California: Heading for an Iceberg
How do the Golden State and the Titanic differ?
NOVEMBER 9, 2010 12:00 A.M.
By: Dennis Prager
Okay, riddle fans, heres a toughie: Whats the difference between California voters and the passengers on the Titanic?
The passengers on the Titanic didnt vote to hit the iceberg.
Most Americans understand that California is sinking. What is almost incredible is that it has voted to sink.
On Election Day 2010, Californians voted Democrats into every statewide position (one is still undecided). This is the party that single-handedly has brought one of the worlds greatest economies to near-ruin. There may well be historical parallels to what Californians did but I cannot think of any.
A listener called my radio show two days after the elections to tell me that his business is booming thanks to Californians. His occupation? Hes a real-estate agent in Phoenix, Ariz.
The middle class has begun to leave California. It is, of course, impossible for most members of such a large group to leave a state; few people leave their family, their friends, their job, and their home except under the most dramatic circumstances. But this fact makes all the more noteworthy the exodus from California that has been taking place.
You have to wonder how many businesses and individuals would leave California if their friends and family could also leave, if they could find a comparable job elsewhere, and if they could sell their homes without losing money. What you dont have to wonder about is who would stay under those conditions. The state of California would eventually be left largely to those groups who voted Democrat in this election: rich liberals (such as those who live in Nancy Pelosis Marin County, in the Bay area, and in West Los Angeles); state and municipal workers (who vote Democrat in as direct a pay-for-vote scheme as a law-based society allows); those who rely on state and city governments for entitlements; and those Latinos who either fall into the last category or who unfortunately identify the Republican party with anti-Latino sentiments because it opposes illegal immigration.
Those who believe in individual responsibility, the free market, and personal liberty are a minority in California. We greet each other as Americans would greet each other meeting in a foreign country.