How Political Liberalism Fails California

Like any other political philosophy, modern-day liberalism can be said to have its strengths and its weaknesses.

It is not the purpose of this column to discuss the alleged strengths of liberalism. There are any number of columnists across the Patch network and elsewhere who are far better qualified than I to discuss and/or endorse those.

The purpose of this column is to discuss the various ways that I believe liberalism fails us - particularly in California, how it has been doing so for many years, and what I believe we, as voters, should do about that.

Two foundational truths:   

1. Of the two major political parties, Democrats are the primary advocates for modern-day political liberalism while Republicans predominantly champion modern-day political conservatism
2. Except for the brief period between 1995-1996 (when Republicans controlled the State Assembly only) the Democrat party has controlled both houses of the California State legislature for over 40 years

Please consider the following facts in the context of the two truths already listed: 

1. At 10.2%, California currently has the third highest seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in the nation
   http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm
2. At 7.25%, California has the highest State sales tax rate in the nation
3. At 48.6 cents/gallon, California has the highest State gasoline sales/use tax in the nation and when the 18.4 cents/gallon federal tax is added, Californians pay 67 cents in taxes for each gallon of gasoline that they purchase
4. Topping out at 10.3%, California has the second highest State personal income tax rate in the nation
5. At 8.84%, California has the highest State corporate tax rate in the western United States and only eight other States in the entire nation have corporate tax rates that are higher
6. At an estimated $1,458 per capita, California's ranks in the top third of the highest State property taxes in the nation. This despite the 1978 voter-approved Proposition 13. Absent that, California's property taxes would surely be among the nation's highest as well
   http://www.caltax.org/research/calrank.html
7. Between 2001-2009 (latest research available) California was ranked as the worst among the 50 States in job creation, driving out an estimated 4,600 job-creating and sustaining businesses during that period
   http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/24/business/la-fi-state-new-businesses-20110824
8. Kiplinger has rated California as, in its own words: "A retiree's tax nightmare."
   http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/retiree_map/index.html?map=&map=&state_id=5&state=California
9. California "accounts for one-third of America’s welfare recipients, though it only contains one-eighth of the (nation's) population..."
   http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/302148/california-america-s-welfare-queen-nash-keune
10. The DHS Office of Immigration Statistics estimated that as of 2011 there were 11.5 million "unauthorized immigrants" in the U.S. and that 2.8 million of those (or about 25%) reside in California
    www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois_ill_pe_2011.pdf
11. The Los Angeles Times has reported that, according to the State Controller, California has already outspent it's own 2012/13 spending plan by $3 billion after only two months into the new fiscal year
    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/09/california-budget-deficit-1.html

The sourced facts listed above (and many, many others I could list but from which I will spare you) should help to convince even the most skeptical that if we, as voters, don't start to make some significant and long-term changes in the manner in which we run our fine State, we may not have a State worth living in for very much longer.

It's not all bad news, of course. As measured in GDP, California's overall output is still the highest of any other State in the nation. In fact, with a $1.9 trillion GDP, were California its own nation, it would currently have the 9th largest economy in the world. With that sort of productivity, even the most liberal of legislatures can't completely wreck us all at once.

Still, according to a CNN News Blog, we have slipped considerably in that ranking since the 2000's, when we were 5th. Will we slide farther still? I think we very well could, unless we start getting our legislative act together.

Our State legislature can have a direct and immediate influence on almost every one of the eleven challenges listed, as well as so many others.

As I illustrated in my last column, even the manner in which our State legislators choose to cooperate (or not) with federal immigration authorities, can be, and I think is, extremely significant.

Yet even in that area, as evidenced by the recent Democrat-led attempt to prohibit all local law enforcement agencies in the State from fully cooperating with federal immigration authorities -as our Penal Code requires- the Democrats in our State Houses seem intent upon take us in the wrong direction on that score as well.

We end this column as we began. The challenges our State faces are real, they are documented, and they are worsening.

Political liberalism, in the form of a Democrat-controlled State legislature, has been at the helm of our "Ship of State" for over 40 years. In all of that time, rather than strive to guide us away from these many challenges they have, instead, guided us consistently and inexorably toward and among them.

I believe it is long past time for a decisive change in the way we run our State. We need a more conservative State legislature and we need it right away.

What do you think? I welcome your questions and comments.