This story might not be all that funny to my friends in California. Still, I find it hilarious in at least one respect: A Los Angeles Times editor is practically begging people fleeing the no-longer-Golden State to keep their mouths shut about why they're leaving -- as if that would have an impact on the harsh reality.
In a Saturday piece headlined, "Commentary: If you want to leave, fine. But don’t insult California on the way out," L.A. Times letters editor Paul Thornton did his best to come across as polite as he implored departing Californians not to criticize the state as they hit the road.
To the people leaving California: May the road rise to meet you as you seek better lives in new places. Now, can you please extend some goodwill to those of us who remain?
So here's the thing, Paul. I don't doubt that most of the people fleeing Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom's state — not to mention Mayor Karen Bass' Los Angeles or Mayor London Breed's San Francisco — will remain more than concerned about the friends and relatives they leave behind. The good people aren't the problem; the out-of-control crime rates, increasing number of illegal aliens and homeless people, runaway inflation, and the damning number of drug-related deaths are.
Thornton continued, seemingly either naive or at least incapable of grasping the magnitude of the difficulty faced by people no longer capable of coping with their California lives.
Several friends and members of my extended family have moved out of this state, so I can understand the factors that drive such decisions. But reasons to leave don’t explain the impulse to insult California on the way out.
More than 800,000 Californians moved away in 2022, and many thousands more left last year. Often, the departees, cash in hand from the sale of their $1-million bungalows, feel the need to express disdain for their home state, and even some anger too.
The urge to rationalize a difficult decision can be powerful, and trading an overpriced 900-square-foot home in L.A. for a mansion in Texas often comes with a big catch: You need to stay indoors half the year and make good use of all that extra, climate-controlled space.
As we watch you — our aging parents, our friends, our neighbors with kids the same age — eye Idaho and Nevada for home listings, we hear the digs against California. Some are subtle, and some less so.
I remember one relative last year who, regaling me with tales of the charming small town he found several states away, said that his neighbors admonished him to not “bring those weird California ways” to his new home.
Amusingly, Thornton then answered — correctly so — his own questions.
And which ways would those be? I have a hunch it isn’t California’s low property tax rate and zoning rules that conspire to push up home values so homeowners can sell their houses for a huge profit.
Perhaps it’s our embrace of LGBTQ+ Californians. Or it’s our liberal politics, with the state Republican Party shrunk to irrelevance after its vicious attempt in 1994 to marginalize immigrants with Proposition 187.
Perhaps I’m sensitive because California — and especially Los Angeles — used to be the place people would come. And plenty still move here, especially immigrants. I come from an immigrant family blessed by working-class rich our state once offered.
Correct. Every bit of it. And there's more.
The Bottom Line
Yes, Mr. Thornton, California used to be the place. Not only Los Angeles but other California cities that once offered enviable lifestyles — San Francisco foremost among them.
And? Rather than calling out ex-Californians, many of them from whom it was likely a difficult decision to leave, how about calling out the Democrat politicians who made — and continue to make — the left-wing decisions that drove them out of your state?
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