Why KT is voting for Jerry Brown:
6. Our desperately needed soul-searching can't begin under Meg Whitman. California conservatives need to acknowledge that we are a small and impotent minority. We're not going to lead a change. Just as only Nixon could go to China, only the liberal opinion makers in Hollywood and Silicon Valley can change the state. There needs to be an intellectual civil war on the left in California in order for things to change. The fastest way to that is to elect one of their own to preside over California's Götterdämmerung.
We encourage you to read the other 5 reasons at the link above.
At first we thought this was brilliant in its perversity but we're coming around now to thinking there is nothing perverse about voting for Jerry Brown.
In a sense, it is similar to voting for John McCain back in 2008. Yeah, perhaps McCain would've held the line on the budget and deficits and not installed a regulatory regime through health care "reform" and dubious energy policies via cap and trade but the slow incremental march of statism would've persisted all without ever bothering to address the structural instabilities and unsustainability of our entitlement regime.
An Obama administration has effectively removed our frog from the simmering water and thrown that frog directly onto the coals. Ouch! We're awake now!
And though it may be the antithesis of citizen activism, we kind of like the idea of sitting back and letting the liberal-Left of this state owning this unfolding disaster. It was their ideas that got us to this condition, let's see what sort of hocus-pocus they can conjure to get us out.
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7 comments:
Push the pendulum further to the left in California? Like letting the petulant child play with fire until he gets burned. Only then will he learn his lesson.
I have had this thought myself.
I must disagree with KT thoroughly. Frankly, I do not think much of the argument KT presents. Here are my reasons, in brief:
* It is our civic duty to select the BEST possible candidate, based on experience and qualifications. I believe it is excessively prideful and not particularly wise to vote to "punish" other citizens to send a political message. If you honestly believe that candidate is Jerry Brown, then OK. But if you are doing it, so that it intentionally hurts fellow Californians (especially small business owners and family), I must disagree with your approach.
* Your vote will have consequences, which may impact you more directly than you may think. For example, mu husband and I are discussing relocation to another state should Brown become Governor -- which will take 2 wealth producers OUT of California and place them into other states. We use a wide array of businesses and services in Southern California -- and there will be a ripple effect when we are no longer around to contribute. This may ripple-effect back to a business run by you, one of your friends, or one of your close family members.
Meg Whitman is not my all time favorite candidate. But, as her BEST ad yet indicates, she now recognizes her lack of political background. I can tell from personal experience, she has been very high-handed with California's Tea Party group. However, her ad shows she now recognizes her failings and is likely more persuadable to Tea Party ideas -- unlike Jerry Brown.
To vote "Brown" to punish California for its leftist failings smacks of hubris, and I must strongly disagree.
GOD bless California, and may HE guide the good citizens of our state tomorrow.
Leslie, thanks for your comment.
I am loathe to answer for other people but since it did very much appear I was endorsing this point of view, allow me to respond.
First, your impassioned and reasoned response has checked my cavalier cynicism to a great degree.
I believe the point was that there really is nothing more we can do to destroy California's economy. Prop. 23 is flagging in the polls. Prop. 25 looks to have a good chance at passing. We are currently saddled with a gimmicky and papered-over budget and we have not even begun to get serious about addressing the unsustainable pensions of the public employee unions which is central to all this.
The power in this state resides with the assembly and with them being able to pass a budget with a simple majority, well... I guess things could get a lot worse.
I don't think Meg, even if she does get elected, has the juice to effect any real change. She's been far too squishy on other subjects for me to think she won't simply get rolled up there in Sacramento once she takes office and then take the fall when nothing gets done. (Look at what happened with Arnold: no one that I can remember entered the governor's office with more of a mandate and what did he do with it? Completely pissed it away with a strategically flawed set of ballot initiatives in '05 after which he has been tacking left to this very day).
Having said all that... (deep breath)... you are correct in that we are duty-bound to select the candidate we feel will do the best job.
KT makes some great points... we're pretty much hosed no matter. However, the simple fact is that me personally pulling the lever for that hack Brown may create a physical reversal of fortune at the polling place ("clean up in Booth 4!") and that would be rather unseemly, now wouldn't it?
Dean,
I'm with Leslie on this one. Further, regardless of juice, she would have the mandate to take on the public employee unions, who are the number one problem.
BwD and B-daddy: Thanks for seeing my point. I know people who are going to vote for Ogden and Nightengale, because they genuinely believe that is the right person. I respect these choices, too.
Good luck tomorrow. I hope we have reason to celebrate!
Leslie, my comment was also with tongue in cheek. Although KT makes a good point, I would have to take more than a shower if I voted for Brown. I will hold my nose and vote for the other miserable hack since my Libertarian vote is a vote for Brown.
Now that’s the type of post I like to read. Some things in here I have not thought about before. I’m looking forward to being a long time subscriber to your blog.
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