California Looms | New West Network
California is a trendsetter state. Much like the weather, every Californian fad eventually makes its way over the Sierras and diffuses into the intermountain West. That’s wonderful, and it’s frightening, because there are some pretty disturbing things going on in the Golden State right now.
1 comment:
The comments on that blog suggest to me that conservative Republicans in general simply don't get it, other than one or two posters in the comments that grasp the institutional nature of the problem.
The reason California has a suckworthy state government, dead last in the Government Performance Project ratings, is not because of PCism run amok in Berkeley or even the disease that manifests itself in symptoms like the absurd pet castrating bill emanating from the Lege. The problem is that through the initiative process, hyper-partisanship, and big money politics, Californians of both parties have created a government structure that is so tied up with mandates that politicians have been utterly stripped of the freedom of action to figure out what government ought to be doing, make sure it does it well, and privatize or simply close down the rest.
The initiative process deserves special mention. If a state is required to spend an arbitrary percentage of its budget on K-12 education, if it is required to give life sentences for three even minimal felonies, if it is required to tilt the playing field even more in favor of special interests by placing absurd term limits on state reps (six years), if it is required to do all these arbitrary things that conflict with one another -- it isn't governable. It just isn't. And it isn't responsive to its customers, its citizens. But it IS very expensive. To be ahead of Minnesota for taxes, roughly tied with Michigan for college tuition costs, and beating Alabama for the title of worst government in the country -- what an indictment. At least in these other states you more or less get what you pay for.
Sorry folks, but you need to think much deeper than merely protecting your pets' genitalia from a few dozen nannying, granola-crunching legislators, especially when you're in a state that has gone after human genitalia in the past.
Post a Comment