It is one week to go before the state and national elections of November 2nd, 2010.  Essentially all prognostications suggest a surge of voter anger to rival the great wave elections of the past, with voter disgust focused on the party in power and great numbers of incumbents imperilled.  The driving issue above all seems to be the surge in government deficit spending that concerns all, and the power brokers unwillingness to take any actions to arrest the country’s economic downward spiral.  This voter message is about to be painfully seared on incumbents careers across the nation everywhere – everywhere, that is, except in the state of California.

     Aaahh, California, state of sunshine,  Hollywood, and Silicon Valley.  A state beacon for national progress if there ever was one.  One would assume that California, so long a bellwether of the tides of the nation, would be in the forefront of the desire for change and reform.  Certainly the issues of governmental malfeasance are no more clearly defined then in the state of California.  California has long been the home of a democrat legislature  unwilling to deal with a burgeoning budgetary crisis that has put California in such financial arrears that it now has the lowest bond rating of any state in the nation, A-, and has been estimated to be in the top ten most likely governmental bodies for default in the world, ranking just ahead of war torn Lebanon and just behind Greece.  It is sitting on a budget deficit of over 19 billion dollars for fiscal 2010 and has accumulated  over 342 billion dollars in debt.  It currently spends 50% of its yearly budget on “public education”, though its high school graduation rates rank it as 48 out of 50 states, and 25% on health and human services, though it ranks 42 out of 50 states in health insurance coverage for its citizens.   It is home to two of the most liberal  democrat Senators in the nation in Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, and proud provider of the most liberal Speaker of the House in history, Nancy Pelosi, dually responsible for promoting the public spending that has surged the national government debt over 3.2 trillion dollars in just 2 years.  Surely California, the state with the largest economy and  the highest population of all 50 states is the most acutely aware of the impending financial crisis, and will take a leadership role in avoiding the final drive off the cliff that it has been so recklessly veering toward.

    With a week to go before a bellweather election to determine the state of California’s future destiny as a beacon state or a failed state,  the polls show the progressively stable leads in the election for Senate and Governorrespectively for – Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown.  Yes, that Barbara Boxer, and oh my god yes, THAT Jerry Brown.  Please California explain yourself – Jerry Brown was first elected your governor in 1975, 35 Years Ago, and his Utopian ideas have changed nada.  Perhaps we could also bring back  Nelson Rockefeller, Gaylord Nelson, John Lindsey, Hubert Humphrey, and Ted Kennedy himself to help  craft Mr. Brown’s vision for the state as they were all liberal lions who thought in 1975 as Mr. Brown does regarding the role of the state in people’s lives – no wait, they are all dead.   Yes, California, you are about to restore to governance a man who was governor during Gerald Ford’s Presidency as the man to lead you out of your current financial and economic wilderness.  And please don’t start me on Senator Boxer.  Is it destiny that California is too drenched in its own illusions, that it won’t do anything to try to save itself?

   Woe Be Gone, California. You were beautiful once.  We hardly knew ye….