Most people see in color. A few cannot distinguish between certain colors and very few see only in tones of gray. The biggest problem is that most people see only either white or black on certain issues.  In fact, if you proclaim any issue or idea people will automatically line up on opposite sides not being able to see any of the other color.  This seems to be the problem in elections and is particularly true in the curious spectacle that has just played out in California.

I did not want to go deeply into the circus that Californians seem to enjoy.  They elect legislatures and by-pass them.  They elected a governor and now have recalled him. They seem to have chosen an actor with no programs and few ideas. Californians either see white or black and nothing in between and are not at all united in fixing problems that are in miniature, a replaying of problems besetting the larger democracy of the United States of America.

California is a very long state. Very long on the west coast, with a dry interior, a huge population and the fifth largest economy in the world, it has many divisions. There is a divide between north and south and a divide between east and west. There are also conservatives and liberals and there a great many who are nothing at all except – large numbers with exotic ideas and practices seem to flock there. Like Florida that could benefit by being broken in half into two states, California would be more coherent if that happened there.  Unfortunately, there is the problem of a liberal urban coast and a conservative rural interior. Perhaps there is a big enough population for the state being made into four.

The Romans did it first in a very large way.  Unlike the Greeks who practiced a sort of democracy, the Romans created a Republic. The Roman Republic was a government of rigid laws but with a culture that created two classes.  Let’s not deal with the slaves many of whom were the captured Greeks who educated Roman children.  The two classes were the Patricians who owned nearly everything and controlled the government. These were few in number and you may color them white.  The second class was the more numerous Plebeians. They had citizenship and could vote but were dependent on the Patricians for their livelihoods. You can color them Black.  Each class saw things in a polar way, from opposite ends. Despite creating an empire lasting for almost a thousand years, the differences between the two extreme classes in Rome never mitigated enough to solve their problems.  That empire dissolved over time. It taught us a great many things except to study their mistakes to learn how to get things right.

California is a state either Black or White that has not learned about Mr. In-Between.