House of Eratosthenes

It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.

Twelve months after that, with the inaugration of FDR, that mindset would be delivered a devastating broadside and the United States would change forever.

The irony, in my mind, is that we still live in a nation that has these state laboratories. And they’re being used. One state may try things one way, another state may try things a different way. The Federal Government can still threaten to withhold highway funding, but this is put into practice far less often today than it was when I first started voting. The states remain properly independent.

The one thing that is not being done, is to gather the data about how these experiments turn out, and simply present it where people will read it. If someone were to do that, the information wouldn’t travel that quickly, even with blogs. The left-wingers still have a near-monopoly on our media of communication. And you know it wouldn’t make them look good. There are too many states and municipalities plowing all their energies into finding the most left-wing way possible to run…things that have absolutely nothing to do with left- or right-wing. What’s the most left-wing way to bury people who are dead. What’s the most left-wing way to collect garbage. What’s the most left-wing way to wire up traffic lights in an intersection. There’s no answer to those questions. But granola meccas like San Francisco and Sacramento are determined to find one.

Vicious Cycle California is surely near the top of the list of mismanaged states in this union. The situation has become so preposterous and absurd, that even our state officials wouldn’t deny it (they’d argue about where the blame lies, endlessly). But the situation is going to get even worse. How do I know that? Because of the way our local media outlets word things. Look — I just saw another report come up on the idjit box a few minutes ago…the state is “being hit with another wave of economic woes.” Being hit. Passive voice. The state is just like that fat li’l brother momma is always protecting who eats pickled pigs’ feet out of the jar and watches wrestling all day. He doesn’t do stupid things; bad things just happen to him.

This state isn’t being hit with anything that isn’t of its own making. The fact of the matter is, no business is going to relocate or expand here. Not unless it’s backed into a corner, bribed with one hell of a tax relief deal, or run by crazy people.

The state’s finances start sucking, everyone talks about a tax increase. If your finances start sucking, where’s all this noise about a tax cut? Don’t hold your breath waiting for it.

I’ve lived most of my life on the Left Coast. Within my experience, the pattern is unmistakable. You put left-wingers in charge of things, and here comes the vicious cycle. I personally have experienced no exceptions to this, and personally know of none. When do we start taking Justice Brandeis’ advice, and using our states as laboratories? I mean, all the way…not just until left-wing policies start to look bad, and then stop our learning. Let’s keep an open mind. Isn’t that supposed to be what liberalism is all about, keeping an open mind?

Update: Blogger friend Virgil has some of the hard data…the bottom line data, not state-by-state. It’s got to do with what’s flowing out of the union as a whole, year by year. Not looking good. Not lookin’ good at all.

Yes. You and I, dirty Right wingers all, should keep an open mind about whatever the Left wingers are trying this time. Don’t you know real Communism has never been tried?
- Robert Mitchell Jr. | 10/09/2008 @ 12:20
Oh sure, it’s been tried.

If by “try” you mean “committed to, like a husband to a wife, through thick and thin, year after year, never mind how bad things get.” Open mind hasn’t got much to do with that (more irony).
- mkfreeberg | 10/09/2008 @ 12:38
“You put left-wingers in charge of things, and here comes the vicious cycle.”

Yup, pretty much.

Here are some interesting facts –via Stix Blog
http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/2008/09/the-10-poorest.html

What do these top ten cities with the highest proverty rate all have in common?

Detroit, MI hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1961
Buffalo, NY hasn’t elected one since 1954
Cincinnati, OH since 1984
Cleveland, OH since 1989
Miami, FL has never had a Republican mayor
St. Louis, MO since 1949
Elpaso, TX has never had a Republican mayor
Milwaukee, WI since 1908
Philadephia, PA since 1952
Newark, NJ since 1907

It is the disadvantaged who elect Democrats, yet are still disadvantaged….
- tim | 10/09/2008 @ 13:03
Not surprised.

Sometimes I feel this healthy trepidation about announcing my prejudices before the data rolls in.

Other times…like here…I don’t…
- mkfreeberg | 10/09/2008 @ 13:12

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LaboratoriesThursday, October 9th, 2008

Laboratories
Thursday, October 9th, 2008