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joe | September 11, 2007, 8:53am | #

It's easy to explain Richardson's apparent contradictions; he's a pragmatist.

He supports the Kosovo mission and indoor smoking bans because they work, and opposed gun control and the Iraq War because they don't. Once upon a time, when he thought the Iraq War was going to work, he signed on with some neocon outfit with lots of pretty liberationist words in its name. When he realized it wasn't going to work, he decided we shouldn't let the door hit us on the way out.

Jesse Walker | September 11, 2007, 12:20pm | #

The sociopolitical dynamic in the west is more complicated than Jesse indicates.

That's a failure of communication on my part, then, because part of what I was trying to indicate is that it's far more complicated than any simple label (like "libertarian west") could convey. Indeed, I'd add a caveat to your caveat: It's not yet clear to what extent the California invasion will reshape the inner West in California's image, and to what extent it will be tempered by the migrants' disgust with what's happened (economically) to the state they're fleeing. A bit of both, I think, though overall I'm probably more pessimistic than optimistic.

For what it's worth, Sager gets into this in his original discussion of the issue, which is more nuanced than some of the responses have given it credit for. (I'd also argue that the west coast is more culturally libertarian than the northeast, even if west coast politics haven't reflected that much recently. But that's a whole other can of worms.)

ChrisO | September 11, 2007, 2:07pm | #

That's a failure of communication on my part, then, because part of what I was trying to indicate is that it's far more complicated than any simple label (like "libertarian west") could convey. Indeed, I'd add a caveat to your caveat: It's not yet clear to what extent the California invasion will reshape the inner West in California's image, and to what extent it will be tempered by the migrants' disgust with what's happened (economically) to the state they're fleeing. A bit of both, I think, though overall I'm probably more pessimistic than optimistic.

I was probably being a bit hyperbolic--your piece definitely gave a better picture of the west than the typical stuff I've seen. I was born in Wyoming and have visited that part of the country extensively. It's such a different mindset than either of the coasts that I tend to see a lot of misrepresentation or false comparisons with the rural South, as occurred during the Matthew Shephard case.

I suspect that a lot of the cultural erosion in Denver and Phoenix has more to do with the standardization of urban/suburban American culture in general than with California migration. I've noticed this even driving through the South. One can see differences between suburban Montgomery, Ala. and suburban Denver, Portland, or Washington D.C., but culturally (and politically) they resemble each other more than they do nearby rural areas or the inner city.

As you point out, many Californians who flee the Golden State don't intend to recreate the place they left. However, as a former Portlander, I've noticed that they tend to do so anyway.

A.B. | September 11, 2007, 3:04pm | #

Do you think they will learn to speak the "language of liberty" so well that they will go to D.C. and demand an end to all the water subsidies, cheap grazing land, free logging roads and other stuff the non-deadbeat parts of the country provide for them?

ChrisO | September 11, 2007, 3:40pm | #

Do you think they will learn to speak the "language of liberty" so well that they will go to D.C. and demand an end to all the water subsidies, cheap grazing land, free logging roads and other stuff the non-deadbeat parts of the country provide for them?

The biggest answer to all that is to reopen homesteading, so that all of that improperly held federal land is put into private stewardship. The feds shouldn't own any land that doesn't contain federal facilities.

Terry | September 11, 2007, 4:40pm | #

"(In case you've been living under a toilet: Craig was busted this summer in an airport men's room for allegedly soliciting sex from an undercover cop.)"

Actually, if you been living under a toilet, wouldn't you have known long ago about Larry Craig?

Pedro | September 13, 2007, 7:55pm | #

Bill Richardson thinks raising the minimum wage is "good economics". He agrees with loud-mouth Bill O'Rielly that we are all being screwed by the evil oil companies, and he just cashed in his options for serving on the BOD of Valero for at least a half million profit. Hypocrite or fool.

He's been able to cut taxes because the state is the #2 natural gas producer and gets royalties, which have gone way up. He is busy wasting that windfall with a commuter train from Albuquerque to Sante Fe that will cost at least $400 million, and he (and the rest of the visionary politicians of both parties) are enthusiastically spending another $200 million or so on the New Mexico Spaceport, which will be to the Camino Real Trail what Machu Piccu is to the Inca Trail.

He just flouted his Hispanic heritage by speaking a little Spanish at the recent debate, thereby indicating he apparently wants the whole nation to be bilingual. Probably a good move for somebody running to be the VP on the ticket.

Thanks to term limits, he's outa here. I'm glad to see him go but we'll probably get somebody worse. He's likable, but Libertarian??