The national media has been pontificating all day about what a disaster the California referendum results are. They have been wailing about what cuts are going to have to be enacted as a result of the vote. Some are even bemoaning the fact that voters exercised their democratic rights to reject the tax hikes.
What is missing, from what I have read at least, is the incredible size of the majorities that beat hell out of the spend and tax proposals. If Obama’s 6% election victory was a “landslide”, this is a thermonuclear landslide. We are talking about a nearly 2 to 1 rejection of higher taxes here, not a just-got-by defeat.
The only thing that passed in an even bigger landslide was that pesky proposition 1F – cutting off any legislative or state executive pay increases when the state is running a deficit. That one passed by a 3 to 1 margin.
The sheer size of these numbers is stunning.
The national media will ignore the numbers and deride the ignorant masses that defeated the measures. So will the tax-increase-crazed national Democrats.
The percentages say they do so at their peril.
If California is the bellwether that many in the media proclaim when it tilts left, they are foolish to ignore it when it tilts right.
This problem has been buiding for years in CA and has been well documented at The Crabitat. And yet (Anthony (Los Angeles), you can correct me if I am wrong) the voters returned virtually every incumbent to state government last year. There seems to be a voter disconnect between California’s problems and the dems running the show for decades. Anecdotally, I am penpals with a woman in CA who has pronounced conservative ideas who always votes democratic because Repubs are ‘corrupt’. I see the same disconnect with people here as well. The problems are the fault of ‘Government’ not the people we elect. Go figure, but the phenomenon is real. One other point, in ballot initiatives, the public will vote new services for themselves but invariably vote against tax increases, and this is always reflected in polls. The public always wants services they don’t want to pay for. Bottom line is that while the results in CA are encouraging, I will withold judgement on CA voters coming to their senses until the next election.
Thanks for the link to the graphics. I hope you are right that the politicians will pay attention, but will remain cynical for the time being.
“One other point, in ballot initiatives, the public will vote new services for themselves but invariably vote against tax increases, and this is always reflected in polls. The public always wants services they don’t want to pay for.”
Read “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire”. This is a symptom of a civilization in decline. Once the citizenry finds out that it can vote itself ‘bread and circuses’ but not vote to pay for them, you have a disaster in the making. The people of California have been doing this for years. In the last presidential election the entire nation did it by electing the Obamessiah (free health care, tax cuts for 95% of Americans, etc.). I am starting to be very worried for the future of the country I have always loved.