
To: JohnHuang2
This week, tv reporters covered the story of people camping in line for their chance at 'affordable housing' in Simi Valley. People in the front of the line were being offered as much as $5,000 for their place in line, but none were willing to give up their chance for condos priced as low as $350,000 that may be ready for occupancy by February.
We must prevent urban sprawl = keep the lowlifes crowded into overpriced housing.
11
posted on
10/11/2003 6:00:13 AM PDT
by
Susannah
(Arnold Schwarzenegger is not the Terminator....he's the Kindergarden Cop!)
To: Joy Angela; All
12
posted on
10/11/2003 6:42:54 AM PDT
by
ALOHA RONNIE
(Vet-Battle of IA DRANG-1965 www.LZXRAY.)
To: JohnHuang2
Yes - Californica is CRAZY!
Anymore questions?
13
posted on
10/11/2003 6:44:02 AM PDT
by
Happy2BMe
(LIBERTY has arrived in Iraq - Now we can concentrate on HOLLYWEED!)
To: kingu
A spot on article from TownHall.. A shame that a political earthquake couldn't clean out the Bay area to make life better for the rest of us.
I would prefer a split of the state-
West Calif for the coast liberals, only a very thin strip of the coasties.
Then California for the middle and mountains for the rest of us. Loos at the vote breakdown from Tuesday, and that's about how I would cut it up.
To: JohnHuang2
liberals stink bump
To: JohnHuang2
To: rhema
That's a great cartoon, it really sums up the reality of the situation Arnold is going to face.
I find myself wondering if perhaps the best thing Governor-elect Schwarzenegger could do would be to declare the state bankrupt in the first week or so of his term? Because I don't see any other way for that state to pull out of their current death spiral. Once he has declared the state bankrupt, he could announce the layoff of about 3/4 of the state employees, and announce the elimination of about 2/3 of all state agencies.
Bitter medicine, true, but the heat would be directed at his predecessors. He could simply state "I'm not the one who bankrupted this state, but I'm the one who is going to do whatever it takes to bring us back to fiscal solvency and sanity". If he waits too long then the problems will be blamed on him, if he cuts to the chase and declares bankruptcy in his first couple of weeks as governor then he might be able to survive politically.
17
posted on
10/11/2003 2:38:10 PM PDT
by
Elliott Jackalope
(We send our kids to Iraq to fight for them, and they send our jobs to India. Now THAT'S gratitude!)
To: Joy Angela
Yeah, we're crazy.
But, sometimes the most crazy relative is really the most sane! We just elected Arnold to be our Governor and that act may save America from Hillary! We're crazy and giddy and just-darned pleased with ourselves! :)What IF the most sane relatives (real conservatives) rebel against the RINO philosophy and feel betrayed by Kalifornia and the election of Arnold? I personally think the powers-that-be should remember to stick with the one who brought you to the dance.
To: JohnHuang2
Quite a few ARE crazy - but in my 10 years residence in California - most of the libs I met were just fashionably stupid.
19
posted on
10/11/2003 5:37:39 PM PDT
by
ctonious
To: JohnHuang2
bump for later
20
posted on
10/11/2003 5:44:55 PM PDT
by
TEXOKIE
(Hold fast what thou hast received!)
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