Originally Posted By CuriousConstance I live in a very liberal city in Oregon. (No, not Portland) And surrounded by all of the liberal views all the time, you can forget that in some parts of the country it's a drastically different life. Not in the way that people work to live so much, but in points of views and frame of mind.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Ah, but what are the local wages? It might be easy for a retired Minnesota public employee who showed up with a suitcase full of money from the house he sold up north, but what is it like for the locals? Are there any non "Lucky Ducky" jobs.>> Yes, I'll admit it. I'm very glad I have a Minnesota pension and funds from the sale of my Minnesota house to make early retirement here possible. When I first came here I moved to Branson. Job outlook there is dismal. Almost all jobs are in the tourism industry and pay minimum wage. They are seasonal which means most people face a layoff of 3-4 months every year. During the "off season" unemployment in Branson generally runs between 20 and 30%. After a year there I moved to Nixa, a town/suburb of about 20,000 located 10 miles south of Springfield and 20 miles north of Branson. Springfield is a regional center for both Education and Health Care. People employed in those fields make a very good living... others, not so much. Overall, I think life here is easier for most. A person here could live pretty decently on an $18K per year income, which would have been absolutely impossible in Minneapolis.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "I used to live in Los Angeles that entitles me to make comparisons. How much time have you spent living elsewhere?" Born in Inglewood, CA, grew up in Chicago, came back to live in Southern California. I've lived and worked in the San Diego area, Orange County area, and the Los Angeles area. I'm 54 now. How's that? California regularly elects Democrats making for the liberal image but is hamstrung by a minority of Republicans due to Prop 13. Not everyone here is a Pelosi or Schwarzenegger or even Jerry Brown. Because of Prop 13, it takes a super majority to pass anything remotely related to a tax. The state is being killed by ballot measures. We just shut 56 courtrooms this month alone in L.A Couty for example, because of the budget and the inability to raise much needed revenue. California might have a liberal image but liberals don't run the place. It's Washington D.C. in miniature. GOP roadblocks are everywhere, and nothing really gets done, except closing things and approving high speed rail to nowhere.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder And my main point is I abhor it when people main such grand generalizations and denigrate it by calling the place "La-La Land". Whatever that place was, it ain't here no more.
Originally Posted By dagobert >>>Not everyone here is a Pelosi or Schwarzenegger or even Jerry Brown. <<< Since Arnold Schwarzenegger is still an Austrian for us, I would like to know what US-Americans, especially Californians, think about his political work as Gouvenor. From an Austrian point of view, he lost a bit of his reputation due to the Death Penaltie he had signed, but I think it's your law and so he had to act that way. For us over here, it's hard to understand that it is still in use, but I guess we are not entitled to interfere. I know he had a strong opinion on environmental issues, which I think it's strange, because of being Republican.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb Not all Republicans are anti-environment, but I guess that's a common misconception.
Originally Posted By dagobert >>>Not all Republicans are anti-environment, but I guess that's a common misconception.<<< Of course, but usually, or at least as far as we know when it comes to elections, it's not on the agenda of the GOP.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb No it's not a big GOP issue, I'll grant you that. But these days it's difficult to judge a Republican by what the GOP does. There's a pretty huge disconnect.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder And this thread has veered wildly from the original topic so if anyone feels the urge to continue, please start a thread in WE.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip SPP… yes, Prop 13 is ABSOLUTELY INSANE and I've thought so since it was passed over 30 years ago. It has made me rather jaded about California's problems because I kind of figure "You asked for it... you got it." But despite that, the fact remains that Californians tend to be FAR MORE liberal in their outlook than people are almost anywhere else in the United States (except when it comes to illegal immigration). Try living in SW Missouri for a while... I've learned to ignore it all because other than being political Neanderthals, the people here are really quite nice. But I'd cut off my right arm before I ever put an Obama sign in my yard...
Originally Posted By tashajilek "Try living in SW Missouri for a while... I've learned to ignore it all because other than being political Neanderthals, the people here are really quite nice. But I'd cut off my right arm before I ever put an Obama sign in my yard..." Is the U.S really like this??? In Canada nobody here really cares much for politics and we certainly never discuss it.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Since Arnold Schwarzenegger is still an Austrian for us, I would like to know what US-Americans, especially Californians, think about his political work as Gouvenor." He's a very moderate Republican, so he was a lot more willing to work across platforms than I had imagined. Still, like most American politicians on the right, he consistently came across as someone who couldn't relate to the average California worker. He also vetoed a legislative measure to legalize same-sex marriage twice. So, no, I wasn't a fan.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Is the U.S really like this??? In Canada nobody here really cares much for politics and we certainly never discuss it.>> Over the past 10 years it has become that way. The U.S. has become very divided and those at the extremes LOVE talking about it.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 Here's a question because I honestly don't know, was Gay Days started by Disney themselves or was it a grass roots event and Disney decided to make it an official event?
Originally Posted By fkurucz "Not all Republicans are anti-environment, but I guess that's a common misconception" True, but they are quick to complain about "business unfriendly" regulations, and many of those are environmental. I've heard more than a few say that we should be more "business friendly" like China. The company I work for has a campus in Beijing. One of the Beijing managers was visiting our Denver based campus and she remarked that in the US the air is "unnaturally clean". This of course is comical as Denver air is hardly pristine, yet to someone from a "business friendly" locale it seems that way.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>Is the U.S really like this??? In Canada nobody here really cares much for politics and we certainly never discuss it.<< Are you kidding? We have 24 hour TV channels dedicated to politics. If you don't have the equivalent of Fox News or MSNBC in Canada, consider yourself lucky.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Here's a question because I honestly don't know, was Gay Days started by Disney themselves or was it a grass roots event and Disney decided to make it an official event?" I posted a link to the history of the event earlier in this thread.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 I must have missed(to be honest all the posts pretty much looked the same)
