ALPERN AT LARGE - Contrary to what many Californians believe, they ARE part of the same nation as the rest of the other forty-nine states that comprise the United States…and share the same Constitution and laws that prohibit taxpayer fraud and are require transparency in government.
Contrary to what many Californians believe, the era of cutting-edge innovation that drove Americans to their state to beef up their economy is over, and that those who found a nitch and affordable homes are presiding over an era where both red and blue states elsewhere in the nation are now where Americans are flocking to (and taking their wealth with them).
Contrary to what many Californians believe, the policies of infrastructure, affordable energy, and cost of living are not environmentally sustainable, such that California’s environmental policies are increasingly examples of what the rest of the nation does NOT want to emulate.
In other words, while many in the Golden State are so focused on, and led against, the policies and brash statements in Washington, D.C., they’ve forgotten the home-grown tyranny of a one-party system that’s eschewed transparency, tyranny, and taxation without representation in their own city, county, and state.
For example:
- While I personally have come to the painful and pragmatic conclusion that L.A. Mayor Karen Bass is indeed the lesser of two evils for the next four years, she’s also promoting a city public fund match of private donations to her campaign of 6-to-1. Not a private match, but rather your/our money to finance her campaign. Is this the best L.A. can do with respect to transparency, protecting the poor, and allowing ordinary Angelenos the ability to run for higher office?
- Taxpayer fraud is BAD, pure and simple, whether it occurs in Minnesota, California, or any red state…and it’s enabled by one-party rule that’s neither Constitutional, legal, nor moral. Hence the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” by any name one wishes to call it just stinks of Soviet-style suppression of free speech and citizen investigative journalism.
The protests against this law and the inevitable lawsuits that will arise from it (raise questions from both sides as to how our taxpayer money should be spent
…and whether the optics of watching Attorney General Rob Bonta act as a partisan Democrat for years (I read his weekly updates like many of us), and having his wife Assemblyperson Mia Bonta push this bill forward to future presidential contender Governor Gavin Newsom to sign, are just...
…well, just plain awful. As in the sort of thing we see in third-world nations, the failed Soviet Union, or any other society that’s banned free speech.
Contrary to what many Californians believe, when one and only one party holds power both unchecked and supreme (including if it’s YOUR party), good government usually goes away, and the virtues of checks and balances become sorely missed.
Again, this nation was founded in resisting a monarchy/oligarchy from England (which currently has its own free-speech/government tyranny issues to confront, but that’s another story or ten to be addressed elsewhere, or at another time), so why are we embracing a new form of tyranny here in our supposed democracy in California?
We can go on and on about red states electing officials based on nepotism (lots of local and national Republicans are concerned about the late South Carolina U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s sister succeeding him) and moves related to tariffs and the renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake America, but what about HERE?
OUR cities, OUR counties, and OUR state—what about OUR nepotism and tyranny?
- The biggest fraction of our rising fuel costs in California over other states involve state taxes per gallon? Are we getting what we paid for?
- Both conservative and liberal pundits alike are decrying the bait-and-switch high-speed rail in our nation as the boondoggle everyone feared it would be? Are we getting what we paid for?
- The homeless industry is not outcomes driven but rather a brazen attempt to create public sector jobs rewarded by maintaining the problem rather than fixing it…and arguably creating a new class of resident voters who don’t have the taxpayers’ needs at heart. Are we getting what we paid for?
- Schools and universities, infrastructure projects, and the like—are public sector monies coming even close to making life better, easier, and more affordable to middle-class, two-or-more-job-working Californians? Are we getting what we paid for?
Right now we’ve got a gubernatorial contest between Democrat Xavier Becerra—who appears to want us to know as LITTLE about him and his ideas/policies as possible and Republican Steve Hilton—who appears to want us to know as MUCH about him and his ideas/policies as possible.
Forget about the past, we’re encouraged to believe…but pretty much every major newspaper and critically thinking California wants a debate between Becerra and Hilton, and they want it NOW.
We want Democrats to be democratic, and we want Republicans to support a representative republic.
Forget the hype—taxation without representation, and one-party tyrannical rule, and telling honest voters and taxpayers “they can leave if they don’t like it” has never turned out well for any society or nation that’s done that.
Can we just focus on our own home-grown problems long enough to fix our once-Golden State?
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
