Hey I like the state (well huge parts of it) just fine. Its just that a very strange and odd set of demographics have put the state in the control of some of the most wack political types in American History. And hey, I live in Cali, and we know political wackos, for sure on that. Got a few from the Southland, a couple from the interior, and not a few from the Bay Area too. Look no further then our gov, who is gov because he was a B Grade Hollywood Action Star married to a Kennedy girl, and that was better then the guy we got rid of because he was boring. Well, Arnold has not been boring. Dumb yes. Politically impotent? You betcha'.
It's just that, like California (and a few other places too) its very much 'not America' but very much its own place in its own space. And the demographic deal has made it all but impossible for any sort of liberal government to get to power, and has all but ceeded power to the extreme right wing which can get its act together enough to govern, no matter how poorly.