Incredibly stupid voters

By Michael Oberndorf

Say what you will about California, there are categories in which they clearly lead the nation. Unfortunately, having incredibly stupid voters is one of the biggest. Under the watchful eye of Governor Gray Davis, the California legislature ran up a deficit of around $38 billion dollars, a debt that would rank it 55th out of 183 nations, using today's debt figures. The outraged people of California, therefore, recalled Davis, only the second governor in history to suffer such an indignity.

In a brilliant move designed to bring fiscal sanity back to California, the voters chose a RINO Hollywood movie actor to steer the foundering ship of state. They also returned a majority of Democrats to the legislature, the very guys who had run up the deficit that got blamed on Davis. Not surprisingly, the deficit rose even faster under Schwartzenegger, topping out around $91 billion.

Then, in a brilliant move designed to bring fiscal sanity back to California, the voters chose a worn out, whacked out, hippie-dippy, left-wing hack to replace the Hollywood actor. They also returned a majority of Democrats to the legislature, the very guys who had run up the deficit that got blamed on Schwartzenegger. Under the steady guidance of Mayor Moonbeam, the current deficit was last seen moving upwards at high speed, heading for the Twilight Zone. Am I wrong, or is there a pattern here?

To anyone with a third-grade education and an IQ over room temperature, it should be easily discerned that it's not the governors who were responsible for the debt. Like presidents, governors don't write the spending bills, they just sign them. While the governors have done little to slow, much less stop, the wild, uncontrolled spending, it was, and still is, the legislature that has behaved like the spending addicts they clearly are. But — and this is the kicker, and something that I and many others have noted — it is the incredibly stupid voters who have, election after election, all over the state, voted to return these fiscal maniacs, these serial spenders to the scene of the crime.

The latest departure from reality in California is the move by the legislature to spend another $2.6 billion on a high-speed rail line, out in the rural Central Valley, where insane environmental regulations and a severely broken economy are driving the small cities into genuine bankruptcy. The first 130-mile stretch will cost $20 million per mile. Eventually, the system is supposed to link rich, elitist San Francisco with illegal alien-dominated Los Angeles, at an estimated final cost of 68 billion taxpayer dollars. By the way, has anyone out there ever seen a government transportation project that didn't massively overrun its budget?

In another move that is sure to really shore up the failing California economy, the ever-so-brilliant-and-creative Democrat majority in the legislature came up with one of the most outrageous schemes I've ever heard of in a free, capitalist country. They propose to take by eminent domain — which, since the incredibly bad Kelo v City of New London, Supreme Court ruling they probably can — housing that banks own, due to foreclosures. Then, the state will sell them back to the irresponsible morons who, like the legislators they constantly elect, spent themselves into unsustainable debt, leaving the banks holding the bag for the difference between the original loan and the current "fair market value."

Question 1: Who is expected to cover the new loans for these insolvent, fiscally irresponsible people?

Question 2: Do they really think that giving other people's money and property to people who have been shown to be a clear economic disaster, at the expense of the banks which are necessary to have an economy at all, is a good, long-term economic solution to their immanent financial collapse?

Question 3: How long do they think it will be before all the banks have bailed out of California?

Question 4: Can the voters of California get any stupider?

In all fairness, there are some thoughtful conservatives in California, and they have put a few good people in the legislature, over the years. However, they're outnumbered, and as voting corruption becomes more widespread — and it certainly will, since the Democrat-run state and federal Injustice Departments refuse to prosecute violations of voter laws unless it is Republicans who have violated them — it's likely their numbers will get even smaller. However, it's not just California. We must never forget that a large number of people voted for Barak "Barry" Hussein Obama-Soetoro and his wild-spending, out-of-control Democrats, all over the country.

It's often claimed that California is the model for the future of America. I suggest we do everything in our power to make sure this is not true.

© Michael Oberndorf