While the rest of the country was presumably surfing “the [GOP] Wave” and celebrating the GOP takeover of the House of Representatives, 119 state legislatures, along with now having 29 of 50 governors, here in California we are waking up wondering how much we actually had to drink and how do we get out of bed without waking that ugly beast we woke up next to.
What were we thinking? Or were we thinking? I have no clue.
Maybe, like O’Donnell in Delaware and Angle in Nevada, it was our candidates. Two rich political neophytes easily painted as greedy corporate billionaires who cared nothing for the common man. In an election that was supposedly about jobs and the economy, 30 second sound bites about outsourcing and layoffs by these corporate giants more than likely resonated with the largely unengaged California electorate. Everyone knows corporations are evil, right? Hollywood and the media have been telling us that for years.
Maybe more importantly is the sense of “been there, done that.” The reality is that we are closing in on the end of the Arnold Schwarzenegger era. Besides being an action hero, Arnold was the millionaire outsider who ran a successful campaign as an outsider and businessman who could fix California. After getting spanked around by the unions, Arnie settled in to be an ineffectual RINO of the worst sort, to the point where most everyone is disappointed in him. The seemingly never-ending budget impasse did nothing to help either. (As an aside, I am convinced that this recent impasse was calculated to convince Californians to reduce the 2/3 requirement for the Legislature to pass a budget to a simple majority, which they/we did.)
And then along comes Meg Whitman (and to a degree Carly Fiorina running against Ma’am Boxer) running almost on the same theme: a successful business woman who was going to fix California. Been there, done that.
Toss in Meg’s illegal alien Nanny-gate distraction and an electorate that just didn’t feel as engaged and suddenly I feel like a Viking fan at the end of the season actually thinking the Vikings might make it to the Super Bowl? But like the forlorn Viking fan, I realize in the days following the defeat that I really should have known better.
After all, this is California. And I am a Viking fan.
