Nine Words That Confirm California's Sharp Left Turn Toward Authoritarianism
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By now it’s widely known that California is cracking down on plastic — bags and straws — as if they were existential threats. It's virtue signaling gone wild as cities race to outlaw plastic straws because banning plastic bags just wasn't enough. It was at the one of the more recent book burnings, rather, make that plastic straw bannings, that we were told what many of us already know: The "progressive" left in California won't rest until it has established authoritarian control over everyone's lives. The inadvertent announcement was delivered by Santa Barbara City Councilman Jason Dominguez. During the July session in which the City Council voted 6-1 to ban plastic straws and allow plastic stirrers and cutlery to be used only when it is requested by customers, the Democrat said "We have to regulate every aspect of people's lives." His reasoning? "Unfortunately, common sense is just not common." Get the new IBD Politics & Opinion newsletter! Reaction to Dominguez's statement caused him to later say he was sorry for issuing a "string of words in a rhetorical fashion about regulation." The "string," he said, was "not taken as rhetorical and that's my fault so I want to apologize." The statement doesn't need to be apologized for. It needs to be explained. Why would a lawmaker say "We have to regulate every aspect of people's lives" if he didn't really mean to . . . regulate every aspect of people's lives? Dominguez is not a lone tyrant crying in the wilderness of coastal California. This state is filled with politicians who want to regulate, manage, supervise, subjugate, and muzzle the nearly 40 million everyday people of the state. Don't think so? Consider the following evidence: No state restrains commerce with the same degree of enthusiasm that California does. Doing business in California is possible only the right permits, licensing, approvals, and compliance are in hand. Few states tax as punitively as California does. California has the most restrictive gun laws in the country. The free-speech movement began at the University of California in the 1960s, but California lawmakers today want to establish speech codes. The freedom to practice religion is threatened. Some have complained that Fourth Amendment protections are in danger. California's rural residents feel so strongly that they are being tyrannized by left-wing coastal elitists that many want to split off from the rest of the state. Gov. Jerry Brown is an advocate for the "the coercive power of the central state." The animating force behind that advocacy, according to Chapman University professor Joel Kotkin, is a hunger for the state "to gain control over virtually every aspect of planning and development." Sacramento is planning to force a full transition away from fossil fuels. According to the Cato Institute, only one state allows its residents less freedom than California. The Golden State's Heavy Hand As Kotkin has pointed out, "state governments are oppressive, too." "Increasingly, the clearest threat to democracy and minority rights today comes not just from a surfeit of central power concentrated in Washington, D.C., but also from increased centralization of authority within states, and even regional agencies," Kotkin wrote last month in the Los Angeles Daily News. If it seems that California has more in common with Venezuela than it does with Switzerland, ranked by Cato as the world's most-free nation, well, there's good reason for that. As councilman Dominguez's "rhetorical" "string of words" indicates, the once-Golden State is moving fast in the wrong direction. Unchecked by voters, states can become authoritarian, too.
Tags
Who is online
90 visitors
“the Democrat said "We have to regulate every aspect of people's lives." His reasoning? "Unfortunately, common sense is just not common." Reaction to Dominguez's statement caused him to later say he was sorry for issuing a "string of words in a rhetorical fashion about regulation." The "string," he said, was "not taken as rhetorical and that's my fault so I want to apologize." The statement doesn't need to be apologized for. It needs to be explained. Why would a lawmaker say "We have to regulate every aspect of people's lives" if he didn't really mean to . . . regulate every aspect of people's lives? Dominguez is not a lone tyrant crying in the wilderness of coastal California. This state is filled with politicians who want to regulate, manage, supervise, subjugate, and muzzle the nearly 40 million everyday people of the state. Don't think so? Consider the following evidence: No state restrains commerce with the same degree of enthusiasm that California does. Doing business in California is possible only the right permits, licensing, approvals, and compliance are in hand. Few states tax as punitively as California does. California has the most restrictive gun laws in the country. The free-speech movement began at the University of California in the 1960s, but California lawmakers today want to establish speech codes. The freedom to practice religion is threatened. Some have complained that Fourth Amendment protections are in danger. California's rural residents feel so strongly that they are being tyrannized by left-wing coastal elitists that many want to split off from the rest of the state. Gov. Jerry Brown is an advocate for the "the coercive power of the central state." The animating force behind that advocacy, according to Chapman University professor Joel Kotkin, is a hunger for the state "to gain control over virtually every aspect of planning and development." Sacramento is planning to force a full transition away from fossil fuels. According to the Cato Institute, only one state allows its residents less freedom than California. The Golden State's Heavy Hand As Kotkin has pointed out, "state governments are oppressive, too." "Increasingly, the clearest threat to democracy and minority rights today comes not just from a surfeit of central power concentrated in Washington, D.C., but also from increased centralization of authority within states, and even regional agencies," Kotkin wrote last month in the Los Angeles Daily News. If it seems that California has more in common with Venezuela than it does with Switzerland”
"We have to regulate every aspect of people's lives" There we have it. This is what California has become. It is the enemy of personal freedom and individual liberty of all of its residents. California is more authoritarian than the obama regime was.
Enjoy it, they are your masters as long as you live in California.
They will never be our masters. They make new laws and regulations we make new evasions and work arounds. We can still expose them and their reps in Sacramento for the whores they are to the rest of the country. They know that in Sacramento when they pass these oppressive laws that our response is not compliance and obedience but willful resistance and living our lives as much as possible as if they don’t exist. It’s not like they can be everywhere all the time on every issue every time and when the loyal opposition is so complete as it is they can’t enforce everything everywhere.
Sure they will. They were a decade ago, today and a decade into the future and a decade after that..You're fighting a losing battle. Hilarious.
We'll call it the ''Lost Cause Revisited''
Whatever. We will continue to resist. Living far from their urban centers and the absence of a state police force other than highway patrol makes their enforcement of every little detail everywhere next to impossible and like with their gun laws where we don’t comply but simply find a work around to keep our weapons and ammo they can’t oppress as much as they wish to. Besides there’s always the Trump administration and the federal courts to give us some relief and nothing gives us rural California citizens more pleasure than Trump rolling back one of their edicts on our behalf. In this part of California we ❤️ Trump and happily remind you he’s our President.
Funny how many don't use the same reasoning as far as Trump being their president isn't it?
So is there anything you won't wet your pants over HA?
Quit making things personal. We are conservatives here. Our local boards from school to water to whatever are conservative. Our county boards of supervisors are conservative, or city councils are conservative. Our assemblyman and state senators are conservatives. To the extent that we can self rule the day to day living of our lives, we are going to live and act in a conservative manner. When the state passes laws that conflict with that, we find work arounds, ignore, not strictly enforce that which we don’t agree with. I still use light bulbs and plastic bags the state outlawed the further production of and will for years. We cooperate with the Federal government to protect us if the state oversteps its bounds and support ICE, and oppose sanctuary and side with the Feds and Trump against Sacramento at every opportunity. Liberal communities in red states do the same thing in reverse.
You are such a conservative SJW. I bet you even distribute Bibles and plastic straws to people picketing outside of In -n- Out when the liberal brownshirts aren't looking. If you keep this behavior up Breitbart might even give you your own column.
We have no anti straws laws up here.
Removed
Okay?
Neat.
Surely there is a point to this...
Not yet apparently...
Holy shit, I am losing interest.
My caring meter is at zero.
Again, is there a point to this other than you will whine about anything?
The point is that the California government is an evil authoritarian regime.
Lol, hyperbole much? See, this is exactly why I cannot possibly take you seriously.
The seeded article said pretty much the same thing I did.
That was fact. Kalifornia is a Stalinist regime
When do you plan to learn the difference between communist, socialist, Marxist, fascist and capitalist? I doubt that your knowledge would allow you to earn a passing grade on a high school civics exam.
You are one of the few on the forum who has never posted a Political Compass score.
How can California be so liberal socially and also the economic powerhouse of the 50 states if they are a Stalinist regime?
California’s economy sucks unless you are one of the very rich in Silicon Valley. It’s a state of the rich and the poor with a rapidly shrinking middle class.
The irony of your own post completely escapes you doesn't it?
You are the one ignorant of Marxist ideology in its variations
the goal of Marxist communism is the end of the state
marx said in Critique of the Gotha Programmer and elsewhere that socialism is the transition period between capitalism and communism
Stalinism, Nazism, and fascism are Marxist applications of Statist government with no desire to move on to communism
this is well documented within those ideologies by Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Goebbels, Mussolini, and others. Stalin had Trotsky assassinated because he called for perpetual revolution which conflicted with Stalin’s demand for a Marxist totalitarian state
Kalifornia continues its purge of capitalism which is why so many companies are leaving the state (except those leftist corporations who agree with Statist totalitarianism). I’ve been in this state most of the past 70 years and watched its transformation from a wonderful place to something despicable. Many of my friends have left as have I because we could no longer stomach what it has become
the beaches, mountains and forests are not sufficient incentive to live in such an evil and immoral place that it has become
I’m a Christian Minarchist
I'm a Christian minarchist (a distinct type of libertarianism) who believes govt should be as small as possible. National defense, a uniform system of justice (court system), protection of creativity (patents), a uniform monetary system, and negotiation of treaties and trade. That is the legitimate function of our central govt. I oppose all drug laws, censorship, laws against prostitution, or laws on marriage and divorce. These are private moral issues and not the purview of government
Christian libertarianism describes the synthesis of Christian beliefs concerning free will, human nature, and God-given inalienable rights with libertarian political philosophy. It is also an ideology to the extent that its supporters promote their cause to others and join together as a movement. In contrast to the Christian left and the Christian right respectively, they believe charity and enforcement of personal-level morality should be the purview of the (voluntary) church and not the state. These responsibilities must not be abrogated, though any non-governmental organization (NGO) not publicly financed is free to pursue them as well.
Secular libertarianism, socialism, fascism, and crony capitalism are strongly opposed, as is theocracy. The latter does not include merely being influenced by Christian concepts; whereas in a theocracy, government derives its powers from a divine or religious authority directly exercising governmental control. The use of force is never justified to achieve purely political, social, or religious goals, but is reserved solely to uphold natural rights.
Does the concept of sarcasm ever enter your mind?
Your post went off the rails with this illogical sentence. It is obvious that you don't know left from right or up from down. Your vote of supporting libertarianism is a vote for none of the above because it appears to save you from being required to learn about the other political concepts. The fact that those libertarian ideas have never created a stable government is lost on you.
Your ignorance about the facts of history and political science leaves you incable of making a cogent argument on the subject
Our nation was formed with libertarian principles from Locke, Burke, Montesquieu, Samuel Adams, and others
Thomas Jefferson inaugural address March 4,1801
"what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens, a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government; and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities."
Thomas Jefferson inaugural address March 4,1801
That is amusing because I have a minor in political philosophy and was asked to teach the subject at my alma mater before someone who had previously taught this subject was found.
What has the government improperly taken from you or restrained you from doing that is sustainable as a government or as a society?
Why do you refuse to take the political compass quiz and post your score? I've taken the quiz many times and posted my score in a thread that I created on the subject.
Well said. It is harder to stay here by the day but we are putting our effort into fighting for secession for the state of Jefferson rather than leaving.
Then you should know that political philosophy is not the same as political sciencej
Political philosophy is the study of fundamental questions about the state, government, liberty, justice etc and the enforcement of law by authority. It ponders over how a society should be set up what should be role on an individual within a socoety. Individual rights (such as the right to life, free speech, self-defence, etc) state the requirements for a person to benefit rather than suffer from living in a society.
Whereas Political Science is the empirical and theoretical study of policies, government, sociology and economics concerning political behaviour.
Political philosophy could be said as sub field of political science. Philosophy deals with theoretical aspects like liberty, justice, equality etc. Political Science however focus on both empirical and theoretical aspects.
The reason I haven’t posted previously is because some of the questions have no meaning for me, some require a false answer (like religion in schools- I oppose public schools) or questions on business and the environment
heres my latest result with
Economic Left/Right: 6.0
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.15
Yours and mine are very similar. Of course according to some on the left here that makes us authoritarians.
Plastic straws suck.
wood stir sticks leave a bad taste in coffee, I do recycle plastic stir sticks and coffee cups
That is the purpose of a straw.
Your over riding concern about "leftists" will be overwhelmed by the self-destruction of the Trump presidency.
No regardless of Trump we will continue in the war begun by the left against our Constitutional Republic, liberty, and morality.
no longer will we let you destroy this nation and our liberties
Would that be the nation of liberties and justice for all ?
Let me know where we get there, ok ?
By returning to the Constitution and removing government control over our lives
If we remove all government control over all of our lives what stops America from becoming a Might Makes Right society ?
Unfortunately the more people the more problems leading to more laws and more government to enforce those laws, want a smaller government ? Lessen the population.
PS: The constitution is the base and outline for the government structure and oversight you seem to want to do shrink or away with, what would the need be for a constitution without a government to fulfill its charters ?
In reality, as the population increase I expect the government will as well.
Nonsense that a larger population requires more government
the only necessary functions of government are the protection of persons and property including intellectual property (which includes the military and our borders), a uniform justice system, negotiating treaties and trade agreements, securing the banking and currency systems, a Congress to pass the laws and establish the funding to carry out those responsibilities.
Frederic Bastiat correctly refuted this false accusation in his famous Treatise, The Law in 1850
“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain"
IF that was the only problem solving the government did of course it would be smaller However the amount of people it protects will still dictate the size of the government that provides the protection. The more people to protect the more people it takes to protect them.
In America in my life time that has never been all the American government did and for the rest of my time on earth I doubt it ever is.. The American people decided long ago that is not the only problems facing Americans that they wanted the government to help control and at best solve, I also dont see that stopping in my life time.
I didn't read this in a Treatise, I observed it in my reality.
Sorry to say I have little doubt as the population in America continues to increase so shall the size of the US government.
I don’t don’t that this country will continue to become more and more totalitarian. That’s why I stay as far from civilization as possible
I live within civilization but have always been a self reliant individual working within the system. I found it easier to gain the material things I wanted in my life that way.
What constitutional right(s) are you being denied?
How have we left the US Constitution? You seem to want to turn back the clock to the mid-1800s but you are blissfully unaware of the many disastrous consequences of that action. We'd be a 3rd world country if you got your way.
caution, this video can be hard for some to watch.
Here is an easy way to find the link: