Californicated

Blogger Matt Welch writes on the implosion of the Schwarzenegger administration:

Californians did not fire the loathsome Gray Davis because of his policies on teacher compensation. They fired him because he grew an already bloated and inefficient government to epic proportions, creating what was widely seen as a "structural" budget deficit of $8 billion a year (while the actual deficit ballooned to more than $30 billion). Schwarzenegger's been blowing up his boxes for two years now, including an important overhaul of the worker's compensation system, and all we've saved is a lousy $2 billion? It would seem that something more radical is required.

Matt is right as far as it goes, but he's missing a bigger, darker issue: To paraphrase something Robert Ringer said a long time ago, I think what California was saying by firing Gray Davis was this: "I don't really care about the finer points of government. All I know is that my life is a lot worse than it was before that idiot Davis got in. I want my pie now - with ice cream on top - and if Arnold can't deliver the goods, then bring on the next guy."

The girl in the Weezer song summed it up: "Gimme, gimme..." That should be the new state motto of California...