47 Replies to “Too Much Democracy”

  1. So how will Arnie pronounce “Bankrupt” ?
    Bankwupt ?
    Banhkwhupt ?
    The big question . . . will Barry bail out California.
    Lotsa SEIU members in California.
    Si, se puede.

  2. California needs someone with testicular fortitude. Elect a stanazol pumped up Governor, whose testicles most likely shriveled during use, and you expect different results?

  3. One can wander, what is it that the “journalists”, politicians, civil servants do not understand that there is no more money available, that they suck so much out of the plebeians that the plebeians have reached the limit of what they can contribute.
    Surely with the pay grade of Hollywood crowd they should be able to cover the extras.
    There is one a rather simple solution to the problem that the politicians do not want to even hear a wisp of, cut the pay of the civil service, everybody that works for the gubmint at every level, local, town, city, region, state, by what ever is required so that it equals to the amount of proposed deficit financing.
    They may well have a revolt of the so called “public servants” to contend with, though that would in large part contribute to eliminating of the financial problem.
    It is coming to the point when as in earlier times, the rulers sucked so much money from people and the people went to the ruler’s offices and threw the rulers out the windows.

  4. The next thing that will happen is that the state government will make cuts in services that we taxpayers actually want, such as road repairs and law enforcement. They’ll fire school teachers but keep all the administrators. We taxpayers have been bad and must be punished.

  5. They kind of take each issue in a microcosm, rather than relate the decision to prior decisions, or future decisions that they might make,” he said. “Voters don’t think about the consequences of how one thing fits with another.”
    Perfect encapsulation of Liberal thinking.

  6. Democracy without responsibility doesn’t work. The corollary to the great revolutionary slogan should be “No representation without taxation!”. In Vancouver the debate about taxes recently had one homelessness advocate stating she didn’t care how much the property tax had to be raised, 6%, 7%, 8%, it didn’t matter because people would just have to pay it. The problem, of course, is that renters don’t pay the increase because of restrictions the city imposes on landlords and how much they can raise rent, yet renters vote for the politicians raising that tax.
    Radical, I know, but there should be a requirement to pay taxes in order to vote in a jurisdiction that has taxing authority. It won’t stop the most mentally disturbed of progressives who are willing to self-immolate for the cause but it might inject a bit of self-preservation in to the debate.

  7. Resolving California’s fiscal problems should provide the best entertainment of the year (for conservatives.) If it were made into a movie it would clean up on the Oscars.

  8. I hope this crisis isn’t going to affect production of my favourite sitcoms? 😉
    Interesting article in a recent Economist described the ‘two’ Californias. One extends along the coast from San Fran to LA and is your latté sipping, eco-car, eviro-friendly crowd while the other is your rural, truck-driving, real town America crowd. Two peoples about as far apart on many issues as two people can. There is, as there has been going back to the 1850’s, continued talk about creating a 51st state.

  9. I read on Drudge that voter turnout was about 19%. Not only are the people not buying the spiel, they feel it matters so little they don’t bother to show up.

  10. California is a classic case of the Admiral’s Yacht Syndrome, as stated in a textbook I once read:
    Given mandated cuts to the US Navy, they would first cut their firepower, mothball capital ships, then close Annapolis, but never, ever would the Admiral’s yacht miss a coat of paint.

  11. The point is not California politics that I take away from this, it is a obviously liberal reporter in a liberal rag in a liberal state in a liberal dominated country saying the scariest thing I have ever read to date.
    “Clogged freeways, the decline of public schools, an outdated water system and a battered economy are just a few of the challenges demanding action by state leaders. Instead, they are consumed by yet another budget crisis, one that voters worsened Tuesday.”
    “No one’s really stepping back and confronting the harsh realities that face our state in a critical sense, because of constraints put on our elected leaders,”
    This writer poses that Governments know better than citizens and that with reduced power they cannot operate effectively. Which means Government Power should be unfettered by democracy. This is how a Government gets over-thrown in violence, when they start calling into question the will of the people.

  12. I blame the Hollywood response.
    The proximity of Hollywood and the effect of its surrealist culture on Cal. politics and society, has instilled deeply unrealistic expectations in the electorate.
    The idea that the welfare state can be maintained without massive tax hikes or that the lush welfare programs in Calif. are sustainable at all, is largely a matter of dreamlike thinking.
    They don’t call it “la la land” for nothing.

  13. Yo Kate,
    Arnold is the classic conservative rightoid rightard. Just like all conservatives they think less government means they don’t have do anything. Arnold has taken this one step further and believes illusion is reality.
    Why don’t you get on the “Is there anything conservatives can’t do?” bandwagon! Or how about, “Not waiting for a Conservative.”
    You just have to see how irrelevant SDA has become.

  14. Finnegan – OMG. Typical of how the latte liberals think. {sic}
    Democracy hamstrings the all knowing Politicos. Sic sic.
    Let me see now. On the one hand, we want to spend money but on the other hand we don’t have the money. Soooo, is the ‘spend money’ option still there ?

  15. Post by: ‘Illiquid Assets’. Exactly.
    Nothing in the article was ever said about cutting administration costs. ‘Us’ in the government are going to micro manage you people until you are broke, but all of ‘us’ in government will receive our pensions and more.

  16. not stirred enough
    You just have to see how irrelevant SDA has become
    +++++++++++++++++++++
    So why do you post here?
    Not that it matters. Having been born and raised in CA. The biggest problem with this state. It spends big money on every little project they can think of. Not including a school bond every 3 years because they spent the cash and still didn’t have enough!
    Maybe you should learn a little before you spew.

  17. Insolvency might change a few minds. It will allow the fresh breeze of reality to sweep across the state. People will look at things differently when the State of California is no longer able to cut a check.
    The only danger is a federal bailout, which would protect the good people of California from the consequences of their own actions.

  18. The citizenry has a chronic aversion to pain of any kind. Life is not a process without pain. To many meds have made Americans stupid.
    They should set an example if their leaders will not. They should all start living within their means and stop trying to get their hands on other people’s money for all the nonsense they want in their lives.
    Will that ever happen? Not as long as the entitlement mentality is still being taught in schools, union meetings political campaigns and of course, the main stream media.
    Our way of life has passed it’s ‘best before’ date and needs to be tossed and remade.
    Unfortunately, the ‘tossing’ will likely involve a lot of pain for all. That is why we still have a lot further down the rabbit hole yet to go before we get up on our hind legs and toss the entitlement people and their leaders out the window.
    It is really sad that such a great culture and society as that of the USA has to be so humiliated and so unceremoniously fade as and exceptional place and time in modern history.

  19. this is the second time in less than a year that californians thumbed their nose at leftist initiatives – the first being voting against SSM. Predictably the LAT casts aspersions on the intelligence of voters rather than addressing the issue at hand ie that the state can’t manage its finances and shouldn’t be given even more tax revenues to squander.
    The underlying story here is that perhaps California is undergoing an ideological earthquake much like it did when it voted in ahnold and more significantly when they elected RR. Maybe just maybe California will again lead the US out of the socialist wilderness.

  20. Not Stirred Enough,
    Arny is as Conservative as Stephane Dion. Obama’s White House is so far left, it is now called the Alinski Administration.
    True Conservatism is dead. Completely choked and rendered lifeless by a lack of it’s main ingredient: COURAGE. Also too many ‘enemies’ from within including the education system and MSM which does not allow it to take a breath. Conservatism is ridiculed 24/7: An Alinski tactic.
    Everyone of us (Left and Right) who still have a bit of gray matter between their ears know that the western free world is doomed to collapse by it’s own out of control spending and debt and that politicians from both sides are now just buying time from the innevitable.
    Just like Monarchy before the French revolution, Governments at all levels with their unionized jobs for life, tremendous benefits and guaranteed annex pensions have replaced Kings, Dukes and Counts. They are currently untouchable in the equation.
    Arny knows what needs to be done. It’s a matter of time now. It either going to be done by politicians with pen and paper or torches and pitchforks by the non government peasants.

  21. stirred
    The Governator is not a conservative, Bush was not a conservative, O’Reilly is not a conservative ect…
    If you can put aside your bias towards conservatism as a philosophy and look at it politically perhaps you will agree with my analysis.
    The problem conservatives have today IMO is the presence of wolfs in sheep clothing’s. The left has been very successful in moving the center line to the left; and, labelling centrists as conservatives, and often extreme right-wingers. In reality I suspect most people Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative and even Dippers live a conservative (fiscally) lifestyle, and if they don’t they are drowning in debt. Unfortunately to nobody’s benefit, the word “conservative” has been redefined and demonized.
    Sour grapes? Probably(not me). Unfortunately for the conservative movement, a large portion of us have become habitual whiners. We’ve been getting pounded on many fronts for many years, and the best we can do is cry “foul”. I believe that this is a result of conservatives(generally) alienating young people. Conservatives spend half their time complaining about leftards, and the other half complaining about rap music. On the other hand, the left capitalizes on this, and has millions of “useful idiots”(youths) who cheerlead the left with great passion. I call this group “useful idiots” because the very groups they support are metaphorically raping their futures.
    I know you understand me, and I know you understand this: the Boomers don’t care about the long term effects of this record spending, they will be long gone before the consequences of liberalism are in full bloom. My only question is why do you support this rape of our kids and their kids kids?

  22. stirred
    The Governator is not a conservative, Bush was not a conservative, O’Reilly is not a conservative ect…
    If you can put aside your bias towards conservatism as a philosophy and look at it politically perhaps you will agree with my analysis.
    The problem conservatives have today IMO is the presence of wolfs in sheep clothing’s. The left has been very successful in moving the center line to the left; and, labelling centrists as conservatives, and often extreme right-wingers. In reality I suspect most people Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative and even Dippers live a conservative (fiscally) lifestyle, and if they don’t they are drowning in debt. Unfortunately to nobody’s benefit, the word “conservative” has been redefined and demonized.
    Sour grapes? Probably(not me). Unfortunately for the conservative movement, a large portion of us have become habitual whiners. We’ve been getting pounded on many fronts for many years, and the best we can do is cry “foul”. I believe that this is a result of conservatives(generally) alienating young people. Conservatives spend half their time complaining about leftards, and the other half complaining about rap music. On the other hand, the left capitalizes on this, and has millions of “useful idiots”(youths) who cheerlead the left with great passion. I call this group “useful idiots” because the very groups they support are metaphorically raping their futures.
    I know you understand me, and I know you understand this: the Boomers don’t care about the long term effects of this record spending, they will be long gone before the consequences of liberalism are in full bloom. My only question is why do you support this rape of our kids and their kids kids?

  23. Of course the voters intelligence is suspect….remember these are the very same voters who elected Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and Henry Waxman….

  24. “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.” Tytler
    “Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.” Disraeli
    Two great quotes that say it all with regards to California and the west, generally.

  26. n-stirred,
    Schwarzenegger, an immigrant, married a Kennedy who was born in Chicago.
    That’s how “conservative” he is.

  29. While agreeing in principle with the general point of this thread, I do have to point out the geniuses of Cali voted to deny funds AND deny caps to spending at the same time.
    This is leftard thinking at its worst. I want all the free stuff from government but I don’t want to have to pay for it.
    That isn’t democracy. It’s piracy by election. I suppose the two are synonymous… Too much democracy indeed.

  30. Louie Louie, oh no
    You gotta go
    Aye-yi-yi-yi, I said
    Louie Louie, oh baby
    You gotta go
    Fine little girl waits for me
    Catch a ship across the sea
    Sail that ship about, all alone
    Never know if I make it home
    Applogies , The Kingsmen

  32. Voltaire, my thoughts exactly. You stole the words I was about to type.
    Cali has long been the world HQ of fantasy, but now they actually believe what Hollywood spews. Cali should change its name to the State of Neverland – they behave like they’re Peter Pan and the Lostboys and refuse to grow up.

  33. I’ve compiled all the voter maps in one posting. So even in very liberal California, people have their limits.
    Wouldn’t it have been nice in Canada if we could have voted on whether the government should bail out the failed automakers?!?

  34. dustoff. so you been hangin out with the spenders and have done nothin. cool.

  35. Amazing, isn’t it? You ask people “Do you want free beer?” and they say “YES PLEASE!!!” Of course, if you ask them “Do you want to pay for Bill’s free beer?” they say “No. Let Bill pay for his own beer.”
    Duh.
    Maybe the frickin’ idiot liberals of California should stop pretending there’s such a thing as free beer, eh? I think Kate’s idea of a nice famine would work pretty well down there.

  36. Wouldn’t it have been nice in Canada if we could have voted on whether the government should bail out the failed automakers?!?
    Wouldn’t it be nice to vote on all of the bailouts
    and giveaways so near and dear to the
    “conservative” small dead heart?

  37. The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.
    ~Ronald Reagan, former Governor of California

  39. We want what we want in terms of health care, education, other “social programs” and we don’t care how much of someone else’s money it takes to pay for it. No, the Progressives didn’t envision such a society, and to be fair to the not-dead-enough T.C. Douglas, I don’t think that he and the old CCFers and did either. They all always maintained that “the cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy”. They did not really think in terms of *their* people herding the stunned, stupid, and addicted to the polls or perpetrating voter fraud on a massive scale. That’s what the evil Capitalists did. So many of the Progressives were “social gospel” Protestants (including ordained ministers like Douglas and J.S. Woodsworth) who had forgotten about Original Sin.

  40. Such as, Pillboy?
    How about preferential tax treatment of “investment” income.
    Or special interest tax write offs for meals and entertainment.
    Or farm subsidies.

  41. Ok let’s discuss tax deductible union dues. Non taxable employee benefits like employer paid dental and supplementary health benefits. How about EDO Fridays. Mandatory maternity leave. Employer paid workers compensation. Labor standard rules that are so ridiculously slanted to the labor side that they are a joke. Mandatory EI employer premiums even though an as a small business owner I cannot collect.

  42. Discuss whatever you want, Brian, but let’s put it all to a vote. I don’t have a problem with that.

  43. The best way to deal with taxes is to stop the deductions at source and make the government “come get it” from us. The government shrink will warm your heart.

  44. Arnie is a conservative just like Joe Clarke, John McCain etc.
    Best friends the left ever had.

  45. Phil you fool.
    You act like tax breaks on investment and deductions for business expenses(ie meals) are some type of inditement. There is nothing immoral or wrong with these mechanisms, they are there to grease the wheels of the economy. You obviously have never been in the capacity to write off meals so you don’t understand jack! Your argument spawns from a place of envy, not logic. I would much rather eat with my wife than with some dick from some company, but that business. Get it?

  46. There is nothing immoral or wrong with these mechanisms, they are there to grease the wheels of the economy.
    Yeah, every swine with their snout in the trough
    thinks the world won’t turn without them.
    Like I said, giveaways and bailouts near and dear
    to the small dead heart.

  47. philboy;I will tell you as I have told others,BUY A FARM! Get in on the gravey train.The govts want elected and wont let the cost of food rise to what it costs to produce or YOU would still be paying 25% of your income on food or grow a garden like your forfathers did.

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