America’s First Third-World State
National Review,
by
Victor Davis Hanson
Original Article
Posted By: MissMolly,
6/20/2019 5:36:25 AM
‘Third World” is now an anachronistic geographical term of the old Cold War. But after 1989, “Third World” was reinvented from a political noun into an adjective to mean more than just Asian, African, and Latin American nations nonaligned with either the West or the Soviet bloc.
Rather, the current modifier “Third World” has come to transcend geography, politics, and ethnicity. It simply denotes poor failed states all over the globe of all races and religions.
Third World symptomologies are predictably corrupt government, unequal or nonexistent applicability of the law, two rather than three classes, and the return of medieval diseases
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Marjbaldwin 6/20/2019 6:00:13 AM (No. 102070)
The Decline is deliberate. The Decay is intentional. The Destruction is their goal.
40 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
raspberry 6/20/2019 7:25:23 AM (No. 102097)
What a mess the Democrats have made of that once beautiful failed state. My well-to-do sister's family have located elsewhere. She and her financial advisor husband and their prosperous sons and their families are gone following our mother. There is no hope left. Hanson outlines it perfectly.
17 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 6/20/2019 7:48:34 AM (No. 102113)
Colorado, the beautiful conservative state I moved to 25 years ago is heading down the same path, thanks to Californians who moved away from their self-made cess pool, learned nothing and still reflexively pull the (D) lever.
25 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 6/20/2019 7:59:51 AM (No. 102121)
Kalifornia, stick a fork in yourself, you are done......
10 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Clinger 6/20/2019 8:30:41 AM (No. 102146)
Funny how the 1%ers we keep hearing are the target of the left manage to come out just fine and it is the middle class, the Kulaks, who turn out to be the real target. These idiots flee California and then vote for the same policies that resulted in the conditions from which they fled. They haven't made the connection despite the fact that every place where democrats have had a stranglehold has turned into a cesspool with severe violent crime. Crime the rest of us get blamed for.
20 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
starboard 6/20/2019 8:34:04 AM (No. 102148)
In 1992 while driving on US Hwy 10 to reach my new home in the Riverside County area of California, I had to stop the car to check my tires thinking I had a problem. It wasn't my tires, the road was rutted. I thought to myself...this is California?
12 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
bigfatslob 6/20/2019 9:08:56 AM (No. 102175)
I cringe and it is getting more frequent when I see a California plate on the streets of our city. These are not vacationers because there were not that many ten years ago. These are the vermin fleeing that state and looking to relocate bringing their screwed up politics with them. I live in a deep blue state and in 2018 we became an unashamed baby killer state with the new socialist democrat governor. Gun grabbing is being tried now and we have to have 'sanctuary gun owner cities' where local law enforcement will not enforce the state law. It's here and that's what is attracting all the flies from California.
14 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Yuban 6/20/2019 9:14:23 AM (No. 102178)
Ya all need to relax. My home State of California has it's problems but it isn't going away. If you live in SF, LA, Sacto, Fresno, Stockton.... any big city, then your life will suck. NYC, Chicago, Detroit etc etc are the same. I have lived here 72 years and have loved every minute of it. As in every State, you will live happily ever after as long as you do not count on the govt for anything. If you have to live in the big city to make the big bucks then you will be unhappy. We have always lived in small Conservative towns for a better way of life, not for the money. California has hundreds, if not thousands, of small communities. If California was as bad as you read about it, then why do we still have more Conservatives living here then any other state? So just learn to be self-reliant, stay away from big cities, don't live for the almighty dollar, put your trust in God and not government, and you will be happy in any State.
24 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
planetgeo 6/20/2019 9:14:48 AM (No. 102180)
California has become the Land of the Flee.
9 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
HisHandmaiden 6/20/2019 9:43:36 AM (No. 102206)
Love VDH, but he is pointing out the obvious to we who have chosen to live here. Initially, for another MastersDegree, only offered here in CA or Philly, where I had lived, and it was cold and dirty. CA was definitely the better choice. Devin Nunes, one of America’s most hard-working, thoughtful and determined Congressmen for Constitutional principles lives here too.
#9 is also correct, the small towns are beautiful, convenient, and even breath-taking: I could peel potatoes in my kitchen and watch the sun set over Catalina each evening from any room in our home in Newport Beach! My church, my job, Trader Joe’s, SNA, Fashion Island were all within a 4-mile radius. Both Daughters even followed, and met and married wonderful men from CA.
Now, due to two Grandblessings, a move was necessary, and I chose lovely Monterey, next door to Carmel [the most dog-friendly town in America] and Pebble. Sure the left is here too, but you take your joy with you and choose your friends wisely, like anywhere. IMHO, finding a great church is key.
16 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Axeman 6/20/2019 9:51:30 AM (No. 102215)
#9 Hit it. I was going to write something similar.
I don't rely on the State or the Fed gov, and many I know do not, and we are much happier than the ones I know who have any dependencies on such. We don't see problems everywhere needing gov force to solve. We see challenges needing each other to overcome.
8 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
LadyHen 6/20/2019 10:12:23 AM (No. 102231)
Most states have the same issue. Urban = Democrats, Rural/suburb = GOP. The Dems control the highest population centers and thus control city and sometimes even state control.
Our only saving grace WAS progressive democrats don't breed. they have one child or maybe none and just a dog, children and dogs are just accessories to these people anyway. They had already destroyed the African American family through abortion and the destruction of African American men and boys so Dems knew Blacks could no longer be relied on as the solution to the dirth in Dem voting roles. Then they figured it out, the solution for the next few generations. Bring in millions of uneducated, non-English speaking Central American and Muslim peasants, give them "free" stuff stolen from hardworking Americans as bribes and they will vote for more free stuff. Automatic serfs already programmed to accept less of everything than the average American worker. Less money, less freedom, less education, less employment, less security.
The Democrats of this age surpass in evil all their predecessors, even slave holders and Jim Crow racists. And their lap dog media and the poor fools who vote for them are simply useful idiots.
6 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 6/20/2019 10:25:59 AM (No. 102238)
Have to imagine New York isn't too far behind. There can be a national economic recovery, but many places will never see it because they are so screwed up.
This isn't exactly new. 40 years ago I grew up in an area that was permanently economically depressed. It was primarily a one company steel town just outside of Pittsburgh, and the mills shutdown. The people with money left, more poor people moved in, crime went up, and the infrastructure declined. This little Borough became a slum, and has never recovered. With a population of just 4000, it had the third highest crime rate in the county. There was no law enforcement since there was no money. It attracted criminals since there were no police. Nobody (individual or business) with any money would ever move there. It was becoming Starnsville straight out of Atlas Shrugged.
Democrats are to blame, but its much more than that. The people in government are too incompetent to govern, but mysteriously keep getting re-elected due to all the corruption. Funny thing the corruption involves scraps, and there is hardly any money to be made. Proof that people can be bought for practically nothing.
Fast forward to today where I live in upstate New York, and I see the same thing happening all the same factors in play. Incompetent and corrupt government and business. High crime. People leaving. Oddly enough I'm doing OK. The house is bought and paid for, and crime is distant. I like where I'm at, but I watch the government and the crime. I have an a standing offer to move to Florida. Some day I might just do that.
7 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
DVC 6/20/2019 10:57:21 AM (No. 102277)
This is your world, if it is run by Dems.
Making America the Third World Again. They need to make up MATWA hats.
1 person likes this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Luckyx3 6/20/2019 11:16:47 AM (No. 102305)
warning to those leaving California - your once beautiful state was ruined by democrats so don't bring that mindset with you when you resettle
2 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
earlybird 6/20/2019 11:19:33 AM (No. 102315)
What #9 said.
As for the fear of Californians moving to your community, why would those who are running California leave to move somewhere else? Think about it. More apt to be those looking for lower taxes. Obviously not the ones voting for those who are levying new taxes. The notion that they are fleeing is illogical.
Most in our country have no idea of what #9 is writing about and what most Conservative Californians know. Ours is a very big, very populous state. One can pick up the erroneous thinking when Los Angeles and San Francisco are cited as being representative of California as a whole. Nothing could ever have been further from the truth.
Even Dr. Hanson has spent most of his life in a little backwater farm town, Selma, largely populated by Hispanic (probably largely illegal) farm laborers. Even the “highways” he writes about are for the most part what the rest of us think of as being Central California rural.
So even Dr. Hanson gets it wrong sometimes. He would be surprised to know how content most Californians are, and not stupidly so. If it costs a little more to live here, well, there are compensations. We don’t have ginormous heating bills in winter, we don’t have killer humidity, we don’t have annual hurricanes, tornadoes and other Act of God weather events. We get occasional wildfires, caused by humans (one big one last year was caused by a guy trying to eradicate a hornet’s nest). Life is probably more pleasant here, year round, than anywhere else in the country. Family and friends are here. This is home.
7 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
earlybird 6/20/2019 11:24:18 AM (No. 102325)
Excuse additional post, but I have to repeat something I’ve said before on California-bashing threads: Why do the bashers never disclose what Paradise they live in? Don’t you think that is interesting?
7 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
coldborezero 6/20/2019 12:25:55 PM (No. 102384)
So, if I understand the usual California apologists on this site correctly; by being "conservatives" and living in rural or suburban communities, you are unaffected by the taxes, fees and regulations imposed by Sacramento upon your urban citizens?
3 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
walcb 6/20/2019 12:27:04 PM (No. 102385)
California sucks. I live in Illinois and it sucks too. Family is here and have spent a fortune on the house, no other reasons to be here.
2 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
coldborezero 6/20/2019 12:31:17 PM (No. 102389)
I, too, apologize for a second post.
TEXAS!
1 person likes this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Old Army Vet 6/20/2019 12:36:20 PM (No. 102396)
The problem here is the kalifornians that leave take their thinking with them, Colorado for example. When I moved to Florida a resident said that he hoped that I didn't bring my NY City political attitude with me. I assured him that I was not a NY leftoid. He has been grateful ever since.
1 person likes this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
bighambone 6/20/2019 12:45:40 PM (No. 102403)
Since the primary mission in life of the Democrat socialists is to maintain and increase their political power in California, you have to figure that the situation involving the decay and social decline in California will only get worse.
0 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
LadyHen 6/20/2019 12:51:15 PM (No. 102409)
Tennessee. We gave Pres. Trump our state with a 25% margin. Sad!y, more liberal locusts are moving to our state jacking up housing costs and property taxes and bringing in their stupid ideas on public transit and "diversity." Just hoping they move on to the next it city before there is nothing left of what Tennessee was.
2 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
earlybird 6/20/2019 1:39:52 PM (No. 102447)
Re #19, there are compensations for the higher taxes. Lower heating costs. Better climate year round. Ability to garden year round.
There are tradeoffs everywhere. Choosing to stay where one is is a personal matter. A choice. I would daresay a relative few pull up stakes - wherever they live, for whatever the reason other than employment moves. We are currently inundated with news of people fleeing California, yet there is also showing data about those moving in. Most of those departing - other than retirees - are high income people.
My point will always be (and I do not consider myself as having to apologize for California - I love it here) that the costs are bearable when weighed against the benefits. I live in an established community, about a half hour from downtown Los Angeles. Convenient shopping, access to two first rate hospitals - one in our community and one 6 miles away, plus world class medical centers in Los Angeles; doctors, dentists. Great police and fire services. We pay $51 a year for paramedic services. Low crime. Clean streets and public areas. No sign of homeless on the streets. Did I mention that the climate is great and the flowers are beautiful? A wonderful public golf course within walking distance in a lovely well-monitored County park.
Outsiders just do not know… and that is fine with us. Influxes from elsewhere - including other states during the Dust Bowl and WWII - just worsened our politics. No thanks.
3 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
Yuban 6/20/2019 1:57:20 PM (No. 102463)
Taxes, fees and regulations are terrible in California. Most of Texas land is unlivable, IMHO. Every single State has its good and its bad. Not sure why some of you get upset with how California is run since you all do not live here. Home is home. California is great. Texas is great. Life is great. God is awesome.
3 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
RayLRiv 6/20/2019 2:01:48 PM (No. 102466)
That's gotta be ANy state run by or controlled by DemoRATS
1 person likes this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
David Key 6/20/2019 3:59:27 PM (No. 102553)
With their cockeyed system it improbable that a Republican could ever win the Governorship again.
1 person likes this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
Jobe 6/20/2019 4:32:02 PM (No. 102586)
Democrats have been willfully blind for as long as I can remember. They choose to ignore the mountain of evidence that proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that their way is the road to perdition. Certainly, self immolation is part of their makeup. The fact that they continue to foul their own nest (California) and make it more and more unlivable, although a mystery to us conservatives, is clearly what they are doing. It would take a blind, deaf moron to fail to understand what they are doing. An examination of major cities (Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco) obvious unlivability can be understood by any normally intelligent grade schooler.
The question, "How will it all end" should be on the lips of every Californian who doesn't breathe constantly through his/her mouth, but IT IS NOT. The exodus from California is contaminating other states (Nevada, Oregon, Idaho and others) It seems to me that most Californians are hoping to die before the state does. At least, that is the appearance.
2 people like this.
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