California’s New Democratic Supermajority is the Path to a Smaller America

Jeff Opdyke (December 28, 2012)

No doubt that voters sending Barak Obama back to the White House was the biggest news in the November elections. But another vote – this one in California – could ultimately prove equally consequential to the future of America.

There, the spendthrift, welfare-worshipping Democratic Party won a supermajority in the state legislature. Though the Dems have controlled California politics for 40-plus years, this is the first time since the Great Depression that they’ve fielded a supermajority – a voting block large enough to override Republican resistance and pass any piece of legislation they and their tax-mongering leader, Gov. Jerry Brown, want.

California has always been a trend setter, and with this particular election it could establish a new trend that will see America slowly disassembled.

My prediction: The supermajority could mark the beginning of the end for California as a unified state … and, if it happens, that will establish a trend that sees a quest for smaller, more-responsive government across America.

Empires die.

That’s just the way it goes. History has yet to allow one to survive – though that’s not a function of history itself so much as it’s a function of government arrogance. Politicians pursue empirical ambitions and the empire ultimately grows too large for the governed to support, even with usurious taxation.

America is clearly an empire – the last of the great empires. And it is arguably in the early stages of its inevitable decline. I realize some people will rail against that comment because, they fiercely believe, America is the last great bastion of freedom, prosperity and opportunity … though that is actually a dated and incorrect view of the modern world. They don’t understand history, the Law of Large Numbers, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, human nature and the impossibility of equality, which is what U.S. politicians are trying to create by destroying the values that built our country – self-reliance and personal responsibility – and replacing them with increasingly great dependence on the welfare state.

Regardless of whether it was the Romans, the Soviets or the Brits, empires almost always overreach.

The core government reaches a point where its ability to grow hits a wall, though that doesn’t stop government from trying to grow by consuming an ever-larger piece of the economy. It’s a catabolic collapse, if you will – destructive, metabolism in which the body (government) consumes periphery muscle tissue (the income from people and businesses that define the economy).

Like all previous empires, government in America – and, in this example, California – either doesn’t recognize the empire is near death or it is actively raging against it. In one final grasp at maintaining itself, government will unleash its full bore – dramatically increasing taxation and dramatically increasing social spending to bribe the lazy who want government to pay for everything, and the small-minded too blind to recognize that, at some level, large government is malevolent simply because of its need for self-preservation.

At that point, large government typically collapses upon itself and smaller governments will emerge – meaning states or even cities will break off and form smaller countries or federations.

All the Ways the Supermajority Will Screw Up

That’s where California is headed, in my view, under the leadership of a Democratic supermajority. (And, to be fair, I am not a fan of Republicans either. They’d screw up the state as well with a supermajority, just in a different way.)

California, where I once lived for several years, simply makes no sense in its current configuration. Northern California has little in common with Southern California, and the rural, ag-heavy Central Valley has nothing in common with the glitzy, pricey coast. Lawmakers – who make a mockery of leadership in California – have proven time and again through the years that they’re incapable of effectively or prudently managing the diverse needs of such a diverse state.

In short, California makes far more sense as three separate states … and the supermajority is quite likely the accidental path to that future.

That’s because I’m quite confident that British historian Lord Acton was absolutely correct when he observed in the nineteenth century that “All power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

With a supermajority, California’s Democrats have unfettered power, and they will screw it up. They will raise taxes on businesses and the wealthy. They will hike fees for various state services to raise more revenue with which to spend foolishly. They will hike spending. They will dramatically increase regulation on the ignorant belief that government oversight trumps the necessarily cruel hand of free-market economics. They will increase salaries and benefits for the constituents that keep them in power – namely rapacious state-workers’ unions.

Undeterred by that pesky need for sensible compromise now that Republicans are voiceless, the Democrats will ultimately create far greater fiscal woes for California, a state that is arguably the country’s most financially deranged already. And, I predict, their actions will spur an overwhelming grassroots movement among aggrieved, sensible Californians who will ultimately seek a referendum to split the state into smaller, more manageable pieces.

It is, quite likely, the future of California … and ultimately the future of America, given the deep and growing political, economic and social bifurcations that are epidemic in our country today.

Protecting Yourself When America Breaks Apart

Though painful as the process will likely be, the shrinking of America will ultimately prove beneficial.

From the ashes of today’s overgrown government will rise up several smaller, more-responsive governments. Taxes will be right-sized. Welfare will be downsized. The currencies that replace the dollar will have actual value (imagine a Republic of Texas dollar backed by all the oil and gas assets of Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma – the trio that would make up a sensible, intriguing new energy-rich country). All the bloat that has built up in government since the 1930s will go away. And we will have learned, just as other failed empires learned, that “big” is ultimately a liability.

When the process begins, who knows? But I would not be surprised to see Californians push for a referendum within the next three to four years … and, if so, then other cities and states will follow suit shortly thereafter.

Whatever comes of it, you’re going to want some of your wealth outside the dollar – in physical gold and silver, in oil, and in foreign assets. Every empire’s decline brings with it the destruction of the local currency, even if that currency is a global reserve. Debasing its money is the only means an empire has of raising the funds necessary to keep the charade alive for a little longer … and that’s precisely what is happening now in America.

By owning non-dollar assets, you are essentially self-insuring against the end of the American empire.

But maybe I’m wrong about all of this. Maybe California’s supermajority means nothing. Maybe America will be the 1,000-year empire.

Then again, what if I’m right?

Given all the worrying signs in our country today, are you willing to risk being on the wrong side of that gamble?

Until next time, stay Sovereign…

Jeff D. Opdyke

P.S. Considering all the uncertainty in America these days, finding a place to grow your wealth here at home is becoming more and more difficult. That’s exactly why I scour the globe, to uncover the best investment opportunities many Wall Street brokers will never share with their clients. In fact, 66% of the world’s top-performing stocks remain hidden from the average investor. To learn more, click here.

California’s New Democratic Supermajority is the Path to a Smaller America

All the Ways the Supermajority Will Screw Up

Protecting Yourself When America Breaks Apart

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