October 2006

John Kurzweil

Guest speaker John Kurzweil, president of the California Public Policy Foundation, addressed The Conservative Forum.

Our October speaker was John Kurzweil, the president of the California Public Policy Foundation. John provided a very scholarly presentation on the state of Calfironia politics.He pointed out that Sacramento was the final oracle for Californians. He made an analogy about how Joseph Stalin totally controlled the people of the former Soviet Union by regulating every facet of the people's lives. He gave an example of a bill that passed the California legislature that demonstrated in detail how to legally tether your dog.

John pointed out that this legislature works very hard to thwart the efforts of Americans to exercise their inalienable rights of self-determination and self-government. He elaborated on how increasing the minimum wage puts people out of work. It is anti-job creation and anti-business. He also indicated that the current legislature is opposed to independent thinking, religion and free speech. He referenced deTocqeville in the state's efforts to move us toward servitutde. He also referenced Hayek's book, "The Road to Serfdom." He said that what the California legislature is currently doing is antithetical to human freedom.

John Kurzweil pointed out that a government should provide its citizens the environment for risk-taking, faith, opportunity, dynamism, and the entrepreneurial spirit. His organization, the Calfirnia Public Policy Foundation, is establishing a training program for newly-elected Republican legislators on conservative values similar to what the Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute is doing in Washington, DC.

In the Q&A, John answered the question of Iraq and "staying the course" with an analogy about health care and crime control. He said, "You don't burn down a hospital after five years just because all sickness is not cured. You don't disband the police force after 3-5 years if crime continues. The same is true regarding the war on terrorism; you cannot quit after 3-5 years because it is not fixed."

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