Is the California Republican Party relevant?
A recent editorial in the Monterey Herald newspaper attempts to answer that question. The article does an excellent job of portraying the current situation and how it came about:
- Republicans’ inherent fiscal conservativeness led to Governor Pete Wilson’s limiting of benefits to citizens, angering Latino voters, a body that was growing significantly in California.
- Manufacturing industries, needing to be competitive, voted with their feet and moved out of California with their middle class, largely Republican employees to states with lower taxes, less regulations and overall higher standards of living due to lower costs.
- Immigrants register and vote Democrat because of the stark contrast of where they or their family came from (where government is not working) to California where seemingly government is working with the generous benefits people get.
But we know that in reality, government is not working in California. The tsunami of increased taxes, high interest paid for debt by the state and local governments, significant higher pension costs being passed on to school districts, cities, and counties (and other government entities), and neglected infrastructure are going to overwhelm California. Republicans are better equipped to fix those problems. Higher taxes along with more government favored by Democrats are not solutions. Note: the gas tax is worse than we thought.
I have hope for the California Republican Party because our philosophy of lower taxes and limited (smaller) government ultimately is going to be required out of fiscal necessity. Enough people will eventually realize they are not getting good value for their tax money in California. Our poor roads and other infrastructure, poor education systems, and overall characterization of being THE welfare state will wear on the people and literally empty their wallets.
California is American, and Americans like their freedoms. Every time you give a dollar to the government, whether it be in the form of income, sales, or other taxes and fees, you are giving up the freedom to spend your money the way you want to. Every person dependent on government for rent, food, healthcare, and other necessities of living has given up their freedom as they get tricked into a system that penalizes them for working their way out of the benefits.
Americans typically want their freedom back when it is taken away, but liberals will do whatever is necessary to keep you under their control. They will take more of your money and make laws and regulations that take away your choices, even as mundane as wanting a plastic bag or as significant as where your child goes to school. Each restriction kills jobs, causing even more people to be under their control.
A political party ultimately is characterized by its elected leaders, and we will elect those who still understand that giving people the ability to raise themselves up instead of subjecting them to the low limits of a government program is better. It’s just a matter of time.