California is learning the full cost of giving too much power to labor unions. It is obvious to anyone with half a brain that it is nearly impossible to get elected to any State-wide office without selling out to the public sector unions.
The following article from Reuters in November 2012 documented the total union control of Democrats in California:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/08/us-usa-campaign-california-idUSBRE8A70BV20121108
Unions spent millions on every state wide election while desperately trying to stifle the ability of business owners to fight back with their own funds. This is the liberal version of equal and fair elections. Everyone has an equal opportunity, as long as you are a liberal.
Granted Democrats were helped along by a totally dysfunctional and inept Republican Party. There have been some really pathetic Republican candidates. But as Reuters pointed out, the deck was pretty much stacked in favor of Democrats. When you add in a main stream media that also worships the union label, it was a perfect political storm for Republicans.
In order to run for state wide office in California you had to do two things. First, you had to be a Democrat. Second, you had to swear full faith and allegiance to the public sector unions. No Republican or even a Democrat who dared stand up to the unions had any realistic chance of getting elected in California. The results are predictable. If you are willing to sell your soul to the unions as the price of getting elected, you will probably sell it to anyone else with enough money.
There are now three prominent Democratic State Senators in California facing serious corruption allegations. So far this year, a Democratic State Senator gets caught every month. Senator Rod Wright was found guilty of voter fraud. Amazing how a man can be convicted of voter fraud when Democrats routinely claim there is no such thing as voter fraud. Senator Ron Caulderon was indicted on corruption charges. Both Wright and Calderon are currently on paid leaves of absence. They continue to get paid, for doing nothing, because that way Democrats retain total control of the legislature.
Now, with a third Democrat caught up in this crap, that may finally change. It is so bad that even Democrats are demanding Yee’s resignation. Democrats are dismayed that they will no longer be able to jam through wonderful liberal goals like immigration reform or more gun control. They fear, gasp, actually have to negotiate with Republicans.
If the initial facts are accurate, this may be the worst yet. Senator Yee, a gun control advocate running for California Secretary of State, was allegedly caught in an FBI sting trying to make money by helping gang bangers get their hands on illegal weapons. Nice! Let’s get the guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens so we can make more money furnishing them to criminals.
The question I have for Democrats in California is: “how bad does it need to get before you consider the possibility that you have a problem?” There are currently 28 Democratic Senators in California and 3 of them have been either indicted or convicted. That is incredible. I am not pretending that Republicans are without sin, but Democrats have clearly raised this to a new level.
Let me be clear, we should not tolerate corruption in either Party. I doubt that this is really about Democrat vs. Republican. It is simply about power. If Republicans had this type of power we would probably be reading about Republican crooks. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Democrats are paying a very high price for having all that power. So are the taxpayers in California.
In the meantime, California truly is the Golden State. Unfortunately it looks like most of that gold is lining the pockets of corrupt Democratic politicians.
TDM