As a conservative, and living in beautiful Montana, I admit I wrote off California a long time ago.

I had grown so tired of the lunacy that oozes from the Golden State on a daily basis – sanctuary cities, more-than-equal-rights for gays, barrio gang warfare, brainless Hollywood celebs, Pelosi and Waters and Boxer – I decided that if an earthquake shook the whole state into the sea, oh well.

I have an ex-Montana friend who lives in the Central Valley, and he was sending me daily S.O.S. messages, as his own government officials sold out the entire valley, trashing its economy and destroying thousands of jobs and businesses, by shutting off their water to protect a tiny fish.

I shook my head as the scandals piled on – Solyndra, small-town-mayors with monstrous salaries and pensions, and the $16 billion deficit.

But last month my wife and I took a short trip to California and I had a change of heart.

We found many good, hard-working people there, who were just as baffled and upset about the state’s problems as the rest of us are.  It’s a beautiful place, and in spite of its travails, California still has much talent, energy, and resources to offer the nation and the world.

If the USA is a family, California is our crazy, misguided, hyper little brother.  He might end up a superstar, or could be lying in a gutter soon.  There’s not much the rest of us can do to save him – he will have to learn on his own that he can’t spend money he doesn’t have, and he will have to get a haircut and get a real job.

Either way, he’s still part of the family and we should all keep trying to teach him what’s right.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On The Right Side

“We are all just prisoners here, of our own device.”  Hotel California – the Eagles

cartoon courtesy of Tony Branco – see more of his great work here.