George Epstein [10/19/2005]

By George Epstein

My recent week in California took me from San Diego to San Francisco. Those people are different from us. They accept things without complaint that would cause us to rise up in armed rebellion. Perhaps their unending, blandly beautiful weather serves as a sort of opiate. Maybe its their year-round fresh-from-the-field fruits and vegetables. As I wandered about the Golden State, I couldnt help think about just how different the left coast is from the right. Its hard to believe we are somehow able to peaceably share the same country. This gives me the opportunity to write a compare and contrast column every columnist should do each year to stay in practice for eighth-grade essay tests.Californias government certainly is different from New Hampshires. You gain an appreciation for the federalist structure our founding fathers concocted (and our Supreme Court has watched over) that supports two such different systems under a single Constitution. They elect celebrity governors. Warren Beatty walked by my Oakland hotel on his way to a speech before the nurses union where he hinted strongly that hed be running against The Guvernator. Now I have had the privilege of meeting John Lynch, Craig Benson, and Jeanne Shaheen and while they all have a certain charm, none are likely to pack people into movie theaters.Much of the difference is simply a matter of scale. We get to meet our governorsto chat with them, question them, shake their hands. They vote for the image of their candidates on TV screens. But its more than that. They view government as something that solves problems. They demand massive amounts of services and are surprisingly willing to spend money for them. We view government as something we need, but should leave us alone whenever possible.Of course, California has marginalized the authority of all their high-paid governors and legislators by making direct referendum of the people central to their law-making. California TV is littered with political ads throughout the year. They prepare the voters for forthcoming propositions by building voter awareness of the issues that the big money interests are pitching this year. It appears that one of the California governors big roles is to star in many of the ads for the props he supports and opposes. Instead of a legislature that makes laws and a governor who signs or vetoes them, California turns these folks into pitchmen trying to sell scores of laws that the voters understand only imperfectly.We get our democracy at the local levelexcept where SB2 has gelded the process. We appear to believe that our 1.2 million people are better served by a representative form of government. We limit those representatives to terms of two years and, at least occasionally, dump those who fail us. We leave them to the business of carefully crafting the language of our statuteswrestling with the details that make for good law.There are too many people in California. For that matter, there are too many people in New Hampshire, but nothing like the density along the Golden States coastline. Were mystified by the paternalism in their consumer protection laws, but its all a function of creating rules that it make it possible for people to get along while tightly packed together. Their restaurant menus grow ever more crowded with warnings about wine and undercooked meats. Youd think that eating a Caesar salad with raw egg was roughly equivalent to sky-diving with an umbrella.California protects you against yourself. Take out a loan, buy a car, or play high school sports and you could drain a Sharpie with all the signatures confirming that you understand what youre doing. Federal guidelines require some of this nonsense in New Hampshire, but California seems convinced that government can keep its citizens from doing goofy stuff. Live Free of Die is a much more dramatic way of saying I know what Im doing, but even if I dont, leave me alone and let me do it.As much as I enjoyed my time in the exotic climes of California, the beaches of Santa Barbara and the restaurants of the Bay Area dont hold a candle to the barns and haute cuisine of the Fryeburg Fair. And as nice as the vista is from the Golden Gate Bridge, New Hampshire in October is simply the most beautiful place on earth. George Epstein, chairman of The Echo Group, lives in Madison and can be reached at gepstein@Echoman.com.