If only the governator would explain things to Californians as you did to your relative...
About the only area he can help is explaining the facts of life to the unions.
But, remember, we don't yet have a king in this country and neither does California. Just as the Senate and the Congress, at the federal level, are the only ones who can approve spending, so it goes at the state level.
The governor and the president cannot authorize a single penny of spending. Only the voters and the legislators.
The challenge is breaking the news to people and telling that it's nice rally ‘round the flagpole when your guy is in but if your guy isn't and he is not the problem, does really make sense to beat on him?
We need to more effectively focus on the legislative body and I still have not figured out to do that. It is very difficult, for instance, to villainize some 535 Senators and Congress people. I mean, who is the target, everyone?
Still we and the legislators have a spending problem. Theirs is born of job security, while ours is born of, well, if you will, a certain avarice at other peoples expense. Namely the top 30% and many of us are too dumb to figure out where the government is getting it's money i.e. looting us!