I’m still convinced that the business coalition supporting reform of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) made a strategic decision to join State Senator Michael Rubio (D-Bakersfield) in never addressing – or even acknowledging – how unions have perfected the widespread and pernicious abuse of CEQA to win labor agreements and block non-union competition.

If Republicans in the legislature buy into this strategy, www.FlashReport.org publisher Jon Fleischman will be right when he tweeted this prediction:

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In these next two articles, I am going talk about some of the more controversial “pro-liberty” positions, and urge all my Republican friends to talk about these issues as issues of liberty. There are not social issues, economic issues, business issues, and fiscal issues, there are only liberty issues, that is, do we, as Republicans, officeholders or activists, believe that the individual should have more or less control over their lives. Or, do we think that expanded government power is necessary. That really is the only issue that the politically powerful address daily. Do they expand their power at the expense of the individual, or do they diminish their power, and keep themselves out of the family and business decisions of the people they rule? In a society that values liberty, the ruling class trust the people over which they rule, and they have jails and prisons for those who abuse that trust. If the ruling class does not trust people over which they rule, they pass a myriad of laws and regulations over all sorts of real or imagined bad behavior. Their “subjects” then prove themselves as untrustworthy as the ruling class believes they are… Read More

We are all familiar with our basic first amendment rights; that is, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of association, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances (basically the right to sue in a court of law), but how many actually think about the two most basic economic rights, freedom of contract and private property rights.

In fact, without these two basic rights, all the rest of the rights are meaningless, and the proponents of big government know this. That is why the first thing that is done to undermine liberty is to take away the freedom to contract for goods and services in whatever fashion you may want, and to steal private property rights. Without the freedom of contract, the ability of an individual to pursue gainful employment is severely restricted, and without private property rights, the fruits of our labor are constantly at risk. What is worse, if anyone believes that they government can, with impunity, take his or her business or property, all the other freedoms (speech, religion, association) are meaningless. People will die in the defense of freedom, but not go bankrupt in its defense.… Read More

One of the goals of this series of articles is to set out a series of principles around which Republicans can rally to restore the faith of the Joe Everyvoter in California in Republicans as defenders of the individual, and of liberty. I believe that a consistent agenda of liberty is the road to creating a Republican majority in California. Grover Norquist has called it the “leave me alone” coalition, but whatever it is called, people know what real liberty is, and truly desire that liberty for themselves and their family. They want the right to pursue their own life, and raise their family, without interference from government, or without the government giving one powerful group or person a leg up in society. Liberty is true equality. Liberty says that everyone starts at the same spot, from a legal and economic point of view, in the eyes of the government decision makers.

If Republicans fall short in any area (beyond being “pro-business”), it is their “pro-cop” or “pro-military” rhetoric. It is appropriate that we as a government and society maintain and protect the public safety, that is, protect citizens from… Read More

In the article below, my friend Joel Fox expresses disappointment (but NOT surprise) that the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce has voted to support yetanothersales tax increase – in exchange for establishing a toothless commission to make government work better (and we all know how that’s gonna work out). Joel and I would have been surprised only if they had OPPOSED such a tax increase.

We should always remember that the major city Chamber of Commerce outfits are NOT controlled by businesses – nor are they run for the benefit of businesses involved in commerce. Nonprofit officials, government bureaucrats and even labor union reps sit on the boards — not to mention attorneys, lobbyists, government contractors and heavy construction firms.

And few on such boards work/own enterprises that collect sales tax. I once asked the San Diego C of C directors (about 40)“How many of your businesses/employers collect income taxes on a significant portion of your revenue?”

Six hands went up. There was actually a… Read More

Here’s a disturbing WALL ST JOURNAL editorial on a new tax grab out of Minnesota. It’s disturbing because — given the similar political affiliation and climate — I would expect that, if it’s found to be legal, then California, New York, Illinois and some other desperate high tax, union-controlled states might very well adopt similar strategies.

The idea is to gouge those evil retired snowbirds who leave the Minnesota for over 6 months a year, and hence are exempt from Minnesota’s high state income tax. The governor wants to levy the state income tax on anyone who is physically present in Minnesota over 60 days a year. Hoh boy!

To start with, guess who is responsible for proving that they DIDN’T live in Minnesota more than 60 days? Probably anyone who has any connection at all with the state. Heck, maybe everybody, PERIOD.

As the article below suggests only half in jest — perhaps one will need to put a GPS tracker in Grandma’s phone — or on her ankle! Regardless, the compliance required would be costly, time-consuming — and potentially dangerous.

And then,… Read More

Much has been written about the vast sums of money that Charles Munger, Jr. (and his sister, Molly, for that matter) have dumped into initiative campaigns in California. At the time that his major support of Prop. 32 became public, I tweeted my praise for it — Prop. 32 was a worthy cause, and it’s defeat most unfortunate. His efforts on behalf of some targeted general election candidates – admirable.

But I have not seen too much written about Charles’ quixotic quest to retool the California Republican Party in his own image — that of a moderate “anti-ideologue.” Munger dropped big bucks in the June and November elections, much of it going to fund candidates who he feels will reject no tax pledges, and embrace the political center. (The hundreds of thousands of dollars that Orange County Republicans had to devote to Munger’s broadside of an incumbent Republican Assemblyman who didn’t fit his “litmus test” in June likely cost us the Norby seat in November.) He… Read More

I read this week that Planned Parenthood was abandoning the pro-choice label for their pro-abortion position as “not descriptive” of their actual position. I have to agree, and the good news is that leaves the pro-choice label for real choices, made by individual in their own lives to direct their future, not for an event that is made by one individual for another. Hence, the title of this article, because liberty is about allowing people to direct their own lives. To this point in this set of articles, I have made broad brush statements about the importance of a liberty agenda for the future of the Republican Party in California. This article is going to break down that agenda into individual policy areas, specifically welfare, health care, and education.

To a Republican, these policy areas are the most difficult to approach from a pro-liberty perspective, and so most Republican officeholders and even a few think tanks and activists, get lost in the debates about how to address these issues.

First welfare–our current welfare system (and by welfare system, I mean all programs that address the less fortunate, whether they are in that position… Read More