It has often been said that, as California goes, so goes the nation. And for good reason. With the largest population and so many talented and influential people, the Golden State has long set the standard, for good or for ill, in both the public and private sector. It is the public sector that concerns us now. Long before Democrats took control of our national government, they had effective control over California government, whether or not there were Republican governors. Democrat control of Congress for half a century limited what Republican could presidents do, too.
Some have likened California government to a kind of social experiment in which every political, economic, social or pseudo-scientific nostrum gets free play because of the iron lock Democrats have on the legislature. As long as redistricting has been in the hands of the legislature, district lines have been drawn to freeze the political advantage of the permanent Democrat majority and Republican minority.
Even term limits have done nothing to change this. Time will tell whether the measure enacted by California voters last year to put the redistricting power in a commission will make any difference either.
In any event, because of their dominance–and more important, because of their "progressive" (i.e., interventionist, latitudinarian) principles–Democrats now threaten to enfeeble commerce, drive away entrepreneurs, curtail government by consent and, as practically everyone knows, bankrupt the state's government.
Surely the most useless comment that is made about politics is that party labels don’t matter, that one should vote for the person and not for the party, that there’s no difference between the parties, that we can all get along if we just put aside partisan differences, ad nauseam.
California Republicans are pretty disappointed in Gov. Schwarzenegger because he wants to balance the budget with a combination of spending cuts, tax increases and borrowing (not to mention kicking the fiscal can further down the road to the "out years"), and they are right to be. A more principled man, like Tom McClintock, for instance, who also ran in the recall election that dispatched Gov. Gray Davis, would be standing firm.
However, since Californians have who they have, and especially since there are lopsided Democrat majorities in both the Assembly and the Senate, a "solution" will ultimately be found that is fiscally irresponsible. What is needed is not only need a staunch Republican governor, but also a Republican legislature.
Democrats on principle oppose tax cuts and spending cuts because they want a big, intrusive government that overrides free citizens in a free marketplace. They believe that markets are incapable of allocating resources fairly, because they believe "fair" means equal conditions rather than equal rights. They are oblivious to the fact that unrestrained government spending, with its corollary of high taxes on incomes, sales and properties, is lowering the standard of living and diminishing economic opportunities.
The flip side of government micro managing commerce is moral latitudinarianism for the populace. Sexuality freed from moral or legal constraints is consistent with the short-sighted, present-oriented perspective that the government has aided and abetted via the credit crisis in which many people, rich and poor and in between, have gotten in way over their heads.
Consistent with this pernicious policy is the virtual conspiracy by all three branches of state government to challenge the right of the people to determine what their constitution shall protect or secure. Together Democrat Attorney General Jerry Brown, Democrats in the legislature and, of course, a majority of the State Supreme Court seek to set aside the clear decision of Californians last fall to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
The Court’s ruling last May that homosexual and lesbian couples have a "right" to marriage, which not only the current common sense limitation but even civil unions evidently cannot adequately satisfy, might have provoked a constitutional crisis from an attorney general who is required to uphold the law in court or a state legislature which is authorized to legislate, but in fact all three branches are in cahoots.
The shocking thing about the California government’s movement to shut down Proposition 8 is that it’s no secret and therefore it is not, strictly speaking, a conspiracy. Considering the fact that it is aimed at the right of self government, the foundation for our republic, it is deserving of the massive public outrage that an offense of this magnitude should generate. It must not be allowed to stand. Only Republicans can be counted upon to perform this necessary work.