Tuning into the broadcast of the World Series (game one and two in Los Angeles), viewers were regaled with “beautiful Los Angeles”, especially centering on the weather. Shortly after landing at LAX and a chauffeured drive, one telecaster gushingly described the terrace view from atop his Beverly Hills hotel as exquisite, as sublime. Yes, the weather is wonderful, and the scene must have been handsome for him, but only so long as he remained off the surface streets and in one of the super-zip bubbles, and doesn’t actually live and work there like the average Angelino. The beautiful weather and the human reality don’t compute.
For about 15 years prior to my retirement in 2015, we trekked back and forth through 3-4 states between our then home in Bakersfield and northwest Montana during the spring and summer breaks. While crossing back into California near Barstow or Bishop, and our descent toward Bakersfield down Highway 58, a slight depression washed over me. The condition recurred every time that I made, and still make, the trip.
The two experiences say more about California than the sunny skies and the beautiful, manicured grounds of Dodger Stadium. The first one is media hype and superficial. The second one is genuine from a native Californian of 60+ years.
California is alluring . . . if you stick to hovering above the surface and/or zip through the many stretches of disarray and stay on the freeways. The state is a combination of disorder and a colossal regulatory Leviathan and over taxation of its people. It’s visible on the ground, and spreading. The disorder is a consequence of popularly elected choices. Beating enterprise into the dirt, expanding the dole in innumerable ways, and centering law enforcement on the private economy and not on the miscreants that make life miserable have made a shambles of the state. The state is at war with prudence and decency.
The lunacy is a result of conscious political acts, if gauged by the number of bills passed by the state’s full-time, Democrat-controlled legislature. In no year since 1993 has the number fallen below 632, and more commonly around 800 to frequently over 1,000 (see #1 below). Such bills have included the criminalization of separate boys and girls toy isles; mandatory neo-Marxism in K-12; authorizing school personnel to hide gender confusion from parents; the establishment of the state as a sanctuary of teenage genital mutilation for anybody from anywhere; a whole series of acts that have destabilized the grid, jacked up energy prices to new heights, and force the population into feeble EV’s; etc. And all of this as the state’s 60-year-old infrastructure decays and its streets and public spaces become havens of crime and filth.
As I watch the World Series, we must realize that we’re being gaslighted by Big Media. California has wonderful weather (Mediterranean climates are like that) and natural beauty to rival anywhere, but the state’s electoral choices for decades have made it unlivable for anyone with their heads screwed on straight. Indecent public policy is popular alongside its fabulous weather, coast, and mountains.
Just driving up to a California gas pump is enough for me to sour on any of its advantages. I prefer to stay away.
RogerG
Sources:
1. “California Bills: Introduced Versus Enacted”, Chris Micheli, California Globe, 10/1/2024, at https://californiaglobe.com/articles/california-bills-introduced-versus-enacted-2/