Something Conservatives Fear More than the Ebola Virus:

[NowhereInTime]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/upshot/the-growing-blue-state-diaspora.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&abt=0002&abg=1

Contagion!!   

[Gd5150]

The redistricting and the fact all of CA electoral votes go to 1 candidate is a real problem. A state that by itself rivals the rest of the country needs more senatorial representation. The disenfranchisement of half of it's voters is a travesty and a crime. The state clearly needs to be divided into 3 or 4 states. The areas outside of LA and the bay area have no representation in national elections. Their votes are worthless. The state also has no say in primary elections which is a joke as well. The reason working educated people and businesses have been leaving the last 30+ years is pretty obvious to those who live here. When Democrats run anything they tax and regulate into the ground.

Eventually those who work and pay the bills in the US who aren't part of the few percent at the top are going to give the country the finger. It'll be a good day.

[DigitalPigSnuggler]

Eventually those who work and pay the bills in the US who aren't part of the few percent at the top are going to give the country the finger.

"Eventually"?  What are you waiting for, then?

[NowhereInTime]

The redistricting and the fact all of CA electoral votes go to 1 candidate is a real problem. A state that by itself rivals the rest of the country needs more senatorial representation. The disenfranchisement of half of it's voters is a travesty and a crime. The state clearly needs to be divided into 3 or 4 states. The areas outside of LA and the bay area have no representation in national elections. Their votes are worthless. The state also has no say in primary elections which is a joke as well. The reason working educated people and businesses have been leaving the last 30+ years is pretty obvious to those who live here. When Democrats run anything they tax and regulate into the ground.

Eventually those who work and pay the bills in the US who aren't part of the few percent at the top are going to give the country the finger. It'll be a good day.

I do agree that California is under served in the Senate.  So is New York.  So is Texas, for that matter.  I also feel conservative mainstays like Wyoming, Idaho, and other "Big Sky" countries are over represented and have too much say, based on population, over the rest of the country.  This is a fundamental flaw where property trumps people. 

As to cutting California to pieces?  California is too valuable to the country; any upheaval would have deleterious effect on the nation as a whole.

I agree about Presidential primaries; California should be first in the nation, not Iowa or my cranky uncle to the north, New Hampshire.

[PB the Deplorable]

The Senate was originally created to represent the interests of the various states in DC.  Senators were appointed by state legislatures.  It was a check on Federal power.

Much like Obama today, President Woodrow Wilson saw the Constitution as an impediment.  He and his cronies pushed the 17th Amendment through in 1913, stripping the states of representation in the national capital.  It was cynically promoted it as 'more democracy' as the voters were now electing Senators directly, although that was what the House of Representatives was created for.

1913 was also the year the Federal Reserve Bank was created, and the 16th Amendment gave the Federal government the income tax.

Since then the size and intrusion of the Federal government has exploded, our tax rates are confiscatory, and the banksters have near free reign.  It was a great year for tyranny.

[NowhereInTime]

The Senate was originally created to represent the interests of the various states in DC.  Senators were appointed by state legislatures.  It was a check on Federal power.

Much like Obama today, President Woodrow Wilson saw the Constitution as an impediment.  He and his cronies pushed the 17th Amendment through in 1913, stripping the states of representation in the national capital.  It was cynically promoted it as 'more democracy' as the voters were now electing Senators directly, although that was what the House of Representatives was created for.

1913 was also the year the Federal Reserve Bank was created, and the 16th Amendment gave the Federal government the income tax.

Since then the size and intrusion of the Federal government has exploded, our tax rates are confiscatory, and the banksters have near free reign.  It was a great year for tyranny.

Here again is a fundamental difference:  conservatives trust the various states as the ultimate unit of government, liberals do not.  Wilson and his cohort were exercising a final spoil of the "War Between the States."

The fear and loathing you feel for the Federal Government is the exact same dread I feel having the various sundry governmental sub-units carry out their own decrees.  I do not see the provincial state as the final authority of government, and I am glad that the state legislature of Idaho or Alabama isn't deciding who to send to the Senate.  Localized state government is far more susceptible to corrupting influences, tyranny and, worse, cover up than the Federal government.  Any Edward Snowdens spilling Mississippi's secrets? 

[PB the Deplorable]

I would suggest we either return the senate to it's original purpose, or eliminate it.

Electoral votes are allocated to each state by the number of House members plus the 2 Senators.  I would have the states electoral votes awarded to candidates by congressional district instead of all electoral votes going to that state's winner of the popular vote.  I think a few states already do this (there is also a national trend among states for them to give their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, o matter how the election when in their own particular state, as a bypass of the electoral vote system)

The House should be greatly expanded, so each Representative represented a much smaller number of constituents.  They each represent so many people that we the people no longer really have much of a voice.

There is currently a proposed initiative here in CA to break the state into 6 states.  Even if that were to pass, the Congress would have to agree, so it likely wouldn't happen.  6 is too many, but I would support 2 or 3 if they got the territorial split right.  The libs in SF and LA should not be able to dictate everything to the rest of us, and the water shouldn't be taken by the city folks just because they can.

The Primaries seem fine.  The more moderate middle of the road states should go first, not the more ideological states

[PB the Deplorable]

Here again is a fundamental difference:  conservatives trust the various states as the ultimate unit of government, liberals do not...

The Constitution is about checks and balances, and trying to ensure power is not concentrated in the hands of the few.  Or in this case, not concentrated at the federal level.

You know, spreading the wealth power around.  So we don't end up with a tyranny. 

[PB the Deplorable]

... So we don't end up with a tyranny.

Which is why there is such an uproar when Obama ignores separation of power and exercises power his office wasn't given

[PB the Deplorable]

Yet Rick Perry is indicted for exercising power that is granted to his office. 

[NowhereInTime]

Yet Rick Perry is indicted for exercising power that is granted to his office.

Correct, but we both know he won't be convicted and ,even if he is somehow it will be thrown out on appeal.

Line item vetoes are a bad idea, but you cannot punish an executive for using them, no matter how suspect the motive, once granted.

[albrecht]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/upshot/the-growing-blue-state-diaspora.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&abt=0002&abg=1

Contagion!!   

I agree. Californians moving to other have places have helped ruin communities. What is so interesting is so many are fleeing the failed-states with broken budgets, closed factories, corrupt politics, and leftist ideals to more efficiently run states but bring their failed ideas with them. They also drive up real estate prices and don't understand the culture to where they move. The best thing to do is make them feel uncomfortable, have your children make fun of their children, and spread gossip about them around the neighborhood and certainly do not do any business with them (kidding.) But I hate when people move to a new area to "change" it.

[NowhereInTime]

I agree. Californians moving to other have places have helped ruin communities. What is so interesting is so many are fleeing the failed-states with broken budgets, closed factories, corrupt politics, and leftist ideals to more efficiently run states but bring their failed ideas with them. They also drive up real estate prices and don't understand the culture to where they move. The best thing to do is make them feel uncomfortable, have your children make fun of their children, and spread gossip about them around the neighborhood and certainly do not do any business with them (kidding.) But I hate when people move to a new area to "change" it.

I am so moving to your neighborhood and I'm putting my old car on cinder blocks in the front yard!

[PB the Deplorable]

I agree. Californians moving to other have places have helped ruin communities...

The Libs moving to Calif from the east absolutely ruined it here.  And yeah, now that it's so much less livable, some are moving on and spoiling the rest of the West.  Like a bunch of locusts.  Watch out Canada, you're next.

All our western states used to be so nice - there weren't a bunch of laws and intrusive government busybodies.  Yet we had roads, schools, medical care, and the rest of what we needed.  Western states were ranked fairly high in most of it, California was at the top in education.  San Francisco was 'the city that knows how'.  There was plenty of opportunity for all. 

Washington, Oregon, Calif, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Montana.  People moved here for opportunity, to escape taxes, crime, blight, bureaucracy and all the rest - but once settled, they were voting for the same kind of politicians they had in the places they fled.  And ultimately are creating the same problems.

Geesus, people can be dumb.