In what sounded like a Babylon Bee story, California's Governor Gavin Newsom ran ads in Florida in early July claiming that "freedom is under attack in your state."  When the laughter died down, most people pointed out that Florida is one of the freest states in the nation.

Newsom, whose hair gel budget might be hurting with the current 9.1 percent "Bidenflation" rate, urged Floridians "to join the fight, or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom."

Florida governor Ron DeSantis responded to the ads.

I was born and raised in this state. And until the last few years, I rarely, if ever, saw a California license plate in the state of Florida. You now see a lot of them. I can tell you. If you go to California, you ain't seeing very many Florida license plates.

What you do see in California:

• One third of America's welfare recipients live in the state.
• One fifth of its residents live below the poverty line.
• One quarter of its residents not having been born in the United States.
• The most illegal aliens and homeless population in all 50 states.
• The highest state income and gas taxes.

Most Golden State residents would never put "California" and "freedom" in the same sentence, but maybe their thinking is too limited.  Maybe Gov. Newsom is right!  As one of the dwindling number of Republicans who still call this state home, I want to share that Californians have many freedoms:

• Freedom to choose which worthless mask to wear: the one that reads "my mask is as useless as my governor" or the one that displays the state's crime statistics.
• Freedom to pay 10 cents for plastic grocery shopping bags or bring our own dirty reusable bags (which we can't wash regularly because of water rationing).
• Freedom on a sweltering hot day to stare at our non-working air-conditioner or use hand-held battery fans because rolling brownouts turned the electricity off.
• Freedom to smuggle plastic straws into a restaurant or use soggy cardboard straws.
• Freedom to decide between walking through a homeless camp "decorated" with human feces or one sprinkled with dirty needles.
• Freedom to buy gas at the highest price in all 50 states or put on a pair of sneakers and walk.
• Freedom to ask a security guard at a shopping mall to escort us to our car due to spiraling crime or to take the chance of becoming another crime victim statistic.
• Freedom to drive home from the mall, steering with one hand while holding a can of pepper spray in the other, or risk someone following us home.
• Freedom to read the weekly police log and guess if those arrested had illegally entered the sanctuary state by land or by sea.
• Freedom to guess which will result in more bogus votes: mail-in ballots or drop boxes.
• Freedom to choose between taking a shower and running the dishwasher due to Sacramento's failure to build any new reservoirs in 40+ years in this desert state.  (In 1980, the state had a population of nearly 24 million.  Today it's just under 40 million.)
• Freedom to know that our home could burn in a wildfire since environmentalists won't allow properly planned underbrush burns or to live in a tent in a homeless camp.
• Freedom to have our children attend public school, where they fail reading, writing, and math but pass Critical Race Theory and transgenderism.
• Freedom to plan scenic coastal car trips on bumpy roads, pot-holed freeways, or decaying bridges.
• Freedom to work hard to pay exorbitant rent in high-crime neighborhoods or purchase an overpriced home only to have the house next door torn down and replaced with a four-plex rental.

But at least much of California has great weather!

Image: 1938 Greetings from California postcard (edited).  Public domain.

Robin Itzler can be reached at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com.