California is represented in Congress by 2 Senators and 53 Representatives.
The two senators are Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats.
Of the 53 Representatives, 34 are Democrats, 19 are Republicans.
It used to be said that the most liberal state was Massachusetts and the most conservative state was Utah, at least from a voting perspective, but recently Vermont and Oklahoma are giving both ends of the spectrum a run for their money. Vermont voted 66.8 percent for Obama, compared to 63.3 percent in Rhode Island and 62 percent in Massachusetts. Only one state beat Vermont: Hawaii, 71.8 percent, which should come an no shock. California was 61.9 percent for Obama, making it an almost-twin of Massachusetts.
On the other end of the voting spectrum, Oklahoma, 65.6 percent for McCain, and Wyoming, 65.2 percent for McCain. Both both beat the Mormon homeland which went 62.9 percent for McCain.
But that's from a voting perspective. When you look at the end results of the voting, at the actual freedoms the people of individual states enjoy, when you rank the American states on their public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres, you find some of the most liberal U.S. states rank lowest when it comes to personal freedom.
The Mercatus Center at the Arlington Campus of George Mason University is a highly respected think tank and research center aimed at connecting academic learning and real-world practice. They work in a highly bi-artisan manner with policy experts, lobbyists, and government officials on the issues of the day. The Government Accountability Project, the Regulatory Studies Program, and the Global Prosperity Initiative are just a few of their more influential and respected outreach programs.
The Mercatus Center's stated mission is to generate knowledge and understanding of how institutions affect the freedom to prosper and find creative solutions to overcome barriers that prevent individuals from living free, prosperous, and peaceful lives. In 2001, for example, the Office of Management and Budget asked for public input on which regulations should be revised or killed. Of the 71 proposals which the OMB received, the Mercatus Center submitted 44 of them. They highly criticized a proposed Department of the Interior ruling restricting the use of snowmobiles in Rocky Mountain National Park, stating that land set aside specifically for public use and recreation should be used for exactly that, the public use. They also just absolutely hammered the DOT rule about limiting trucker's time behind the wheel, calling it one of the most blatant infringes on freedom.
I give you the background here so you can see where they are coming from. They are all about the things most of us hold dear, that of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Live long and prosper.
The Mercatus study improves on prior attempts to score economic freedom for American states in three primary ways: (1) it includes measures of social and personal freedoms such as peaceable citizens’ rights to educate their own children, own and carry firearms, and be free from unreasonable search and seizure; (2) it includes far more variables, even on economic policies alone, than prior studies, with no missing data on any variable as is common with most studies; and (3) it uses new, more accurate measurements of key variables, particularly state fiscal policies.
“We develop and justify our ratings and aggregation procedure on explicitly normative criteria, defining individual freedom as the ability to dispose of one’s own life, liberty, and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on another individual’s ability to do the same,” note the authors.
The released a study last year which ranked all the states with regard to public policy and personal freedom. In a virtual tie, the freest states are New Hampshire, Colorado, and South Dakota. All three states feature low taxes and government spending, and middling to minimal levels of regulation and paternalism.
On the other end is New York, which leads the least free states by a wide margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, and Maryland, all which are in a close race for second place. Unfortunately, these five states make up a considerable percentage of the US population.
When looking at personal freedom alone, with no other factors involved, Alaska ranks number one, with South Dakota a very close second, and Maryland comes in dead last, with California a very close second.
Regionally, the Mountain and West North Central regions are the freest overall, while the Middle Atlantic lags far behind on both economic and personal freedom.
Previous studies have shown that, as of 2006, Alabama and Mississippi were the most conservative states in the country, while New York and New Jersey were the most liberal. In the much more comprehensive index put forth by the Mercatus study, Alabama and Mississippi fall in the middle, while New York, New Jersey are at the bottom, with California sitting firmly at the foundation of the least conservative.
From the study, “The problem is that the cultural values of liberal governments seem on balance to require more regulation of individual behavior than do the cultural values of conservative governments. While liberal states are freer than conservative states on marijuana and same-sex partnership policies, when it comes to gun owners, home schoolers, motorists, and even smokers, liberal states are the nanny states, while conservative states are more tolerant.”
