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While searching on-line for the correct spelling of President Ronald Reagan's name, I came across a very interesting web site: a complete list of the Governors of California. Two things struck me: First, that while every other governor's official biographic image is a stately classical panting or photograph, Governor Jerry Brown's official biographic image is an impressionist piece of crap--which in many ways, captures him perfectly as someone who opposed the symbolism of office. The second thing that struck me is that here in "liberal progressive" California, since 1899, we have had 14 Republican Governors and 4 Democratic Governors. Which tells me something interesting about the politics of California: we live in a Blue State not because the vast silent majority are liberal--around here, liberalism tends to be a fetish of the rich Hollywood elite and the artsy-fartsy crowd--but because of both a highly gerrimandered state (Look at districts 22, 25 or 31--and realize this is the senate map; the representative map looks far worse) and because the GOP is singularly ineffective at finding and developing anyone who isn't somewhat of a nutjob. At the state level, however, where gerrimandering doesn't matter, all that it takes is for one semi-reasonable republican candidate to come along--and they tend to take the state in elections. And even someone like Gray Davis can only manage to be elected if he takes more "principled" stances--that is, if he looks like a moderately conservative Democrat who appeals to Central California's conservative agribusinesses. Fourteen Republicans verses four Democrats. If the GOP were to start developing reasonable candidates and overthrow the current gerrimandered districting scheme, California would turn Red pretty quick. posted by William Woody at 10:04 AM  
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A moderate conservative living in the left coast, surrounded by the sureal, wonders if there is a sane life living amongst those who have lost touch with reality. • View ProfileRecent Items: • A Rant about Youngstown Steel • A Lot More Dangerous, and A Lot More Interesting • BB&T Won't Support Eminent Domain Abuse • Stating the (Painfully) Obvious • Why a TV in the bedroom is a Bad Idea. • Is it my imagination, or is it Apple doesn't get t... • In which Bill summarizes the news. • Entropy and Intelligent Design • Contamination • Today's lesson: Don't Drink and Fly 
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