EXITING CALIFORNIA! -- Invasion Of The Fleeing Golden Staters!

ICONOCLAST ^ | by Lin Anderson

[Apolitical]

ICONOCLAST EXCLUSIVE!!

EXITING CALIFORNIA!
-- Invasion Of The Fleeing Golden Staters!



Bye, Bye, California; Nevada, Here They Come!

by Lin Anderson

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the traditional American immigration pattern -- East to West, for those of you who slept through "U.S. Demographic History" that day -- seems no longer to be operative here in the 21st century.

For the record, also inoperative are common sense and the Detroit Tigers.

"Go West, young man, and grow up with the country," wrote Horace Greeley back there in 1865 in an editorial in the New York Tribune. Modern-day researchers have, however, found that the same exact words were penned 14 years earlier by a Mr. John Soule in a Terre Haute, Indiana, newspaper. It must be gratifying for former New York "journalist" Jayson Blair to serenely contemplate that in his tenure with the New York Times, he was in fact just carrying on a longstanding Empire State tradition established by Horace Greeley.

No matter its provenance -- as they say pretty much hourly around the New York Times these days -- the quote has long been a linchp in in the annals of the western United States, even though the odds are pretty good that Greeley was drunker than a convention of Dean Martin impersonators when he plagiarized it.

According to an article by Haya El Nasser, in a recent very colorful edition of USA Today, the Census Bureau has determined that today's immigration patterns are from West to East -- more specifically from California to anyplace distraught Californians can think of to flee to.

"Most of the people leaving California," the USA Today piece notes, "are going to other Western states such as Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Colorado." And most of the most of them are going to Nevada. Or, as writer Haya El Nasser hilariously phrases it, "Nevada was the biggest beneficiary" of these refugees from Gray Davis's Worker's Paradise.

Lucky us.

The bureau estimates that some 200,000 Californians made tracks to Nevada in the late 1990s, hoping to escape such happy Golden State features as "earthquakes, race riots, economic downturns, a wave of foreign immigration and skyrocketing housing prices." While we haven't had the earthquakes or race riots yet, we seem of late to be quite well represented by the other items on the list, so I'm thinking it's just a matter of time before some unpopular court verdict or other causes the ground to start shaking and the good china to come hurtling off the shelves.

It's not exactly a stunning revelation that a sizeable chunk of the Golden State's population is scurrying over the border and into our hearts. We're handy, after all. Right next door, you might say. In the line of fire, certainly.

Nevada is also attractive by virtue of our having no state income tax; but, per capita, we have just as many nutball legislators as the Californians are used to. I'd say that would make the immigrants feel right at home, but their goal always seems to be something along the lines of making our home feel an awf ul lot like their former home.

It has been a recurring theme of mine -- for at least the past four years or so-- that, as Nevada has become more and more a Haven for the Disaffected Soul (particularly the Disaffected Soul from our neighbor to the West), we have found many of our own cherished Silver State traditions relentlessly assailed. As the folks from Fresno, the beings from Bakersfield and the peeps from Pomona have arrived, so, predictably, have the demands for smoke-free casinos, smog inspection stations, vegetarian menu alternatives and draconian zoning ordinances.

It's as if these refugees had risked their very lives fleeing the Nazis and then suddenly decided upon reflection that maybe they liked that whole crazy "we VILL rule da VORLD" concept after all.

I was a Californian long ago, and have many acquaintances who presently live -- if you call that living -- Over There. I also lived in Seattle back when the California license plates started showing up in unsuspecting neighborhoods with alarming frequency, so I know how this thing works -- or, more to the point -- doesn't work.

I had a conversation with a Seattle-based friend of mine awhile back during which we reminisced about the California invasion. He noted with some degree of cynicism that the hordes which had poured into the city during the 1980s and 1990s were, as the new century dawned, rapidly tiring of the area and were even now pointing their fuel-efficient vehicles south, toward Oregon.

If you've scanned the news out of Oregon lately, you know they arrived there safely.

I fear the upcoming recall election will find even more of our neighbors dropping next door to borrow a cup of sanity. With Gray Davis "alternatives" including Arnold Schwarzenegger ("The Governator"), Arianna Huffington, tiny Gary Coleman ("Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Davis?"), and big blob Larry Flynt already on the goofy ballot -- which may includ e the names of dozens of candidates by the time voters finally trudge wearily to the polls in October -- men, women and children from Redding to Riverside are likely even now nibbling low-calorie things like their fingernails and planning a daring escape to a more hospitable climate such as, for example, us...Nevada!

What's to be done? ...............

[tortoise]

How conservative--in matters of money, right?

Nevada has always had a libertarian and pragmatic edge to it. It is what allows them to fast-track new powerplant approvals in two months from start to finish, to build powerplants that will sell power to California (with the State taking their cut). The people of Nevada do not try and legislate against reality or economics, which is a fairly unique political viewpoint among most states. Indeed, they take advantage of the stupidity of other states in this regard to their own benefit. Nevada wasn't always like this. If you study their history, they almost went extinct the better part of a century ago and radically reinvented their concept of government to save their state, and it worked in spades. If you don't harm anyone else you can do what you want and the govt takes their "use fee" cut, but if you screw up and hurt someone else punishment is swift and brutal.

Don't worry yourself too much. Homosexual marriage was soundly killed by a two-thirds majority, and it tends to be a very Christian culture. And they penalize you harshly for doing stupid things; even relatively modest property crimes done in daytime is a justifiable homicide, and the gun laws are extremely relaxed.

That is the essential philosophy of Nevada. They tax you for what you use, they don't tell you what to do if you aren't bothering anybody, and they give the citizen free reign to exact brutal and severe punishment against screw ups and losers who cross the few lines the state has. The Constitution puts severe limits on what the political class can do, more so than the Federal Constitution in many ways. And the state government is part-time, meeting a few months every two years which doesn't give them enough time to cause trouble.

I generally consider Nevada to be a model State, and I don't even live there. The people there have a clear understanding of what the government should and should not be involved in, and they have a visceral distrust of government in general. As a consequence, there really aren't that many laws to speak of. Thomas Jefferson would have approved.

[Central Scrutiniser]

I've been here since North, East and West high schools actually were in what was considered North, East and West.

I'm sick of new arrivals...

And I want some monsoon, dammit..

[theDentist]

Some lib friends of mine abandoned Taxifornia months ago. They keep saying they'll return once the state is stable again. I'm just aching for the chance to tell them it was "saved" by a Conservative.

[TroutStalker]

I hope it's only the conservatives deserting!

According to my sister in Las Vegas, californicate lawyers were in the vangard, to help prepare the legal system for the expectations of the fleeing leftists bringing the seeds of destruction.

[BlazingArizona]

Hell, California's high desert is too hot for me in the summer and compared to Arizona, it's cool.. But don't feel too bad, you guys in Arizona may only have another three months of your solar living hell.

Actually, the climate of Phoenix is a lot like San Bernardino, except that we get a period of humid, thundery weather in July and August. Arizona has no place as hot as Palm Springs.

[BlazingArizona]

Ok, OK, LOL! So it only gets into the 80s at 7000 feet in Flagstaff....... But -23 in December? Boy, not exactly BBQ weather huh?

You're looking at the Daily Extremes column. There was once a record low of -23 in December. Now look across to the Aveages column.

[Kozak]

Seriously dude, I hear in some states the FIRST thing you want to do is stop by the DMV and snag a set of new tags as windshield and tire insurance. :0 !

Hell when I moved from Sacramento to Wisconsin in 97 I got new plates and tags 5 months BEFORE the move and pocketed $1200 bucks ( 50/ vehicle instead of 800, and 500 in Californiastan).

[Dog Gone]

In order for Texas to have a state income tax in six years, as you predict, the legislature would have to pass a constitutional amendment by a 2/3rds vote, and the voters of Texas would have to approve it at the ballot box.

That won't happen.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"Reno is a mess of dirty freezing snow in the winter"

You must be joking! It only snows several times a year, and it melts quite fast (they say "it never snows on snow".)

And in less than an hour, you have stunning Lake Tahoe and a wide selection of world-class ski resorts.

Not to mention that most of the time, in winter, the skies are sparkling blue, and the sun is shining on and melthing whatever snow has fallen.

[Age of Reason]

That is the essential philosophy of Nevada

What you don't understand is that political philosophies are not invented out of thin air.

They are invented as solutions to problems.

Stick your libertarian neighbors in a lifeboat with little room and even less food and water, and how long before they forget their philosophy?

Increase the population of your state, and that will bring with it changes too.

I am also aware of the history of Nevada.

I am aware that like people in a lifeboat, Nevadans had to ignore deceny by legalizing vices like prostitution, gambling, and divorce to survive.

Which is all part of the philosophy you ascribe to Nevada--that of taking advantage of people.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"I am aware that like people in a lifeboat, Nevadans had to ignore deceny by legalizing vices like prostitution, gambling, and divorce to survive."

Well, since those things are rampant (if illegal) in other states, why have meaningless prohibitions?

[tortoise]

I am aware that like people in a lifeboat, Nevadans had to ignore deceny by legalizing vices like prostitution, gambling, and divorce to survive.

Fortunately, the people of Nevada apparently are not foolish enough to buy into your random presumption du jour. That you don't understand it just means that you are part of the problem.

[buwaya]

The people leaving are mainly retirees and those seeking work elsewhere.

Retirees leaving CA is an old situation, dating back to the 1970's property boom. Retirees would sell out and buy cheaper and better elsewhere, where they could live better on less. Still happens.

The labor movement thing is also old. People have shallow roots in CA and they are used to moving to where the money is. The same happened 1989-1993.

[buwaya]

Well, you have been lied to, probably, as CA voters are mainly not conservative and haven't really been for a decade or two. This isn't Utah.

A pragmatic Republican could still win. Riordan would certainly have beaten Davis. Almost any Republican would have beaten Davis. Simon was a fool.

What the California Republicans need is pragmatism and party discipline.

[Age of Reason]

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Compare this map:

http://images.usatoday.com/news/electmap.jpg

to this map:

http://txsdc.tamu.edu/download/pdf/txcensus/2k_night.jpg

Clearly, more people means more liberal voters.

Republican politicians understand this, which is why they need to increasingly pander to liberals to get themselves elected.

But hey, OK--you can stay in your state of denial (pun intended) for all I care.

I'll just sigh and start voting for liberals in the future--but that would still be voting for republicans . . .

Because just as republicans of today sound a lot like the liberals of thirty-years ago, the republicans of tomorrow will sound like the liberals of today.

All because of the need for liberal solutions to the problems of overcrowding and industrialization.

[Riley]

After thinking this over, I think the previous poster who argued for a 60% solution is correct. You are NEVER going to be able to elect a hardcore Conservative in California for governor. Not unless the Chinese or North Koreans take out the San Francisco Bay Area and the LA basin. It just ain't gonna happen. Certainly not in this recall election.

The best that we'll be realistically able to get is someone like Arnie. I'd prefer McClintock, but this is no longer the California that elected Ronald Reagan to the State House.

[Texas_Dawg]

Great map. Life's never been better for me and I live in the most densely populated area in the United States. And conservatives haven't held as much political power across our country in over a century. Life is good.

[Texas_Dawg]

The best that we'll be realistically able to get is someone like Arnie. I'd prefer McClintock, but this is no longer the California that elected Ronald Reagan to the State House.

So I guess that means you also disagree with Age of Reason that forced abortions in China are a good thing?

[Age of Reason]

Life's never been better for me

And that from the poster who says democracy is overrated.

Just the kind of thinking might we expect from someone living in overcrowded conditions.

and I live in the most densely populated area in the United States.

That must mean you live in New Jersey--the most densely populated state in America.

New Jersey--that state with a population density greater than that of Japan or India.

[FITZ]

If it's the productive taxpayer who is now fleeing, it won't be long before the bloodsuckers follow.

I'll bet many of the Californians heading to other states are bringing along their cheap servants. They didn't want to mow their own lawns or make their own beds in California, they won't want to do it wherever they go either.