In the previous three posts, we have examined the fear many Texans have of the Californiazation of their state. While there is some legitimacy to this concern, it doesn’t address the fundamental issue.
California is being destroyed because most Californians believe it proper and just to impose the values of the majority upon individuals. As we have seen in previous posts, Texans embrace this same idea. That they implement it differently is simply a matter of detail.
If Texans want to prevent the Californiazation of their state, then they must reject the idea of majority rule. And in its place they must support and defend individual rights, including property rights.
While many, if not most, Texans proclaim to support property rights, few do so consistently. Most accept the idea that property use should be restricted when it will benefit the neighborhood, the community, or “the public.” They accept the idea that property rights are not inalienable but are something that can be abridged when the cause is right—right as determined by the majority.
But Californians could make the same claim. They could claim that they support property rights, but controls and restrictions on property use are appropriate when it will protect the ocean, the poor, rivers, spotted owls, or anything else the neighborhood, the community, or “the public” deems worthy of protection. The details of implementation might vary, but the principle doesn’t.
Rights protect the freedom of individuals to live as they choose, so long as they respect the freedom of others to do the same. When the majority can impose its values upon individuals, any freedom enjoyed by individuals is not a right, but merely a permission granted by the majority. And that permission can be revoked whenever the majority deems it proper.
Texas is on the road to repeat California’s destructive mistakes. But it’s not because of an influx of Californians or other immigrants. It is because of the ideas that most Texans have accepted. Until those ideas are rejected by Texans, the Lone Star State will creep closer and closer to the abyss of high taxes, stifling regulations on business, and outrageous housing costs that is destroying California.