LA Times: California Is An Economic Basket Case – And It’s The Voter’s Fault

The good citizens of California have had enough.
Yesterday they voted down five new budget measures in California and only approved one that capped state employees raises during tough financial times, a sound move on their part and one I’m sure doesn’t sit well with the nabobs in Sacramento.
California is swirling the bowl. Businesses are leaving, people are losing their jobs, farms are being shut down because of environmental rules that ignore the needs of the people of the state in favor of a smelt. The list of ridiculous hobbles the California government has put on its people is endless and now the Golden State is not so golden .
Oh, and by the way, guess whose fault all this is.
According to the LA Times, it’s those pesky voters who have caused this economic belly flop:

Californians are well known for periodic voter revolts, but on Tuesday they did more than just lash out at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature over the state’s fiscal debacle.
By rejecting five budget measures, Californians also brought into stark relief the fact that they, too, share blame for the political dysfunction that has brought California to the brink of insolvency.

Like that? Well, they’re just getting warmed up. They really heap the blame on the voters instead of squarely where it belongs, which is with free spending state politicians that have created a hostile business environment, over taxes everything, and has a laundry list of social programs they can’t afford.
I especially like this line from the article:

Adding to the state’s difficulties is the complexity of many ballot measures, no doubt a factor in the defeat of the main budget measures that lawmakers put before voters Tuesday.
[...]
To John Hein, a veteran Sacramento campaign consultant, the absence of any master vision by voters appears to be a key flaw in the state’s recent history with ballot measures.
“They kind of take each issue in a microcosm, rather than relate the decision to prior decisions, or future decisions that they might make,” he said. “Voters don’t think about the consequences of how one thing fits with another.”

The context is simple – not only are the people of California selfish in denying their politicians more of their money, they’re just plain too stupid to understand the complexities of what they’re voting for. Taxes are good for you, you stupid little people. Don’t you get it? Just sit back and let the government do the thinking for you. This won’t hurt a bit. But they didn’t. They thought for themselves at the polls and what they thought hasn’t set well with the California left.
By the way, nowhere in the article do they interview anyone who might explain why people are sick to death of the state sucking them dry.
Read the whole LA Times article. It’s as good an example of elitist arrogance and sneering condencension from both the left and the main stream media as you’ll find anywhere.
Voters exercising their rights. The nerve.
UPDATE:
The New York Times chimes in with this unbiased headline:
Calif. Voters Reject Measures to Keep State Solvent
Interestingly, there is more coverage there than they gave to the nationwide, anti-tax “Tea Parties”. I’d ask just whose side these guys are on, the free people of the United States and their right to vote as they will, or the far left socialists who seem to have every intention of destroying our democracy as we know it.
But that would be a foolish question, wouldn’t it?