I draw cartoons for The Los Angeles Times about issues related to California and the Southland (metro Los Angeles).
This week:
According to a new poll, “Californians’ perceptions about living in the Golden State are fractured along political, geographic and generational boundaries.”
Is California one of the best places to live? 53% of Democrats say yes. Only 26% of Republicans do.
Even if you’re liberal, the knowledge that conservatives are bummed out about living in the same state that you consider paradise has to give you pause. After all, you’re liberal. You’re supposed to care about other people — especially other people who tell you that they don’t care about you.
Also, you might ask yourself: what if I’m wrong and they’re right? What if California really is hell on earth? Does that make me…crazy?
What I want to know, and the poll does not and cannot reveal, is why members of the two major parties view the state’s quality of life so differently. Is it political — are Republifornians chafing under Governor Jerry and a Sacramento dominated by his Dems? Or does it reflect different worldviews? When Republicans look at the sky, do they see a different hue? When they hear the words “Miley Cyrus,” do their hearts quiver at an alternate frequency?
What about third parties? How do Greens and Libertarians enjoy/hate living here?
Anyway, this cartoon falls into the “illustrative” category of the political toon genre — a piece that doesn’t take an editorial stance, but rather shows what’s going on for its own sake. I have often been critical of this type of cartooning, but I make exceptions (hey, to be human is to be a hypocrite) for cartoons that highlight minor blink-and-you’ll-miss-it stories that have, or may have, broad implications.
Which this one is.
Now that you know that right-wingers dislike living in California, maybe you should consider being nicer to the dude in the monster truck-sized SUV who cuts you off if it has a Tea Party bumper sticker. Chances are, he’s depressed enough us as it is without you honking at him.
Also, he’s more likely to be armed.
12 Comments.
Dunno ’bout California – but I find that I agree with the GOPranos on a number of issues. We both think the country is headed in the wrong direction. We agree that we don’t actually have a free market economy. We both think that Obama is teh suck. We agree that freedom is a good thing, and that religious extremism is a bad thing.
We even agree that white supremacists should be able to live in their own gated community, free from liberals, gays, and assorted brown people. The only thing we disagree on is which side of the gate the lock goes on…
That must be as bad for the Republicans living in California as it is for Progressives living in Texas. Huh?
The R’s in CA have nicer neighbors…
Agreed! 😀
I would be interested in seeing how this compares to what line of work people are in. There is a lot of agriculture in CA and those people are suffering greatly from drought. Are they mostly Republicans?
Race has got to be part of this. Republicans and Democrats differ sharply about immigration, Latinos run Democratic. Republicans run older, they are living to see their state change demographically.
There probably aren’t the numbers in farming to make that kind of difference, but since the rural communities in California run more Republican than the coastal ones, it’s worth looking at what’s going on with them.
> Are they mostly Republicans?
Quite often. True to form, they bitch about socialism while cashing their farm subsidy checks; and moan about illegal immigration while employing migrant farm workers.
“After all, you’re liberal. You’re supposed to care about other people — especially other people who tell you that they don’t care about you.”
This is the disease of liberalism. Blanket notions of egalitarianism. In this case, even those that say they don’t care about you are warranted your kindness and energy. I say, bullshit. There’s plenty of people I couldn’t care less about, and that’s a healthy mindset. Egalitarianism is truly immoral. Cultural relativism, moral relativism, etc … liberal mantras all. It’s immoral to treat everyone the same ….. just because. Personally, I couldn’t give a shit as to why conservatives in Cali are unhappy. Tough shit for them.
ex: that love thine enemy crap is a really good way to get a reputation for being an easy mark. Working out an effective way to fuck with your enemies enough to teach them to respect you, on the other hand, is a useful skill. Meanwhile, wasting positive energy on assholes means people who care about you get less of it.
I think the original idea was not to pre-judge based on superficialities, though.
“Egalitarianism is …”
… a founding principal of this country. You know, ‘We hold these truths to be self evident …?”
If we had a reasonable tax base we could hire all those unhappy Republicans and various and sundry other people to fix stuff and create carbon sinks (planting trees, for example). We used to have that before idiot Republican and neolib voters sold us all down the river.
Is it really smart to continue to let dangerous people dictate terms? Obviously we can’t keep them from voting, and I’m not in favor of letting them die in the streets, either. But they have dangerously crazy worldviews.
@ex: obviously my sardonic tone didn’t come through, but please be advised: I wasn’t being all that serious about liberals carrying that much about other people.