California Legislature’s Race to Marxism: 2023 Proposed Legislation Reveals Hard Left Turn

A review of the 2023 legislation proposed by California lawmakers exposes what is really happening in California – the rise and rule of Marxism in the once Golden State.

According to Karl Marx, the Marxist revolution would be led by enlightened leaders, known as “the vanguard of the proletariat.” He advocated an uprising of the working class which he called the “proletariat,” against the wealthy owners of capital, the “bourgeoisie.” They had already called on the proletariat to capture state power through “revolutionary terror,” and in the Manifesto repeated the need to introduce dictatorship through “despotic inroads,” Manifesto of the Communist Party, and then to progress to a state of communal ownership through the “abolition of bourgeois property,” the Heritage Foundation explains.

This sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We have witnessed the Marxist takeover of American education through teachers labor unions, as well as the Marxist attacks on small, medium and large businesses and industries (bourgeoisie). The U.S government under President Barack Obama already nationalized healthcare and the student loan industry. Now attacks on speech, as well as “political correctness” under Marxism, have lead to inevitably tyranny, as Marxism always does everywhere it has been tried.

As examples of this move to Marxism, Democrats in the California Legislature are making it easy to see what they are doing through 2023 proposed legislation:

• The continued state Shakedown of the Oil and Gas Industry
• Turning All of California into San Francisco by erasing property rights
• ‘Restoring Voting Rights’ to Felons
• Taxing Big Business to pay for Climate Change schemes
• Advancing the Abortion Sanctuary State with 17 new abortion bills
• Legislating More Power to California’s Unelected State Water Board
• Expanding Homeless grants – homelessness Forever in California
• Another Wealth Tax for California’s job creators and innovators
• Illegally restricting Gun Rights Again, preventing Californians from defending themselves
• Expanding Transgender Rights Over Parental Rights

Just a smattering of the bills proposed exemplify the race to Marxism in California but the Democrat Supermajority:

Oil and Gas Industry Shakedown

The California Assembly hosted a side show in March, when after jamming SBX1-2, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Gas Tax, through an expedited hearing, pretended that was enough exposure to the public, and debated the bill and voted on it. SB X1-2, by Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), will create a new panel of unelected bureaucrats with subpoena power, to investigate oil and gas companies, impose penalties, new costs and regulations, which would inevitably lead to gas shortages, rationing and price spikes. The bill creates a new government agency to arbitrarily decide how much profit oil and gas businesses are allowed to make, disrupting California’s energy market and threatening the reliability of the state’s fuel supply, according to Assembly Republicans.

Gov. Newsom signed SB X1-2 into law, again growing state government.

Another attack on California’s oil and gas industry is Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), is SB 252 to divest California’s pension funds from the fossil fuel industry. The bill would prohibit the boards of the Public Employees’ Retirement System and the State Teachers’ Retirement System from making new investments or renewing existing investments of public employee retirement funds in a fossil fuel company – a violation of the fiduciary investment responsibility of the state retirement system, which is supposed to maximize investment opportunities and decisions. “CalPERS builds retirement and health security for California state, school, and public agency members,” CalPERS states.

Turning All of California into San Francisco

Claiming a plan to solve California’s affordable housing crisis, Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has authored SB 4 and SB 423.

SB 4 allows churches and nonprofit colleges to build low-income housing on the properties they own, even in areas that are not zoned for multifamily housing.

SB 423 would allow the Department of General Services to step in and act in the place of local government to streamline review for development on property owned by or leased to the state. So cities and counties won’t have a say on how state-owned property will be developed.

‘Restoring Voting Rights’ to Felons

ACA 4, by Assemblyman Isaac G. Bryan (D-Los Angeles) is a proposed state constitutional amendment granting felons the right to vote. “This measure would repeal that requirement regarding the disqualification of electors incarcerated for felony convictions, thereby authorizing an otherwise qualified elector serving a state or federal prison term for the conviction of a felony to vote,” the bill says. Bryan says he’s “restoring voting rights” to felons.

SB 50 by Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) will prohibit police from stopping or detaining a driver for a low-level infraction, such as expired registration, license plate violation, a broken taillight, illegal window tint, etc…

Senator Bradford claims “SB 50 will limit law enforcement’s ability to stop people for minor, non-safety- related traffic infractions, unless there is an independent, safety-related basis to initiate the stop. It will also provide technical clarification to ensure that localities can explore non-law enforcement approaches to traffic safety. In doing so, SB 50 will help protect Californians of color from unnecessary harms and help ensure that public dollars dedicated to community safety are used more effectively.”

Further eroding policing and law enforcement in California, Democrats introduced a bill to stop the use of DOGS from crime enforcement because…they’re RACIST, the Globe reported. Assembly Bill 42, introduced by far-Left California Assembly members Corey Jackson and Ash Kalra will “end a deeply racialized and harmful practice that has been a mainstay in America’s history of racial bias and violence against Black Americans and people of color,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Jackson says “The use of police canines has inflicted brutal violence and lifelong trauma on Black Americans and communities of color.”

Taxing Big Business for Climate Change

Senate Bill 253 by Senators Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), and Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles), will require the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to adopt regulations that would require large businesses operating in California at least $1 billion in revenue to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions from the prior year to an emissions registry.

Assembly Bill 1228 by Assemblyman Chris Holden (D-Los Angeles) was introduced to impose joint employer liability for fast food restaurant franchisors and franchisees. This bill would hold the franchisors like Subway, Burger King and McDonalds, jointly liable for any legal violations committed by their franchisees, as the Globe reported.

California: the Abortion Sanctuary State

The 17 New California Bills on “Reproductive Justice’ & ‘Abortion Rights” are indicative of California Democrats’ determination to remain the Abortion Capitol of the country – 15% of all abortions in the U.S. take place in California. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that approximately 154,060 abortions were performed in California in 2020.

Following the leaked United States Supreme Court draft decision in which the Court voted to overturn the federal landmark Roe v. Wade abortion decision and send the issue back to the states to decide, Democrats and the left claimed abortion rights were being struck down, and women would suffer “countless attacks on reproductive freedom and abortion access” – thus the apparent need for 17 new bills.

Legislating More Power to Unelected State Water Board

AB 460, by Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), proposes to authorize the State Water Resources Control Board, in conducting specified investigations to inspect the property or facilities. The bill would authorize the board to obtain an inspection warrant to conduct an inspection without consent or a warrant. Because the willful refusal of an inspection lawfully authorized by an inspection warrant is a misdemeanor, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the application of a crime. Violation would result in a civil penalty of $10,000 for each day, and $5,000 for each acre-foot of water diverted in violation of the interim relief order.

Another Wealth Tax

Another wealth tax bill has been proposed by Assemblyman Alex Lee (D-San Jose), AB 259. Despite the bill being more “modest” in what it would tax – namely imposing an annual worldwide net worth tax of 1 percent on net worth above $50 million, rising to 1.5 percent on net worth over $1.0 billion, it’s unconstitutional, it applies to intangible assets like goodwill or trademarks, it applies as well to assets that have subjective, wildly fluctuating values, such as fine art, and it even applies to equity owned in private companies that the holder may never convert into real money, Ed Ring reported for the Globe.

Homelessness Forever in California

AB 799 by Assemblywoman Luz Rivas (D-San Fernando Valley) would turn the one-time grant funds for cities and counties from the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program into ongoing grant funds. The bill supports the failed “housing first” scheme, rather than treatment and therapy for California’s mentally-ill, drug addicted homeless.

On California’s burgeoning homeless population, despite spending nearly $23 Billion ($23,000,000,000) on California’s homeless housing, homelessness continues to grow in California. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, “nationally, California has topped the list for the state with the largest homeless population for more than a decade. As of 2022, 30% of all people in the United States experiencing homelessness resided in California, including half of all unsheltered people (115,491 in California; 233,832 in the US).”‘

“This is a solvable problem made impossible by a corrupt government,” a Sacramento source told the Globe.

Restricting Gun Rights Again

AB 1133 by Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo (D-Chatsworth) is seeking to impose training for a concealed carry firearm permit by the California Department of Justice, rather than a private gun expert. This bill would require the DOJ to create standardized curriculum for a CCW applicants. “These is no need for this bill as CCW carriers are the most law-abiding sub-section of individuals in the country,” Gun Owners of California reports.

AB 574 by Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) would require a firearms dealer who keeps a register or record of each firearm transaction, to include a list of of every firearm that the purchaser owns or possess.

AB 28, by Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, D-Woodland Hills, seeks to impose an excise tax on firearm and ammunition sales, almost identical to AB 1227 last year which sought to create a 10% tax on the sales price of a handgun, 11% tax on the sales price of a long gun, rifle, firearm precursor part, and ammunition. Guns Owners of California says it is unconstitutional to tax the exercising of an enumerated Constitutional right – the sale of firearms and ammunition.

Gov. Newsom, Democrats Targeting Legal Gun Owners Rather than Felons in New Bill

Governor Gavin Newsom’s, Attorney General Rob Bonta’s and Senator Anthony Portantino’s (D-La Cañada Flintridge), press conference in February announcing a bill aimed at adding restrictions to California’s concealed carry permit requirements and gun ownership, is yet another attempt by the California Governor to infringe on the constitutional rights of legal gun owners, while letting felons out of prison early, and ignoring felons with illegal guns.

SB 2 by Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank) would make it exceedingly difficult to obtain a concealed carry permit, and imposes extraordinary impositions on where people can carry in public. Existing law also considers criteria among other things, whether the applicant is of good moral character and has completed a specified course of training. This bill would increase the fees for the CCW. “Its legislative ‘twin’ in New York has been declared unconstitutional TWICE in federal court,” Gun Owners of California reports.

Permitless open carry, also called constitutional carry, is law in 25 U.S. states, while California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Washington D.C. not only prohibit the open carry of guns, they require a permit for concealed carry.

Expect to see these bills overturned by a federal court should they pass.

As Breitbart explained: California already bans ghost guns.

California has required background checks for all gun sales since the 1990s.

California has banned “assault weapons” since the 1990s.

California bans “high capacity” magazines.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) pushed to allow private citizens to sue gun makers. The Legislature passed the bill and Newsom signed it into law, but was blocked by a federal judge.

Additionally, California has a red flag law, gun registration requirements, a 10-day waiting period on gun purchases, a “good cause” requirement for concealed carry permit issuance, a ban on campus carry for self-defense, a ban on teachers carrying on K-12 campuses for classroom defense, and a limit on the number of guns law-abiding citizens can buy each month.

California also requires would-be purchasers to pass a background check before acquiring ammunition.

Transgender Rights Over Parental Rights 

Since before WWI Marxists have continued to indoctrinate youth in radical sexual ideology in the hope of destabilizing Western societies, in order to usher in Marxism. California is playing its part.

AB 223, by Assemblyman Chris Ward (D-San. Diego) would require any petition by transgender youths seeking to change their gender to be filed under seal. The bill states: “It is in the best interest for the public to seal these records from the public to ensure the privacy and safety of transgender and nonbinary youth. Transgender and nonbinary youth are 2 to 2.5 times as likely to experience depressive symptoms, seriously consider suicide, and attempt suicide compared to their cisgender LGBQ peers. Being outed is a traumatic event for any individual, especially for individuals under 18 years of age. Allowing our children to choose when and how they decide to share their personal details is vital in protecting their mental and physical health.”

The counter to AB 223:

AB 1314 by Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Riverside), would provide that a parent or guardian has the right to be notified in writing within 3 days from the date any teacher, counselor, or employee of the school becomes aware that a pupil is identifying at school as a gender that does not align with the child’s sex on their birth certificate. This bill was killed Monday morning when Assembly Education Committee Chairman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) announced that he would hold the bill and not allow a hearing.

To show just how depraved mainstream media is, the Sacramento Bee said AB 1314: “requires school employees to out transgender students to their parents.” Parents and the nuclear family are the enemy in Marxism.

This is not an all-encompassing list, but readers can see that when these bills are passed and signed into law, California’s race to Marxism will be that much closer.

As John Stossel correctly notes, “Socialists call capitalism ‘immoral’ for allowing some to become super rich while others are poor. They have it backwards.”

Socialists call capitalism “immoral” for allowing some to become super rich while others are poor.

They have it backwards.

Capitalism has made nearly everyone more prosperous than our ancestors could even imagine: pic.twitter.com/TGTDNe6zWE

— John Stossel (@JohnStossel) April 8, 2023