The fact that the supposed Blue Tsunami of a Democrat landslide actually turned into a Red Tide, plus another huge failure in US polling and MSM coverage, are subjects worthy of separate posts.

As are the factors behind the Presidential Race itself, and what’s likely to happen (and not happen) in a Biden Administration. In saying that I should note that Al Gore was given 37 days to explore his legal options in 2000, without any MSM screaming about how he should concede, or that Democrat Stacey Abrams spent two years saying the Georgia Governor’s election was fraudulent and stolen from her in 2018, with nary a scoff from the MSM.

But there were three other election outcomes that came as a pleasing surprise, both because of the merits of each case and perhaps more importantly the location of the voters who decided them – in California and Illinois.

I’ve long held that California increasingly resembles a failing state due to all sorts of fundamental problems with road, water, and power infrastructure, taxes, homelessness, illegal immigrants, welfare and the general craziness that attends any One Party State. A place held up only by Silicon Valley but at the price of increasingly looking like a feudal kingdom, with a thin upper crust of incredibly wealthy people, a vast pool of the underclass, and the Middle Class fleeing to neighbouring states – and unfortunately taking with them the same voting habits that created the conditions driving them away.

Illinois is where California is headed, simply because it doesn’t have a Silicon Valley. It is the first US state to have its bonds officially rated as junk. Its prime city, Chicago, is in even worse shape than Illinois.

So the idea that anything sensible could emerge from these two states has seemed increasingly unlikely as the years passed, and recent policy initiatives from them seemed like just another pile of insanity.

California – AB5

First up was California’s AB5 legislation, which requires Uber, Lyft and other kinds of “gig economy” workers to be classified as employees rather than independent contractors. Now I have issues with the gig economy, given how fragile it can be and the lack of protection of workers rights. But simply shutting it down was a move of incredibly stupid, callous brutality. And predictably such a crude rule affected far more than the targets of the taxicab union’s wrath. For example it screwed the MSM in California by limiting the number of articles a freelance journalist could write at 35 per year.

Hilariously, one of these outfits, Vox Media, held out by the likes of Obama as a shining example of the new, Super-Smart media, and which had championed the law, then announced hundreds of layoffs before it went into effect in January 1, 2020. Vox employees were not the only ones to suffer; immediately, independent contractors and freelancers across many industries – catering, entertaining, media, trucking, construction, etc. – became unemployed and had their contracts terminated by companies who ceased business operations in California. People’s jobs and incomes were destroyed overnight – with nothing to replace them. The bill’s author, California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, got it in the neck from hundreds of those people – and with all the hubris and arrogance that compiles from a One Party State – told them to suck it up. Uber and Lyft decided to fight it in the courts, and lost.

Worse yet, moves were afoot to take this idea national as Democrats in Washington D.C. crafted a Federal version of the law. Bear in mind that 57 million Americans partake in freelancing. These 57 million Americans contribute $1 trillion to the economy, or the equivalent of 5% of the U.S. GDP. These 57 million Americans are making freelancing a viable longterm career choice, pushing advanced skills, believe workplace freedom awards them more flexibility.

Fortunately opponents were able to put up measure on the ballot for this year’s election that would gut AB5. Given the mad ideas passed by California I expected the measure to be rejected and the law to continue. Amazingly it won, with 58% of the voters approving the measure. AB5 is dead – for the moment.

One more note is that the gig economy mostly consists of Millennials and younger Americans and it seems that despite complaints about it, including many specific complaints by Uber drivers themselves about Uber, they also weren’t that keen on returning to an ancient, mythical past of union membership, protection and control. So much for the idea that the Left understands the “Youf” and their future.

California – Proposition 16

Far worse in my opinion was this legislation. Years ago, California voters passed Proposition 209, a law that would prohibit race-based university admissions, public hiring, and public contracting. That’s a good thing right? We’ve all grown up hearing endless paens from the Left about how terrible racial discrimination is, especially when it has practical consequences around jobs and education.

Well that was then and this is now, with today’s Democrats having absorbed huge doses of Critical Race Theory and thus believing in “Systemic Racism”, with one solution being “positive” racial discriminaton. Thus was born Proposition 16, which would roll back Prop 209’s rules and allow racial discrimination to be practiced by state and local government in California.

Prop. 16’s proponents claimed that race-based favouritism is needed to promote “diversity,” but it is increasingly clear that what is really desired is a simple racial spoils system. I’d like to know what some benchmarks could be for achieving diversity, because in many ways the USA is already there. Consider this recent data from the U.S. Department of Education: it shows that the proportion of Black and Hispanic women enrolled in college is now higher than white males:

Amazingly, this piece of shit law also went down to defeat. Multiple polls showed that the very groups it was supposed to help, like Hispanic voters, could not stand the idea, and Asian-Americans clearly saw that it was aimed at screwing their kids.

Note that Biden won California by the usual overwhelming margin that accrues to Democrats there. So the loss of AB5 and Prop 16 is a marker that even California Democrats have limits to their own party’s bullshit.

Illinois – Progressive Income Tax Scheme

Finally we come to my personal favourite. Rather than tackling the myriad financial problems of the state and Chicago, the billionaire Governor, Pritzker, decided that the answer was to gouge more money out of the state taxpayers, an estimated $4 billion. And he devoted millions out of his own pocket to win.

It was a bold exercise since the state’s flat income tax was written into the state constitution. Politicians have long been able to change the rate, and they have, with it rising from 3% during my time there, to 5%. But it was recognised that there were limits to this and Pritzker’s idea was to have a graduated, progressive scheme like that of most nations, with different income tax rates for different income levels.

As in California, Illinois is a One Party State. The last GOP governor (2015-2019) could get nothing done in the face of opposition from the real power in the state, Michael Madigan, Speaker of the Illinois House for thirty years and more. So they felt arrogant enough to change the constitution.

They failed. The measure was overwhelmingly defeated in the election, even as the voters returned Democrats to their usual positions of permanent power in the state.

There were two reasons for this loss.

First, of the $4 billion expected windfall, Pritzker and company were willing to apply only about $100 million to dealing with the financial problems, which are mainly caused by the terrible situation of unfunded liabilities for Illinois and Chicago pension funds. No, the vast majority of the money was going to go to expanding old state programs and adding new ones. Pension reform was off the table, as usual, as well as any other meaningful reforms. It was an insult to the voters.

Second was the sheer emotional reaction to handing over more money to politicians already knee deep in corruption. Given the past I’ve no confidence that the current FBI investigation into Madigan – for getting ComEd, the state’s major power company, to hire some of his supporters in return for favors – will result in any meaningful change. At best it’ll be plea bargains and him stepping down, but with cronies lined up to do the same in his place while he exerts control over them. Pritzker himself has become a byword for tax avoidance. He’s also under investigation for trying to avoid taxes on a Chicago mansion he owned by making its bathrooms inoperable. His substantial offshore trusts have not paid Illinois taxes. He also inherited his money and was not even trusted to run the major businesses of his own family.

So what now? The flat tax could be raised but that’s going to hurt, and of course it won’t solve the pension problems. The Democrat machine has finally, reluctantly, started talking about “painful” budget cuts, but I suspect they’re hoping to make things so awful via petty things that voters will yield to some new version of the tax scheme. In any case, while there are thousands of state and city government workers who have been getting paid to sit at home during the Covid-19 scare, and who could be cut in theory, it still would not change the fundamental, structural spending problems that exist outside of the operating budget.

And those problems are the result of a corruption far deeper and more subtle than mere wads of cash being thrown across a table. Illinois public-sector unions support the Democratic Party in return for the party giving them sweetheart deals with the state – all perfectly legal. Unfunded pension liabilities are the consequence because many politicians hope to retire or move on to the federal level before the full bill comes due. Those liabilities also mean the schools, police, fire and other services get screwed in spending on what should be their core missions.

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While it’s pleasing that Californian and Illinois voters have put a dent in these plans, sadly that’s all they’ve done.

They re-elected the same Democrats.