For a while I've been tracking the "Fiscal Con": examples of fiscal conservatives deflecting blame from the impacts of the policies they support or ignore.

Now, Walter Russell Meade ("WRM") offers what might be called the "Global Con".

From '"Green" Energy Bias Killing California' [1]:

The destruction of California isn’t a victimless crime. Millions of low income California residents are trapped in decaying cities where, thanks in large part to narcissistic green unicorn chasers, the manufacturing base has withered away. And anything that blights California, blights us all. America and the world need California back on line; the Golden State has too much to offer for anyone to remain indifferent to its fate.

In the long run, California is too richly endowed and its people too dynamic for the self-defeating policies of the green elites to prevail. Either the governing class of California tires of unicorn hunts, or at some point the people of California will get tired of their governing class. And in any case, the current suicidal policy mix means that sooner rather than later, California will run out of the money needed to maintain the illusions of its governing elites and the whole elaborate system of sham and deception will blow away. (See Detroit, modern history of. Ditto Greece.)

The main reason "the manufacturing base has withered away" isn't "narcissistic green unicorn chasers", but globalism. That's something WRM should know something about: he's formerly a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (one of the homes of the U.S. globalist elite).

At one time, South and Southeast Los Angeles was home to many more factories than it is now. However, globalization caused many to shut down. The rise of the service sector combined with other globalization initiatives such as NAFTA combined with political corruption led to increased illegal immigration. And, that led to a growing power base for those "narcissistic green unicorn chasers". The latter are just taking advantage of something laid out by a "governing class" at a higher level: those deep in the establishment who decided that gutting manufacturing was desirable or acceptable or who just didn't care.

But, at least WRM isn't dismissing California entirely as others do.

Note that WRM links to an excerpts yet another anti-regulation article by Joel Kotkin [2], one of the stars of the Fiscal Con page. Discussing that article is left for those familiar with energy topics.

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[1] blogs.the-american-interest . com/wrm/2012/07/14/
green-energy-bias-killing-california
That's linked by Glenn Reynolds: instapundit . com/146646. He only provides an excerpt, meaning there's a very high chance he agrees.

[2] thedailybeast . com/articles/2012/07/12/
the-energy-war-how-fossil-fuel-democrats-became-an-endangered-species.html