{"id":7177,"date":"2014-04-04T08:45:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T15:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=7177"},"modified":"2014-04-04T08:45:33","modified_gmt":"2014-04-04T15:45:33","slug":"one-california-for-me-another-for-thee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/one-california-for-me-another-for-thee\/","title":{"rendered":"One California for me, another for thee"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0Tribune Content Agency<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

No place on the planet is as beautiful and as naturally rich as\u00a0California. And few places have become as absurd.<\/p>\n

Currently, three\u00a0California\u00a0state senators are either under felony indictment or already have been<\/p>\n

\"Yosemite
Yosemite Valley; Tobias M\u00fcller<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

convicted.<\/p>\n

State Sen.\u00a0Leland Yee\u00a0(D-San Francisco) made a political career out of demanding harsher state gun-control laws. Now he is facing several felony charges for attempting to facilitate gun-running. One count alleges that Lee sought to provide banned heavy automatic weapons to\u00a0Philippines-based Islamic terrorist groups.<\/p>\n

State Sen.\u00a0Ron Calderon\u00a0(D-Montebello), who had succeeded one brother, Thomas, in the state Assembly and was succeeded by another brother, Charles, now faces felony charges of wire fraud, bribery, money laundering and falsification of tax returns.<\/p>\n

State Sen.\u00a0Roderick Wright\u00a0(D-Inglewood), originally entered politics as a champion of social justice. Not long ago, the Democratic leaders of theCalifornia Senate\u00a0in secretive fashion paid\u00a0$120,000\u00a0in taxpayer funds to settle a sexual-harassment suit against Wright. But this time around, not even his fellow senators could save Wright, who was convicted earlier this year on eight felony counts of perjury and voter fraud.<\/p>\n

What is the common denominator with all three\u00a0California\u00a0senators — aside from the fact that they are still receiving their salaries?<\/p>\n

One, they are abject hypocrites who campaigned against old-boy insider influence-peddling so they could get elected to indulge in it.<\/p>\n

Two, they assumed that their progressive politics shielded them from the sort of public scrutiny and consequences that usually deter such deplorable behavior.<\/p>\n

Criminal activity is the extreme manifestation of\u00a0California’s\u00a0institutionalized progressive hypocrisy. Milder expressions of double standards explain whyCalifornia\u00a0has become such a bizarre place.<\/p>\n

The state suffers from the highest combined taxes in the nation and nearly the worst roads and schools. It is home to more American billionaires than any other state, but also more impoverished residents.\u00a0California\u00a0is more naturally endowed with a combination of gas, oil, timber and minerals than any other state — with the highest electricity prices and gas taxes in the nation.<\/p>\n

To understand these paradoxes, keep in mind one common principle. To the degree a Californian is politically influential, wealthy or well-connected — and loudly progressive — the more he is immune from the downside of his own ideology.<\/p>\n

Big money is supposed to be bad for politics. But no money plays a bigger role in influencing policy than\u00a0California’s\u00a0progressive cash, from\u00a0Hollywood\u00a0toSilicon Valley. Billionaire hedge-fund operator\u00a0Tom Steyer\u00a0is canonized, but he is on track to rival the oft-demonized Koch brothers in the amount of money spent on influencing policymakers and getting his type of politicians elected.<\/p>\n

Nowhere are there more Mercedes and BMWs per capita than in\u00a0California’stony coastal enclaves. And nowhere will you find more anti-carbon activism or more restrictive laws against new oil production that ensure the highest gasoline prices in the continental\u00a0United States\u00a0for the less well off.<\/p>\n

California’s\u00a0reserves of natural gas exceed those of nearly every other state. And in\u00a0California, electricity prices are the highest in the nation. The cost falls on those in the interior and Sierra who suffer either from scorching summertime temperatures or bitterly cold winters. Those who set energy policies mostly live in the balmy coastal corridor where there is no need for expensive air conditioning or constant home heating.<\/p>\n

In drought-stricken\u00a0California, building new\u00a0Sierra Nevada\u00a0dams and reservoirs was long ago considered pass\u00e9, but not the idea of diverting precious stored water from agricultural use to help out fish.<\/p>\n

Yet the waters of the Sierra Nevada Hetch Hetchy reservoir are exempt from such fish diversions, apparently because they supply 80 percent of\u00a0San Francisco’s\u00a0daily water supply. Those who wish to either stop more dam construction or divert dammed reservoir water from its original intended use draw the line on restricting their own quite unnatural water sources.<\/p>\n

High-speed rail is billed as the transportation of the future in\u00a0California. But its progressive coastal boosters believe that it should first be tried out on farmers in sparsely settled rural areas rather than in their own precious high-density Bay Area or\u00a0Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0California, open borders and non-enforcement of existing immigration law are also popular progressive causes. But the immediate impact of illegal immigration on public schools is circumvented for the elite by the growing number of private prep schools along the coast.<\/p>\n

Professing that you are progressive can be wise\u00a0California\u00a0politics. It means you sound too caring ever to do bad things, while the costly consequences of your ideology usually fall on someone else. And that someone is usually less hip, less wealthy and less powerful.<\/p>\n

(Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0is a classicist and historian at the\u00a0Hoover Institution\u00a0andStanford University, and the author, most recently, of “The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost — From Ancient Greece to\u00a0Iraq.” You can reach him by e-mail at\u00a0author@victorhanson.com<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\n(C) 2014 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0Tribune Content Agency\u00a0 No place on the planet is as beautiful and as naturally rich as\u00a0California. And few places have become as absurd. Currently, three\u00a0California\u00a0state senators are either under felony indictment or already have been convicted. State Sen.\u00a0Leland Yee\u00a0(D-San Francisco) made a political career out of demanding harsher state gun-control laws. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[194],"tags":[217,1014,289,918,693],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1RL","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9281,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-nihilism-of-sanctuary-cities\/","url_meta":{"origin":7177,"position":0},"title":"The Nihilism of Sanctuary Cities","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Works and Days by PJ Media There are an estimated 300 or so jurisdictions -- entire states, counties, cities, and municipalities -- that since the early 1980s have enacted \u201csanctuary city\u201d laws, forbidding full enforcement of federal immigration law within their jurisdictions. Most of these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Immigration"","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"juan-francisco-lopez-sanchez-kate-steinle-7-19-15-1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pajamasmed.hs.llnwd.net\/e1\/victordavishanson\/user-content\/2\/files\/2015\/07\/juan-francisco-lopez-sanchez-kate-steinle-7-19-15-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12241,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/california-is-a-cruel-medieval-state\/","url_meta":{"origin":7177,"position":1},"title":"California Is a Cruel Medieval State","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness One way of understanding California is simply to invert traditional morality. What for centuries would be considered selfish, callous, and greedy is now recalibrated as caring, empathetic, and generous. The current ethos of evaluating someone by his or her superficial appearance\u2014gender or race\u2014has returned\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7090,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-anti-empirical-left\/","url_meta":{"origin":7177,"position":2},"title":"The Anti-Empirical Left","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Science is ignored when it doesn't support politically correct policy. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online President Obama entered office promising to restore the sanctity of science. Instead, a fresh war against science, statistics, and reason is being waged on behalf of politically\u00a0correct politics. After the Sandy Hook tragedy,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Global Warming"","block_context":{"text":"Global Warming","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/global-warming-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/599px-Aristotelesarp-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9353,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/politics-not-personalities-will-likely-determine-the-presidential-election\/","url_meta":{"origin":7177,"position":3},"title":"Politics, Not Personalities, Will Likely Determine the Presidential Election","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The candidates may be unconventional, but their political agendas fall along a conventional divide. By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online At first glance, 2016 sizes up as no other election year in American history. For more than 30 years, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have been high-profile\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13065,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/thought-of-the-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":7177,"position":4},"title":"Thought of the Day","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers Water, Water and Not a Drop?Behind the national headlines are lots of other stories. Here in California, the Department of Water Resources and the Federal Bureau of Reclamation announced that they may not (be able to?) honor the meager 5% of the contracted water\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 18 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 18 comments","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/thought-of-the-day\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4072,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-bloomberg-syndrome\/","url_meta":{"origin":7177,"position":5},"title":"The Bloomberg Syndrome","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services After the recent Tucson, Ariz., shootings, Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik, a Democrat, almost immediately and without evidence claimed that conservative anti-government speech had set off alleged killer Jared Lee Loughner. Yet the more the unfolding details informed us that the Communist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Punditry"","block_context":{"text":"Punditry","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/punditry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7179,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7177\/revisions\/7179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}