When my parents came to California in the 1960’s looking for a better future, they found it here. The state government consumed about half of what it does today after adjusting for both inflation and population. HALF. We had the finest highway system in the world and the finest public school system in the country. California offered a FREE university education to every Californian who wanted one. We produced water and electricity so cheaply that some communities didn’t bother to meter the stuff. Our unemployment rate consistently ran well below the national rate and our diversified economy was nearly recession-proof.This is what's happened to my home state, and it both saddens and angers me. Scares me a bit, too.
One thing – and one thing only – changed in those years: public policy. The political Left gradually gained dominance over California’s government and has imposed a disastrous agenda of radical and retrograde policies that have destroyed the quality of life that Californians once took for granted.
The Census bureau has reported for the better part of the decade that California is undergoing the biggest population exodus in its history, with many fleeing to such garden spots as Nevada, Arizona and Texas. Think about that. California is blessed with the most equitable climate in the entire Western Hemisphere; it has the most bountiful resources anywhere in the continental United States; it is poised on the Pacific Rim in a position to dominate world trade for the next century, and yet people are finding a better place to live and work and raise their families in the middle of the Nevada Nuclear Test Range.
I submit to you that no conceivable act of God could wreak such devastation. Only acts of government can do that. And they have.
We conservatives espouse principles of individual liberty, free markets, constitutionally limited government, fiscal responsibility, the protection of natural rights – not out of some slavish devotion to ideology, but because all human experience has shown these principles to be the most certain means to achieve a prosperous and happy society. If you want to see the opposite of that – come to California.
Update, 10/9/11: Need any more evidence?
California Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday signed a bill giving illegal immigrant college students access to state-funded financial aid, the second half of two-part legislation known as the "Dream Act."
The controversial measure, which passed the Democrat-controlled legislature on a party-line vote in September, represents a victory for immigrant-rights activists ahead of the 2012 presidential election. California is the nation's most populous state.
Only two other states, Texas and New Mexico, allow illegal immigrants to qualify for state financial aid for college, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures...
"(California already offers) students in the country illegally in-state tuition; legally documented students from the next state over can only dream of such a benefit," (State Assemblyman) Donnelly said.
California is one of about a dozen states that allows illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition, based on attendance and graduation from a state high school.
3 comments:
Yeah. I was saying this just the other day to my mom while we were walking. Here we live in one of the most beautiful and most naturally wealthy areas in the entire world. We have everything. It's the Golden State! And we have managed to go broke because we can't figure out how to manage ourselves.
Well, you could always vote for McClintock, like I did.
How many states allow in-state tuition (let alone state financial aid) for active-duty military and their families while they are stationed in the state but have residence elsewhere? (because they move often and it's easier not to change every time) For example, MD recently passed its Dream Act but, unless laws in force when we lived there have been changed, military kids were out-of-staters. So, illegals get in-state tuition and in-stater preference because they attended a MD high school and US citizens who are part of an active-duty military family, who attend the same schools, do not. I'm betting that the latter are likely to be academically stronger, too.
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