It’s as predictable as the sun rising in the east: A Democratic candidate loses the presidential election and progressives begin complaining about how the unfair Electoral College.
This Thanksgiving Week, I would like to discuss how Americans everywhere should be thankful our Founding Fathers established this system by using California as an example of what would happen if the presidency rested on popular vote totals.
Let me begin this exercise by highlighting the claim by promoters of #CalExit: California is so vast (economically, regionally, and in population) and so different culturally, that it deserves to be its own nation:
[T]here are some really good signs that the Golden State and the other 49 are literally two ships going in different directions.Let’s look at election night:1) Mr. Trump won with 290 Electoral votes with Michigan’s 16 votes still up in the air. It will probably go to Mr. Trump, closing the books at 306-232.2) In California, Mrs. Clinton beat Mr. Trump by 2.5 million votes.Take California out of the picture, and Mr. Trump wins the popular vote, and this big “blue” mark is not on the map.
So, let’s assume this inane idea succeeds. Driven by the progressive idea that the popular vote must be deciding factor for national leadership, it will be the vast population centers that ultimately pick the “President of California”.
And while the rest of the 49 states celebrate a rapid return to governance that embraces free markets and reasoned policies, the Country of California would be controlled by Bay Area elites who have no desire to address the concerns of the remainder of the state.
Actually, Californians already live this life. Time and time again, the coastal areas have sent representatives to Sacramento and Washington, D.C. who are focused on their special interests, neglecting the needs of rural areas and smaller cities outside of the Big Blue Corridor between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A map of the 2008/2012 presidential voting results demonstrates this divide:
One example of how this system’s failure is that the Central Valley (the breadbasket of the nation) has had its water supply diverted so that eco-activists can preen about the baitfish they are saving in the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Small businesses that aren’t on the progressive preference list have been crushed as well, such as the gold mining operation once run by Yreka resident Michael Adams:
“They just took my livelihood away based on speculation and falsehoods,” Adams says. “California takes away our property, takes away our rights. That’s a form of tyranny.”
California reporter Katy Grimes recently took a look what happens when the progressive population centers’ representatives and leaders direct public policy:
Lest we forget some of the most egregious laws passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in recent years in California, here are a few:
- California’s law allowing driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants;
- Non-Doctors Can Administer First-Trimester Abortions;
- Children Can Have More Than Two Parents of Any Gender Combination;
- 40 gun control bills proposed each year: Democrats even regulated the appearance of toy guns because some look “scary.” In 2011, California Democrats passed a law exempting themselves from the state’s gun control laws. California lawmakers believe they deserve to own guns but the taxpayers and honest citizens do not. The California Legislature also exempted itself from red-light cameras.
- California provides condoms to prison inmates at taxpayer expense, even though sex between prison inmates is illegal and condoms are technically contraband. One Democrat lawmaker, Sen. Isadore Hall, even keeps a bowl of condoms on the reception desk of his Capitol Senate office.
- Gov. Brown signed legislation that made the state’s minimum wage at $15 per hour, the nation’s highest.
- California High school seniors no longer are required to take a long-standing exit exam to graduate and receive a diploma.
- Californians also pay the highest gasoline taxes in the nation, which is supposed to go to road/highway infrastructure, yet the state’s roads, highways, and bridges rate among the worst in the country.
Save
However, the recent 2016 election may offer some solutions. Perhaps an independent-minded candidate can “Trump” the state by running against the Bay Area politicos? Maybe our citizen activists can place a counter-proposal on the ballot for a state-electoral-college system so that our rural areas have more say in state-wide elected offices?
Meanwhile, Anti-Trump secessionists have filed formal paperwork to launch their petition drive aimed at separating California from the union by first putting the issue before voters on the 2018 ballot. Our California conservative groups are now discussing ways to counter this move, such as reminding voters of practicalities (e.g., national defense, disaster relief) that the Trump-haters are ignoring in this deluded drive.
Life in the State of California is challenging enough; life in the Country of California would be Venezuela-on-the-Pacific.
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY