When you hear that budget bugle call for help, the best cavalry out there that could come to our rescue is made up entirely of Indians, members of the California Tribal Gaming Association and their associates. They could have more direct impact on the outcome of California’s economic future than any other group because they’ve bought the legislature several times over at a cost of many millions. They have real clout and it’s in their best interest for the state to recover and succeed quickly so they can once again fill up those blackjack tables and get The Wheel of Fortune spinning to a fare-thee-well.
The evils of gambling could save us all from a fate far worse than hell, bankruptcy.
Sure, the tribes are hurting like everybody else. They’ve made a huge investment in California with their massive increase in ever fancier and more lavish hotel casinos. They may not have as much money as they had just a few months ago, but they’ve got some and they can get more. After all, the only real business comeback you can count on is sin. Alcohol, tobacco, and gambling are our oldest growth economies and the tribes will want to make sure they get their fair share back when the cycle comes around.
The exquisite irony of the tribes’ financing a ballot initiative requiring a constitutional convention to reform California’s perpetually self-destructing "government," would be beyond priceless. California once all was theirs, and after having it stolen from them, they could become a serious broker with a vested interest in bringing it back to life. The tribes have hired very, very smart lawyers and consultants to bring them to the point at which they now find themselves — higher than anyone ever thought possible, and yet perched on the rim of a canyon with no bottom in sight.
The tribes still have plenty of resources, and they could put them to use to hire just as great lawyers and good government consultants to pull an emergency plan together overnight. They could make a constitutional convention happen in a Los Angeles minute and then join in the fight to work it all out.
The tribes are an independent nation and maybe we need them to bail us out now by forcing us to change our ways.
Indians to the rescue, anyone?