California: Build by Rugged Pioneers, Destroyed by Entitled Liberals

Here's a funny joke:

In 1850, California became a state. The State had no electricity and no money. Almost everyone spoke Spanish. There were gunfights in the streets.

So, basically, it was just like it is today, except the women had real breasts and the men didn't hold hands.

Victor Davis Hanson gives us some California history and catalogs its bounty: Silicon Valley, farmland, minerals, natural resources. On its own, it used to be the 6th largest economy in the world. He also analyzes what went wrong. Liberals have hijacked this land of plenty bequeathed to them by their hard working ancestors and turned it into a bankrupt third-world sewer.

If we can agree that Californians have somehow squandered a rich natural and inherited wealth, what were the root causes of this collective suicide?

... less discussed is the common culprit: a weird sort of utopian mindset. Perhaps because have-it-all Californians live in such a rich natural landscape and inherited so much from their ancestors, they have convinced themselves that perpetual bounty is now their birthright -- not something that can be lost in a generation of complacency.

Californians count on the wealth of farming but would prefer their rivers to remain wild rather than tapped. They like tasteful redwood decks but demand someone else fell their trees for the wood. Californians drive imported SUVs but would rather that you drill for oil off your shores rather than they off theirs. They pride themselves on their liberal welfare programs, but drive out with confiscatory taxes the few left to pay for them.

Californians expect cheap imported labor to tend their lawns and clean their houses, but are incensed at sky-high welfare and entitlement costs that accompany illegal immigration.

Gaze upon California, America, a failed liberal experiment. Having destroyed this great state, progressive Utopians are now turning their attentions to the other 49. And that's no Joke.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/03/accounting_for_californias_sui.html