Warren Buffet, advisor to California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger, denounced Proposition 13, the infamous property tax measure. This provoked a knee jerk response by California’s Republicans and Democrats. This came at the same time I was reading Fareed Zakaria’s The Future of Freedom.
Zakaria doesn’t care for government by initiative either, and holds out California as an example of the destruction wrought: 85% of the state budget is out of the control of the legislature due to a combination of initiative-set mandates and restrictions, unfunded federal mandates, and entitlements.
Meanwhile, my fellow Californians blame the Governor and Legislature for a budget mess caused by a process that has removed authority from the people we elect to deliberate on budgets, and demand a recall. But when an advisor to a popular candidate to replace the Governor points out one of the reasons for California’s mess, they turn on both the advisor and the candidate.
It’s enough to turn one into a Burkean conservative.
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