California's unprecedented recall of Governor Davis is a welcome change to the status quo, let us hope the people of that state do not get caught up in the media hype and elect another governor just like the one they are getting rid of.

Governor Davis has led the Golden State into billion dollar deficits and presided over the unprecedented exodus of over two million residents and an increasing number of businesses. The heavy handed, overbearing, overtaxing, and corrupt socialistic policies of his administration are driving productive citizens and businesses out of the state, and some of the businesses are taking advantage of our federal policies encouraging them to move to other countries.

The issues surrounding this recall range from money problems to the social engineering polices. The monetary issues such as the $34.6 billion deficit are garnering all of the media attention, but perhaps more important are the radical socialist policies pushing abortion, homosexuality, illegal immigration, and pornography (to name a few), while restricting the Boy Scouts, law abiding gun owners, prayer, and in general making life miserable for the productive citizens. These issues are not "politically correct", so if anyone brings them up they are vilified in the media. However killing the messenger does nothing to improve the situation.

One of the most serious issues facing California right now is immigration, both legal and illegal. The magnitude of the problem is causing Balkanization of the state, with huge groups of immigrants from as diverse areas as Mexico, Russia, Asia, and the Middle East. These people will not assimilate into our culture any time soon and pose a significant threat to national security. Yet while law abiding Americans are seeing their freedoms attacked as never before, Gov. Davis and the California legislature are giving illegal aliens driver's licenses.

Some people may be tempted to sit back and say "serves them right", but remember California controls 53 seats in the U.S. House. This is more than any other state and if all of those seats fall under the control of radical socialists, the rest of our nation is going to face the same issues. On another front, California accounts for roughly 13% of the entire country's economic activity. BusinessWeek Online reported on July 2nd "California has lost 54,000 jobs this year, one-fifth of all pink slips in the country. In May, the country as a whole would have gained 4,500 jobs if not for the state's 21,500 layoffs."

All of these problems can be attributed to one thing; people have lost sight of the only legitimate function of government, the protection of individual rights. Once any government moves outside this narrow boundary all types of problems begin to arise and it is extremely difficult to reverse. In order to identify whether or not any law proposed or in force is within this boundary we can use a very simple test. See if the law does what an individual cannot do without committing a crime. Since government is the organization of the individual right to self-defense, it cannot lawfully do anything that an individual cannot do.

For some very good reading on what a just and enduring government should be, see "The Law" by Frederic Bastiat

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Pat Baska 

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