Perhaps because of his lifetime spent in politics, both as an elected official himself and as the son of one, once and current California Governor Jerry Brown has been focusing on the financial problems facing the government of the (once-)Golden State.  In his inaugural address, he made clear he intends to confront head-on the state’s enormous budget deficit.

He doesn’t, however, seem to have much of a plan to address the state’s private sector problem, those ubiquitous empty store fronts in Southern California and the growing number of citizens out of work.  It doesn’t seem to register to the Democrat that the state’s draconian environmental regulations — not to mention its high tax rate — drive jobs of the state, with many employers leaving the warmer coastal climes for the harsher weather inland.

And now, Stephen Moore reports today in the Wall Street Journal’s Political Diary (available by subscription), “Republican state legislatures and governors” are getting into the act, having are adopted “a new economic development strategy: Raid California for its jobs and businesses”:

At least three Republican governors have said as much in interviews. The idea is to offer lower taxes, a more business-friendly atmosphere and the right to be left alone from overzealous regulators. “We just keep inviting California businesses to look at the economic climate in Texas, where we treat businesses like assets not villains,” said Texas Governor Rick Perry.

California has some of the highest tax rates in the country, the worst bond rating and a multitude of nettlesome regulations. Chief Executive magazine just ranked California as the most antibusiness state in the nation. A new study by Joseph Vranich, a California-based business consultant, found that 144 major companies relocated plants, research facilities, headquarters or their entire operations out of California in 2010. That was more than triple the pace of job-creating firms leaving in 2009. Mr. Vranich said that the outmigration could become “a stampede” in 2011. “Business owners tell me every day that this is just not a hospitable place to do business anymore,” he said. (more…)

Just some healthy skepticism and a dose of sober reality, from reason.tv

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)

Comes interesting news this week that an internal Democratic poll shows strong support for President Obama among gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered. Of note, this poll was done before the repeal of DADT last month.

Some serious concerns about the interpretation of this poll. First of all, the poll was released only to the Huffington Post blog and only “on the condition that the full survey not be published.” Whenever a) the internals of a poll are not released and b) the results are sent only to a partisan publication for dissemination, it’s clear an agenda is being advanced by the numbers, that might not be borne out by the actual findings.

What’s more, in such an instance, plenty of questions arise: 64% either “approved” or “strongly approved”. So was that 10% “strongly” and 54% simply approving? Perhaps that’s splitting hairs, but it’s still significant. That the original results aren’t released suggests the depth of support might not be as impressive as its breadth. Another question: Where are these folks? There are no comparable approve/disapprove numbers from the same poll to indicate this demographic is any more supportive of Obama than the population (from which the respondents were separated as being “LGBT”) overall. Point being, poll gays and lesbians in San Francisco, you’ll likely find the same level of overwhelming support for Teh One as you would from that city’s overall population. Bottom line, this poll leaves many more questions than answers, if you’re willing to ask them.

But one great thing it does is offer up once again the opportunity to discuss the following thesis:

As more “gay” issues are settled by democratic means (as opposed to court mandates and decrees), and are therefore taken off the table, do you suppose gays and lesbians will begin to concern themselves with more important issues like the economy and national defense when it comes to picking their representatives? When HRC, Equality Matters and the slew of other left-wing advocacy groups don’t have things like DADT, ENDA, and marriage to flail about, do you think gays and lesbians will start to vote on more universal issues, and therefore gravitate more toward those who share American values of small government, low taxes, individual liberty, and a strong national defense?

To expand on the point to which Dan alludes directly below, the caricature of conservatives being ogres who simply hate gays and want to keep us all down and “would send us all to an island if they had their way” may be useful in this (and previous) day and age when some are still so animated about certain “rights”. But take away those “struggles”, and who would you vote for?

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)

Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding we gay conservatives face is the media narrative that a dominant thread of modern conservative thought is hostility toward homosexuals while the principal plank of the Republican party is discrimination against gay people.  To be sure, there are elements of the conservative coalition antagonistic to gay people.  

Anyone familiar with the dominant strains of conservative thought, however, knows that criticism of homosexuality is largely tangential to the movement, if even relevant.  Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, the two men credited with bringing conservatism into the mainstream, have even showed considerable sympathy for gay concerns and expressed opposition to anti-gay forces on the right.

Before the-then Governor of California came out against the truly anti-gay Proposition 6 in 1978, Ronald Reagan publicly expressed his opposition to this initiative which would have banned gay people from teaching in Golden State public schools.  (The Gipper’s public opposition shamed Jerry Brown into ending his silence on the issue.)  And that once (and current) Governor is concerned a hero among gays.

So, in the latest brouhaha over gays in the conservative movement, it comes as no surprise to us that most mainstream conservatives stand against those would exclude people like us from conservative conclaves.  John Hinderaker who writes at one of the leading conservative web-sites sums it up:

Recently, there has been controversy over this year’s CPAC, because certain social conservative groups have withdrawn from the event rather than share it with GOProud, a group of gay conservatives. Consistent with my general approach to these matters, my instinctive sympathies were with GOProud.

Commenting on a clip from MSNBC featuring GOProud’s Chris Barron, Hinderaker concludes, “If Barron speaks for GOProud, as I assume he does, they are a welcome and potentially powerful part of our conservative movement.”

And I know from personal experience that John means what he says.  I’ve gotten to know that good man (and his wonderful family) over the years.  While we don’t agree on all issues, he has listened to my arguments and welcomed me into his home.

His attitude is a sign of the welcome gay conservatives, like Chris Barron, like Bruce Carroll, like myself, have found on the right.  It would be nice if more in the media took note of our experiences.

FROM THE COMMENTS:  Lesbian NeoCon builds on my last sentence:

The media never will, because it doesn’t suit their flawed narrative. Gays are supposed to be some oppressed persecuted group of victims, that need liberalism to tell them how lucky they are to be victims. F that!!! 90% of my friends are conservative, and none of them have ever expressed any negative sentiment towards me, or my sexuality. They’re happy to see that I don’t subscribe to victimhood, but rather succeed in life through use of my own ingenuity and abilities. And that gays think liberals give a crap about them, is laughable. Lip service is the liberal game, and gays seem to fall for it every election cycle. Stuck on stupid.

This morning, a piece on GOProud’s web-site reminded me of something a reader told me our LA dinner last month.  Sarah Palin who loves to use Twitter and Facebook to comment on the events of the days was silent on an issue about which everyone was then buzzing:  repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell (DADT).

This silence doesn’t fit with the media image of a Palin as a socially conservative anti-gay demoness eager to keep gay people in the closets and lesbians at the loom.

Our good friends at GOProud report that the former Alaska Governor re-tweeted a Gay-Friendly, Anti-DADT Comment:

New York Magazine has this great post about a Twitter tweet sent by conservative radio talk show host and GOProud Advisory Council Chair Tammy Bruce.  Bruce’s comment was re-tweeted by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Read the whole thing.