Why Would California Re-Elect Jerry Brown?

Many’s the time I asked that of myself during his first two terms. We’re still living under the aftermath of goofy policies set in place by our boy Jerry. Aside from an early alliance with the public service unions and their constant demands for more for less, our then-Governor Brown cozied up to the environmentalists and curtailed water storage and dam building, guaranteeing the almost perpetual water shortages faced by parts of the state.



Jerry Brown also curtailed freeway construction, which has greatly contributed to the various traffic gridlocks here. But most of all, I remember him for his opposition to the death penalty and his soft ball approach to law enforcement and the penal system.

It may be argued that many of the infrastructure problems that we are faced with now had their birthing under Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown. I remember that unemployment was high in the state and construction was slow. Our Mr Brown did nothing to alleviate the job situation in the state, but did preside over the beginning of the exodus of business form the state by his insatiable appetite for regulation and taxation.

It is a trend which has continued to this very day and the economic debris-field you see before you, in this once most prosperous state in the union, is mute testimony to what awaits other states who are unwilling to face the new economic reality.

California is on the verge of, if not in fact, bankruptcy in all but name. Traditionally, as California goes, so goes the nation. I really hope not. For all you non-Californians out there, I wouldn’t wish this collection of nuts and fruitcakes on anyone else. It’s sad enough as it is, to watch the idiot shenanigans that pass for a legislative assembly here. Out of touch? Well, yeah. Just ask people all over this state who still can’t find jobs, or the ones whose companies are closing or moving away to friendlier states.

The exodus of jobs from the state that was presided over by Brown is still there, only now it’s a torrent. I don’t believe for one minute that Jerry Brown has any sort of an idea how to pull this state out of the depression it’s in. Now, Jerry has to pay the piper from the one group whose money got him elected in the face of a huge money challenge by Meg Whitman. Jerry long ago sold his political soul to the service unions. He’s their guy.

It’s the same unions that are going to be the objects of Jerry’s chopping block, because the citizens of California will rise up against his proposed tax increases in a special election to be held in June. Then, he may be forced to go to genuine deep cuts in agencies and departments, and cut the plethora of regulatory agencies that are choking the life out of business and product development in the state. Don’t look for him to to tackle the entitlement issue… I don’t think he has the courage for it. Not if he wants the unions to keep him in power, that is.

But don’t count on it. California will continue to be a foreign land for Conservative Republicans and business a while yet.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2011