KRUGMAN: "California"
* And California as an experiment for liberal economics: Conservatives like to point to California as a glaring example of the failure of liberal policies, but Paul Krugman pushes back on this storyline: now that the GOP in that state has lost its power to obstruct, we may now see a test run for genuinely progressive economic policies.
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The point, however, is that these problems bear no resemblance to the death-by-liberalism story line the California-bashers keep peddling. California isn’t a state in which liberals have run wild; it’s a state where a liberal majority has been effectively hamstrung by a fanatical conservative minority that, thanks to supermajority rules, has been able to block effective policy-making.
And that’s where things get really interesting — because the era of hamstrung government seems to be coming to an end. Over the years, California’s Republicans moved right as the state moved left, yet retained political relevance thanks to their blocking power. But at this point the state’s G.O.P. has fallen below critical mass, losing even its power to obstruct — and this has left Mr. Brown free to push an agenda of tax hikes and infrastructure spending that sounds remarkably like the kind of thing California used to do before the rise of the radical right.
And if this agenda is successful, it will have national implications. After all, California’s political story — in which a radicalized G.O.P. fell increasingly out of touch with an increasingly diverse and socially liberal electorate, and eventually found itself marginalized — is arguably playing out with a lag on the national scene too.
So is California still the place where the future happens first? Stay tuned.
MORE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/opinion/krugman-lessons-from-a-comeback.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
And has a hopeful future now. 
I'm up in the hills right outside of Guerneville. Planning to move back to Southern Humboldt within a couple of weeks (max). 
My daughter did a junior year exchange at Humboldt State. She said there was a lot less drug use there than at other universities she attended, because you could go rock climbing and the Agate Beach was a mile away. There was physical activity to do because of the landscape.
She said, "You'd love it here, Mom. This is Liberal Disneyland." 
I always loved my visits there. During graduation week, there was the usual Farmer's Market and music on the village square. One of the bands was named "The Compost Mountain Boys." They dedicated their last song to all the growers in the audience.
It was like visiting a liberated zone- and I live right in the Mission District, in San Francisco.
I was so proud to see Meg Whitman go down in flames after spending mega-millions trying to get elected.
Here's hoping for a Republican-free California, followed by The Great Republican Collapse in the entire United States of America.
with a mouthful of salad. You're welcome!
in your title line, you might want to spell more carefully.
Signed, one of those people who is apparently a fucking fundie dumbass because she chooses to live somewhere other than where you choose to live
Get used to it. There's a LOT of geographical elitism here. Welcome to DU and whatever you do, DON'T go into the California group, it's geographical elitism on steroids.
And while I didn't mean to start the coastal vs. inland wars, I will double down and say that I find any place with too many Republicans "less-desirable."
Glad you're here! SO many of us here "get it." I just wish we could share that knowledge with more people outside of here. It's just so incredibly important to connect the dots!!!
I was just reading yet another article aimed at musicians and bands and band management (since I manage my kid's band). And again and again they make the same recommendation: BE MINDFUL OF THE "WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME."
For example, when you're trying to build a fan base, it's helpful to understand that most people go to the internet looking for something THEY want or need. Recommendations for a new restaurant. Tips on new music. The goods on the new movie. Where they can get something for free or cheap. What benefits them personally. What's in it for them. And the best advice always goes toward "Don't be about 'buy my album,' 'buy my concert tickets,' 'come to my show,' etc." The best advice always stresses "make them feel like YOU are THEIR fan!" Engage them in some way. Offer them something. What's in it for THEM?
Seems to me that's the key here - everyone's been programmed for years - indeed, BRAINWASHED - into thinking that TAX = BAD.
And if that's all you hear - "taxes bad, taxes bad, taxes bad," in all its many permutations, that's all you're going to think. You've heard the saying before - "garbage in, garbage out." Which is the Holy Writ of such outfits as Pox Noise and the whole limbaugh-and-clones madness. They pump NON-STOP GARBAGE into their listeners and viewers minds. They offer nothing BUT that same NON-STOP GARBAGE. They certainly don't offer any other view or different opinion or alternative outlook. So with nothing else for the listener or viewer to vibe upon, take in, kick around in his/her own mind, sit with, sleep on, or otherwise absorb, then what else is he/she to think or conclude or process, or trust? Indeed, in the truest sense, you are what you eat, literally AND figuratively. You are what you take in.
We are only beginning to deprogram America. For example, look how long it's taken for ANY OTHER VIEW than the NRA's to start breaking through on the gun violence issue? Look how long it's taken!!! Like all the other bad-guy entities out there, the NRA also has had DECADES of head-start on this. They've been allowed - by idiocy, naivete, and fear - to monopolize the conversation for FAR too long. Our side is seriously just now waking up. We have DECADES of catching up to do. And most of it starts with explaining why taxes are NOT bad.
The bad guys (and I label them as such because they ARE. What they do is bad, what they want is bad, what they believe in is by 'n' large bad, and what they want to do to America is BAD!) have succeeded in demonizing and undermining government, taxes, and everything that contributes to a beneficial collective that focuses on the greater good for all, rather than just a pinched selfish good-for-an-elite-few-who-already-have-it-disproportionally-good. Thank ronald reagan for that. "Government isn't the solution to the problem, it IS the problem." Okay. Tell that to the Hurricane Sandy survivors whose meager state coffers and services were instantly overwhelmed and only an entity as big as the feds could deal with what needed to be dealt with. God, I despise ronald reagan. Unfortunately, California foisted THAT seemingly-benign fiend upon the rest of an unsuspecting America, too.
You are so correct about garbage in and garbage out, which is why the death of education is such a big deal. Everyone, regardless of socio-economic background has the responsibility to not consume garbage. We just have to make it desirable again to be smart, and not just "genius to make a billion dollars smart" but smart enough to question all the crap coming from the tv and the pulpit.
And I do believe that Reaganism must be fully confronted and purged from our country's fabric of thought. I see hope in the next generation that didn't grow up during the 80s. Sharing and community are cool again. Tolerance and live and let live are second nature (this doesn't apply to everyone). But at the core is still that festering idea of core selfishness and over-consumption that has brought us here. I'm sorry to say I hate Reagan worst of all because his ideas are what allowed the evil of Cheney and Bush to be unleashed upon this country.
Thanks for this great discussion! It's been a great pleasure to hang out with the California folks! Well, the non-bitter ones anyway 
You are EXACTLY correct about how reagan's "ideas" DID INDEED open the floodgates that allowed the floating shit of bush/cheney to drift in and infect an entire populace. reagan himself sure did. He was an opportunistic infection on two legs. 
I was encouraged to make a thread of my post, so I did!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022619428
It never ceases to amaze me how RWers obstruct any efforts to increase revenues and constantly demonize taxation and push for tax cuts, yet when government functions start to fail due to lack of funding, they say "see, big government doesn't work" and are the first ones to bitch when some government service fails them.
I'll never forget growing up in my hometown that is an agriculture community and very red, the farmers/ranchers constantly complained about government this and government that, but if they didn't receive their subsidy check on time, you never heard so much bitching 
or was, since it, too, is nearing extinction. 
Fun fact: The bear sculpture outside Gov. Brown's office (commissioned by Ahh-nuld) is the wrong species.
I remember when Jerry Brown ran for President. Just think where we would be now if he had been elected instead of Carter and Reagan.
... it will still be cool. 
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