In the southeast corner of the Capitol, sitting silently, is our cadaver in corner office, Governor Jerry Brown, ready to begin his fourth term as Governor. In 1974, he was the anti-Ronald Reagan, the expression of California’s dualism, as it moved from the iconic conservative to the liberal apologetic. He is now the symbol of modern liberalism, lifeless, unimaginative, and lost in its own past, tied to the monsters Brown created in his first term as Governor, the government unions, whose voracious appetites, satisfied at the taxpayers’ trough, will not be denied, and cannot be opposed, leaving their minions in the capitol bereft of ideas, because they have to feed that beast.
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light, my head grew heavy and my sight grew dim, I had to stop for the night
It was the 60’s that saw California begin its shift. Prior to that time, California was an odd mix of midwest Democrats and progressive Republicans. The home of Hiram Johnson, Earl Warren, and (oddly enough) Pat Brown, California tended to have a unity of purpose, creating a strong economy, an education system second to none, water, transportation, cheap housing and energy, and a people on the move. Then, as the leftist movement began to grow, people in this state saw that shimmering light, what they thought would be a socialist utopia, so they stopped in that hotel.
I was thinking to myself this could be heaven or this could be hell
It was about 1969 when the left began to assert itself in the Democrat party in California. The rise of the Burton Brown machine in San Francisco, and the Berman Waxman machine in Los Angeles, saw the growth of this leftist, big city urban liberal corruption that, until that time, California had avoided. With the election of Jerry Brown in 1974, the creation of the government unions with Meyer-Milias-Brown in 1975, the appointment of the Rose Bird liberals to the Supreme Court, and the extension of CEQA (by court edict) to private development, the left began its consolidation of power in California. Californians reacted, with Proposition 13 in 1978, and there seemed hope. It was not to be…
We are all just prisoners here of our device, In their master’s chamber, they were gathered for the feast, they stabbed with their steely knives, but they just can’t kill the beast…“
With an unlimited amount of money, and a unified operation, the government unions refused to give up. Governor George Deukmejian cut taxes in 1987, after Proposition 13 and Ronald Reagan brought unprecedented economic growth and record government revenues to California, and the unions’ response was Proposition 98, literally barring any future legislative tax cuts, feeding that union beast called the California Teachers’ Association. California was locked in a stalemate, from 1982 to 1998, small conservative victories, small leftist victories. In 1998, the left thought the floodgates opened with the election of Gray Davis, but he was a lackluster leader. They got their pensions spiked, but they still couldn’t realize their socialist utopia. They tried, and broke the bank, creating record deficits, despite record revenue collections, and once again, Californians reacted, recalling Gray Davis.
You can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave
Californians tried to check out with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and found they could never leave. He caved into the liberalism that dominated the Capitol and was fed by the government unions, leaving disgraced and discredited, bringing the state full circle back to Jerry Brown.
Welcome to the Hotel California, such a lovely place…Plenty of room at the Hotel California, any time of year, you can find them here…“
We now have housing we cannot afford, an education system that is in a state of collapse, a government that cannot function, and we are running out of water, gasoline and electricity. And so we end this election cycle, with the Cadaver in the Corner Office, a seeming shoe-in for the Governor’s office, and the tired old left wing solutions to the problems created by left wing politics holding a hammerlock on the debates in the Capitol. There is plenty of room in this alternative universe known as the Hotel California, because the leftists keep chasing people who actually care about this state out, leaving only those who wish to feed at the public trough. Just as Jerry Brown created the “socialist utopia” in which we now live, he will kill it. He has lost his vision, as the left has lost its way, and the entire system will feed off itself until it dies. The only problem is the pain it will cause to me and you along the way, because of a dream sold to an unwitting public in the 1970’s. Our heads grew heavy, and our sight grew dim, now we will pay the price for stopping at the Hotel California.