A Take On California's Decline

Victor Davis Hanson provides us with a bird's eye view on the absolute decline in this once great Golden State of California.
And, sadly, it is an all-of-the-above smorgasbord of bipolar tendencies of the California electorate.
These last there paragraphs of Professor Davis' tome hit the nail on the head:


Californians count on the wealth of farming but would prefer their rivers to remain wild rather than tapped. They like tasteful redwood decks but demand someone else fell their trees for the wood. Californians drive imported SUVs but would rather that you drill for oil off your shores rather than they off theirs. They pride themselves on their liberal welfare programs, but drive out with confiscatory taxes the few left to pay for them.
Californians expect cheap imported labor to tend their lawns and clean their houses, but are incensed at sky-high welfare and entitlement costs that accompany illegal immigration. Lock ’em up, they say — but the state is bankrupted by new prisons, constant inmate lawsuits, and unionized employees.
In short, after Californians sue, restrict, mandate, obstruct, and lecture, they also get angry that there is suddenly not enough food, fuel, water, and money to act like the gods that they think they have become.

As they say, read the whole thing.
But, one thing that can be drawn from this analysis is this.
Who ever becomes the next governor will have to decide whether or not he or she wants to take on all that ails the state and make quick enemies or go along and get along. That governor needs to not be taken in by the politics as usual approach and tell the people of this state the truth. That we are spending our way into oblivion. That at some point there will not be enough tax payers to fund the programs that so many here take for granted. That state employees may not get the kind of pay and benefits that they have expected for all these many years. That people who do not want to have offshore drilling need to explain why. That people need real jobs, lower taxes and the ability to grow an economy that will really lift all boats rather than create a dependency class.
One more thing.
It took a while for Californians to realize that the Democrat-dominated legislatures were taxing homeowners and property owners into oblivion. And in 1978, in overwhelming fashion they passed Proposition 13.
I think, even with all that ails us, California may be on that road again.
It is just amazing why the majority of Californians seem to like to learn these lessons the hard way.