California and Florida battle for the soul of a nation
By: Kyle Smith
This article shows the ultimate in differences over absolutely everything in America between red vs blue red states vs blue ones on everything. Economy, taxes, regulations, covid, privacy, education, and more. On every count Florida is right and California is a giant screw up. De Santis has done so much better than Newscum. This Californian stands tall for the Florida model.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
California and Florida battle for the soul of a nation
By Kyle Smith
Thanks to the blessings of decentralization, life can vary greatly in America depending on where you sit. Those differences are growing into a chasm of philosophical and practical contrasts between two basic models for the American future. Call them the California way and the Florida way .
On many critical questions facing our culture, our economy and our society, California and Florida offer radically different answers.
Should lots of new housing be built in the interest of affordability? California says no, Florida says yes. Should homeless people be allowed to turn public spaces into tent cities? California says yes, Florida says no. Should public elementary schools teach critical race theory ? California says yes, Florida says no. Should gas be $4 a gallon? California says yes, Florida says no. Should biological males be allowed to dominate girls’ sports? Florida says no . California not only says yes, but it is trolling Florida by forbidding its employees to take state-funded trips to Florida, as well as 16 other states.
California fancies itself imposing its cultural values on other states and tackling global warming independently; Florida has a more modest view of what a state government does. People are voting on all of this with their U-Hauls. California’s population in 2020 shrank for the first time ever, by 180,000 people, whereas Florida had the second-highest increase in population, after Texas.
During the pandemic, California introduced some of the harshest lockdown measures in the country, crashing its economy, while Florida was among the first states to begin reopening, way back in May 2020, and has been almost entirely open since September. Disney World reopened in July 2020; Disneyland reopened at the end of April 2021. One survey found that Florida had the second-fewest coronavirus restrictions; California ranked 45th by the same measure.
Should homeless people be allowed to turn public spaces into tent cities? California says yes, Florida says no. REUTERSThough Florida has the second-highest percentage of old people of any state, the death tolls look like they will come out about even. Florida stands 26th in COVID-19 fatalities (1,769 deaths per million) while California is 34th (1,614). Yet California’s economy is still suffering, its unemployment rate standing at 7.9 percent in May, the most recent survey. Florida hasn’t seen such a high jobless rate since last August; its unemployment has stood below 5 percent throughout 2021.
Whether lockdowns are effective remains an open question , but there is no question that they bring economic calamity.
As for the psychological and emotional effects of locking children out of schools, we may never be able to measure the harm California did to its youngest citizens. The data firm Burbio, which has been tracking school reopenings, ranks California dead last on its index of in-person learning, with four out of five students learning remotely on average. Florida scored 95 percent in-person learning, third-best in the nation.
Relative to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (a Republican), California Gov. Gavin Newsom (a Democrat) seems to have gotten very little in exchange for this devastatingly high price. Widespread disgust with his leadership means he will be forced to present himself to voters in a recall election to be held on Sept. 14, although polling suggests he will probably hang on to the office to which he was elected in 2018 with a 62 percent majority.
Newsom’s state has a horseshoe economy built to serve two classes of people: the rich and the poor. The middle-class sags, neglected, in the middle. Ordinary working families are all but being invited to go find another state.
Tightly restricted housing policies, high taxes and punishing, traffic-clogged commutes make California increasingly untenable for average earners as wealthy progressives buttress themselves behind high gates, go to work on glistening corporate campuses, and shrug at tax hikes, knowing their property values will continue to zoom upward because it’s so hard to get anything built.
On the other end of the income scale, a chilling phrase has entered common usage in the Golden State: “sanctioned encampments.” California has a colossal problem in homelessness, and it is determined to take steps to make it worse. “Sanctioned encampments” is a euphemism for taxpayer-funded Skid Rows, and Democrats who run California think they’re a great idea. California is mocking its middle class by simply removing grassy lawns, sidewalks and other public spaces that ought to be usable by the middle class and giving them to its underclass. (Great news, though: Some areas of the camps are socially distanced. So, no worries about diseases spreading through these places.)
Democratic Party activists and progressives keep pushing the state and its cities to be ever more indulgent toward the homeless.
Tent cities have popped up in both Northern and Southern California , public defecation is the norm in some areas and the progressive mindset says: Put out the welcome mat. Do so, and people will arrive on your doorstep: Despite having only 12 percent of American’s population, California has one-quarter of the country’s homeless. The more hospitable it becomes to hobos, the more of them it will attract.
Florida’s Ron DeSantis was one of the first governors to reopen his state amid COVID. REUTERSIn Los Angeles, the city is spending such a mind-boggling amount of money on tents — $2,700 each, per month, or more than the average one-bedroom apartment costs — to make the homeless comfy that even NPR was taken aback.
Nonprofit agencies calling themselves “advocates for the homeless” are the middlemen lining their pockets in this boondoggle, seeking and getting lavish government contracts to take care of things like providing portable toilets. The San Jose City Council keeps pushing, reports KPIX in San Francisco, to “formalize the hands-off approach to some encampments which meet certain criteria such as not being near a school, not blocking streets or sidewalks and not being in a waterway. The city would also include hygiene and supportive services. It’s already doing some of that by paying unhoused people to pick up trash in their encampments, and by providing porta-potties and wash stations.”
Near the San Jose Airport, in the largest city in Northern California, hundreds of homeless people are squatting on a nearly mile-long stretch of territory as local and state officials shrug; only the FAA is complaining.
Middle-class Californians scratch their heads, glance at gasoline prices that are more than a dollar above the national average, and think: Seriously? This is what my tax dollars go to? Paying homeless people to pick up their own garbage? Paying homeless advocates $2,700 a month to install a tent in a parking lot?
With all of this wasted public expenditure, it’s no surprise that California is second only to New York in the category of highest marginal income tax rate. In overall tax burden, it ranks 10th-highest in the nation, according to one survey that ranks Florida as the fifth-lowest. Florida’s budget is $102 billion; California’s is $262 billion. (California’s population is less than double that of Florida, 40 million to 22 million.)
Each year, more bad decisions get made on where to direct California’s billions. The “Defund the police” movement led to a reduction of funding of $150 million for the Los Angeles police, while San Francisco lawmakers stripped $80 million from the cops’ budget while proposing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to bolster the tent cities that look like social rust to everyone not trained in elite thinking.
The combined effects of a 2014 statewide referendum to reduce thefts valued at less than $950 to misdemeanors and a vow by San Francisco’s leftist district attorney, Chesa Boudin , not to prosecute minor crimes is being taken as an engraved invitation by San Francisco shoplifters; the middle class suffers as favorite retailers such as Walgreens and Target say they are forced to close their doors.
Disorder has a way of feeding on itself. San Francisco has become “the nation’s leader in property crime,” and statewide murders were up 31 percent last year. (They were up 15 percent in Florida.)
Any visitor to Florida can tell you the state simply looks orderly. Florida municipalities use a variety of measures to discourage loitering on the streets, including arresting for trespassing, and it largely works: When was the last time you read about an epidemic of homelessness in Fort Lauderdale?
Florida municipalities use a variety of measures to discourage loitering on the streets. REUTERSAs a society, we shouldn’t want people sleeping on the streets. If the police stop them from doing so, they’ll either find someone to stay with or report to a shelter. It is an insult to the public for its government to simply ignore concerns about orderly streets out of fear that some advocacy group hoping for a fat payout will denounce its agents as “mean” for denying people the right to set up camp on the streets.
Maintaining basic order and the rule of law is the first duty of government; a healthy society depends on people feeling secure. Secure people are free to pursue their dreams.
“Florida in 2020 feels reminiscent of California in the 1950s,” writes Jacksonville resident Charles C.W. Cooke in National Review, calling it “a place to which ordinary people are flocking in order to take advantage of the nice weather, good economy, open spaces and explosive construction.”
California may be a dynamic and diverse state, but Florida is no slouch in either department, a place where you’re equally likely to meet refugees from socialist Venezuela or socialist New York.
Florida is America’s freest state, according to a Cato Institute survey: No. 1 in fiscal freedom, No. 1 in educational freedom. Cato dubs California one of the least free states and flat-out dubs it “the most cronyist state in the union,” meaning government and its chosen allies work to milk the public purse for all they can.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom faces a recall election in September. REUTERSSomehow Florida’s lean government even manages to operate efficiently. British emigre Cooke writes that “when I moved here from Connecticut, I walked in without an appointment and, within 18 minutes, I had two new license plates and two new driver’s licenses, and my wife had registered to vote. This was typical.”
Even the famous “Florida Man” news items of hilariously eccentric doings are a sign of healthy government: Due to sunshine laws, criminal proceedings and virtually everything else related to government are accessible on demand. Other states give us less to laugh at because they are less transparent.
A 2016 survey gave Florida a grade of “A” for providing online access to how it spends its taxpayer dollars; California got an “F” and was the worst-scoring state.
It wasn’t long ago that America looked to California for guidance; even Ronald Reagan implicitly promised to spread the California way across the nation. Now California is a model only for dysfunction, and if Newsom attempts to follow Reagan’s path to the White House, he’ll be as much of a punchline as his predecessor, Jerry Brown, the man who first started to steer California on its present heartbreaking path.
No one from Florida has ever become president, nor has any Italian American. The success of DeSantis as governor of America’s model state suggests he could be the man to shatter both of those molds.
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I live in a part of far northern rural California where we acted much as if we were living in Florida instead. Our local economy is better off than the rest of the state as a result.
Bloomberg disagrees :
The Golden State has no peers when it comes to expanding GDP, raising household income, investing in innovation and a host of other key metrics.
Pat, lady, I want to give you five stars for linking to this amazing article from Bloomberg! Anybody who reads it will be shocked to see how it counters that NAYSAYER who penned this article spotlighted above. What a blessing you are to me, us, and NT today, Pat !
Here is an excerpt from Bloomberg's timely writing (Note the date of the article everybody):
And yet, while California shines through its tragedies, it ain't engaging in defeatist' union-busting' schism language against other states!
I think I'll go with the Bloomberg article.
It's like a walking, talking, Negative Ned 'doll' in the virtual world. Nothing good to say or suggest any time of the day, evening, or night! California is succeeding in spite of taking in other states' children.
Much of what is stated about Florida is either misleading or BS.
I’m sure you would. The Bloomberg articles gives California apologists the comfort of lies. California is great if one is already rich. For the rest of us, not so much. For the reasons the New York Post article mentioned.
Some conservatives just keep competing with their fellow states, it's ignorant and it won't make anybody (worth their salt) jealous. As the saying goes, "♫ Don't let the green grass fool ya!" ♪ Because Texas has an electrical grid problem and Florida is 'bout to face strong possibility of condo and building regulations!!! Regulations? Oh my. All states have their problems, no one should be pitting this 'family' against itself!
Liberals have been bragging about how well their states used to be doing for a long time. Spare us the hypocrisy.
Yawn. You just don't get it. We're the same thing. Y'all are nothing without us and we are less without each other. The union is everything! Our 'combines' are what the world admires about us. The schism is/will cause utter inefficiency.
Actually, I'd be happier if certain members would just go away and let the adults talk about science.
Trying to cause a national schism is childish and divisive. And some conservatives SWEAR (on God) they are supporters of unity for all. Gotcha!
Sorry but there is no biblical mandate for some states (red ones) to engage in crappy policies just so that they can stay as poor as other(blue) states.
Spoken like a true divider, no doubt. No matter some conservatives even have their own 'religion' and another Jesus. The Jesus I express, resides in the "book' and it strikes me odd (though I am not sure why) that the Jesus some conservatives confess is spirit-less and carnal. Where am I wrong?
And when you mention "crappy policies" and poor states in a sentence, I hate to stoop so low (as some conservatives); think Mississippi and West Virginia for 'openers.'
Mississippi and Wast Virginia are improving along with other southern states after throwing off centuries of democrat rule and policies that made them poor in the first place.
Mississippi and West Virginia are still two of the poorest sickest least educated states...
The problem with Mississippi and West Virginia is conservatism not liberalism. With a highest percentage of Black Americans in the country in perpetually red-state Mississippi; a larger percentage of poor White Americans in indefinitely red-state WV one has to wonder what conservatism is doing for these people.
And as for your. . . remark, well obviously that's just shifting the blame. Do you have evidence that President Biden is not trying to make these states better for their residents? Show that now!
You would like to make this republicans and democratic parties policies, when actually this is about conservatives 'warring' to quell and end liberalism.
Conservatives want these two states, and we can throw in the ones that are 'trending' purple nowadays like Texas, Georgia, and Arizona, to stay put in the conservative register.
Thanks for the admission: conservatism is a failed experiment in the most loyal of the solidly red states.
That's a fact, 'Jack.'
Do you have evidence that President Biden is not trying to make these states better for their residents? Show that now!
Hyperbole? 'Outburst'?
I repeat: Do you have evidence that President Biden is not trying to make these states better for their residents? Show that now!
You've got nuthin'. Moving on.
Texan1211, guess which two states aforementioned are in the bottom 10 of states for full vaccinated citizens - here let me show it:
States ranked by percentage of population fully vaccinated: July 9
42. West Virginia
Number of people fully vaccinated: 692,019
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 38.61
43. Utah
Number of people fully vaccinated: 1,214,449
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 37.88
44. Tennessee
Number of people fully vaccinated: 2,579,292
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 37.77
45. Georgia
Number of people fully vaccinated: 3,941,470
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 37.12
46. Idaho
Number of people fully vaccinated: 651,402
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 36.45
47. Louisiana
Number of people fully vaccinated: 1,652,871
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 35.55
48. Wyoming
Number of people fully vaccinated: 205,774
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 35.55
49. Arkansas
Number of people fully vaccinated: 1,046,644
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 34.68
50. Mississippi
Number of people fully vaccinated: 990,469
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 33.28
51. Alabama
Number of people fully vaccinated: 1,623,114
Percentage of population fully vaccinated: 33.1
That is not "shit-hot" efficiency in red state 'America,' Texan1211!
In conclusion: You're digressing. We're done. Bye!
but there is one for fake xtians...
So it would seem when listening to what they are actually saying.
You’re asking for that? We shall see what happens!
Why don't you post something that really matters- like the number of dead from Covid-19 by state?
Maybe you would care to explain why so many blue states lead the list? We all expect Texas, Florida, and Georgia to be up there- as they didn't shut down their economies due to Covid 19. But what are California, NY, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, and Michigan doing up there? Are they Democrat run states? Of course several of their governors used the pandemic to kill off their older population by placing people that tested positive into old age and retirement homes
That is just ignorant combative nonsense. I am ashamed on your behalf that some of you lack a fundamental understanding of virus-kills versus vaccine saves. We're done here. It seems I can learn little to nothing useful from some of you. Shame on some conservatives. Shame before God and humanity!
Actually California has several laws, or legislation in the pipeline, facilitating the use of older buildings or the development of new ones into affordable housing.
2020 California Housing Legislation Highlights
The case of Martin v Boise, Idaho has sort of forced the issue. The holding of the court was that government could not outlaw camping (i.e. homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk or in parks) unless they have shelter beds available. So local governments have a choice. Create more housing or (as some cities unfortunately seem to be doing) stop enforcing anti-homeless camping laws.
The latter is happening in the big coastal urban eases while the former is happening in the inland valley cities
I dont live in either state and I resent the idea that either of them represent the “soul” of anything outside of their borders. California is horribly over regulated in a lot of areas, and “A Florida man” is the start of everything weird ass news story on planet earth.
They are 2 states out of 50, and while they may be 2 of the more populated there are still 260 million other people who they do not represent.
Five more people were arrested in Florida that took part in the riot/insurrection in DC.
I believe that Florida now leads the nation in stupid fucking assholes that participated.
I agree. I am angry 'all day' with knuckleheads who make a living, a career, out of exploitation of our differences as states.
It is our contrasts and sameness combined and balanced which causes an emergence of 'dynamo' themes, ideas, and personalities to shake and shape this world. The world beats a path to our shores when we use our talents (and the world citizens) to make life work for all.
The world will abandon a U.S.A. that is argumentative, disunited, and teetering on 'divorce.' And worse, has become an unreliable and delusional space that can't be trusted for the long-haul. Nations have expectation of existing for thousands of years!
No one here said anything about a divorce or a break up. It’s the beauty of our federalist system. States are the laboratories of our democracy. The different things states do can be celebrated as long as the federal government doesn’t take sides and try to coerce states in certain policies. I have no problem with New York and Florida being polar opposites within our Union. That’s the nature of the republic in which we live. It is ok though to point out differences and advocate for what is being done in one state to be tried in another. When Trump was President I didn’t advocate that New York be compelled to be like Texas and with Biden I will certainly resist any attempt to make Florida like California. If red states cut taxes and benefit economically from it, blue states should come up with a plan to make their states more economically attractive, not run to uncle fed and try to use it to constrain the choices of their red counterparts.
Untrue. Friendly competition is a unifying activity which can make us all stronger. However, you and some conservative friends are encouraging the culture and societal divides happening all around us, because you and some conservatives don't want to change - even when change is the proper course of dynamic systems and nature. Y'all intend to fight this losing battle to a standstill - and in the process - damage our national quality of life for the whole republic.
Our states need to understand its people first, not ideologies. 'People make the world go 'round.' Not this bull patty 'reality' of trying to drive people or herd them into ideologies for which they can not 'breathe' or flourish!
As you well know, or should know, the parable of the rich man who stored up 'wealth' in larger and larger barns - his sorry ass died "immediately" and his money was given to others in the offing. He on the other hand is suggested to be suffering (eternally) for being a selfish prick! Better to keep what counts in life first - according to God and it is not the inert/material things that have no spirit whatsoever!
what’s untrue? I was describing friendly competition and disagreements within the context of our federalist system. We are doing nothing but standing up for what we believe in in our states. We are no more responsible for cultural or social divides than the progressives are. We won’t leave it for you to determine that which is proper or dynamic or in agreement with nature. We get every bit as big a say in that as you do. You don’t know what is a losing battle nor does your side get any more influence as to deciding what is damaging to national quality of life or for the whole republic than ours gets. If we disagree, the states are the laboratories of democracy and we will have to agree to disagree and then live and let live in order to hold the republic together. We will not be held together because your side imposes it’s will upon the rest of us by whatever means. We will not be subjugated to the progressive ideology imposed upon us even if it means a national divorce or breakup to living under your ideology crammed down our throats from DC imposed top down upon all the 50 states and their counties.
your side needs to realize that we simply may well disagree about exactly what it is to put people first above ideology. I know that we on the America first nationalist populist conservative side that is a multiracial working and middle class coalition we do put the American people first! It is the 1619 project and CRT that herd and divide so that we can’t flourish.
The selfish rich elites are on your side not ours. The most wealthy zip codes and counties are overwhelmingly democrat and represented by them locally in their state and in congress. You don’t have to persuade me that secular progressive elites should care about the plight of working class America and their jobs and well being. We should store our gains in the barns of Heaven rather than the ones of earth.
and
Yes, XXJefferson you said it and its in "y'all's " hearts. Call it a case of pushing for "irreconcilable differences"!
Y'all are trying to end liberalism or at the least make liberalism a permanent subordinate political party. Liberalism can live with conservatism; conservatism has decided it must extinguish (by hook or crook) liberalism. That is y'all's end-game. It's true. It's true.
It shall fail. As you simply can not maintain suppression numbers large enough to survive and achieve this goal.
Well, all I can add to that is this: Get started! And do not allow 'lying spirits ' pretending to know God control over wisdom. 'It is the Spirit that gives life - the flesh profits nothing.' Paraphrased bible verse.
(Don't you know!)