What a neighbor to the west

California was once a great state, offering opportunity and mild climate to those who moved there. Sadly, those days are past. Don’t get me wrong, the scenery is beautiful, agriculture is unsurpassed and there are many great people living there.

The only thing wrong with California is that its politics have derailed. The state who once embraced Ronald Reagan as governor is now a cesspit of liberalism. At least that is my opinion. I started this column with a different theme in mind but changed when I noticed that nearly every comment I made involved California. So here are some examples to make my point.

There is talk that California is considering seceding from the USA. There is a push for a ballot measure for 2018, and at least four proposals are out there to reshape the state. Apparently, the thought of not being a sanctuary state is too much for some lawmakers there. California’s threat to be its own country might not be such a bad idea. Can we in Nevada build a wall?

You now have a chance to buy some prime beach-front property in Malibu. Once the favored location of millionaire celebrities, it is now being abandoned in favor of inland hill sites. Yes, many of Hollywood’s finest are heading to higher ground because they are afraid climate change will raise the ocean.

Remember the undercover reporters who filmed Planned Parenthood managers negotiating to sell body parts? It seems that in California, instead of investigating Planned Parenthood, the reporters are being charged criminally. Talk about shooting the messenger.

California’s sense as a country is going away. Students at UC Davis recently voted to make displaying the American flag at meetings optional.

A violent brawl erupted in Berkeley over Easter weekend as anti-Trump protesters took offense to Trumps supporters attempting a peaceful assembly. Berkeley police stood by and watched, apparently under directive from their police chief. Numerous injuries were reported. Apparently, California law enforcement can be politically selective.

Representative Maxine Waters, D- Calif., said many people can’t afford to pay their taxes. This from one of the biggest advocates of tax increases. Only in California. She also told MSNBC that she has never called for Trump’s impeachment. This was just hours after she posted a tweet calling for his impeachment. She also is blithely paying her daughter 100,000 dollars from her campaign fund.

Students at Pomona College in California stated in a letter to its president that the truth is a “myth” and a “white supremacist concept” after he reaffirmed the college’s commitment to free speech.

USA Today recently reported that California has six of the top 10 most polluted cities in the nation. Yes, the state that claims to share the most “relevant” liberal position on climate change apparently craps in its own house on the issue.

In the course of my work, I encounter a lot of people who have moved to Nevada from California. Most are nice people who wanted to escape California’s rising taxes, high cost of living, and crime rates. Their opinions, not mine. They seem happy to live in Nevada and avoid those problems.

There are those few, however, who just can’t seem to help themselves. They flee from problems and then set out to create the same mess they fled. I recently met one lady who has lived in Dayton for three years. She mentioned that she would like to see some laws passed to keep feral horses off her newly-planted lawn, along with some other ideas.

I try to exercise restraint (yes, hard as it is to believe, it occasionally happens) and avoid political discussions but I couldn’t let that one pass. I asked her why she left California. Her response was too many taxes and restrictions. I then said that if she wanted to create here what she ran away from, why did she move? Obviously, that ended the discussion.

California’s liberal influence is encroaching on the lifestyle most of us have enjoyed. One only has to look at the number of bills introduced by Democrats to the legislature this year to see that. There was a range from idiotic to merely time-wasting to trying to extort more money out of us.

There are 50,000 new jobs projected for western Nevada over the next 10 years. Many of those are hi-tech and will be filled by people moving from California. Sadly, if you don’t like the direction the state is moving politically, it is only going to get worse.

Tom Riggins’ column appears every other Friday. He may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com.