Nancy Pelosi at the swearing-in ceremony for Lt. Gov. Eleni T. Kounalakis, January 7, 2019. (Kevin Sanders for California Globe)
California’s Right Turn Signal
GLOBE EDITORIAL: GOP has a real California shot in ’22
By California Globe, May 24, 2022 7:30 am
Press play to hear a narrated version of this story, presented by AudioHopper.
There’s something going on here
For as long as California Globe has been chronicling the state’s politics, conservatives who have watched the state turn purple then blue then crazy have waited for a rebound the way religious people wait for a messiah.
It hasn’t happened.
No amount of Jerry Brown goofiness or Nancy Pelosi embarrassment or Gavin Newsom elitism seems to loosen the woke stranglehold on the state. But ordinary people noticed. The state lost population two straight years for the first time in history. It lost a seat in Congress for the first time in history. These are not the ornery laments of conservatives who wish it was still 1955. These are objective, undeniable proof points that the nation’s most populous state is headed in the wrong direction. People are voting with their feet. And they’re overwhelmingly voting for places with lower taxes, fewer regulations, and less bullshit.
Suddenly, there are signs that the voters who remain are ready to try a different course.
We saw a taste of it in 2021. The successful recalls of three ridiculous board members in San Francisco who kept the schools closed, but still found time to try to rename them based on wrong entries in Wikipedia (and then of course cited racism for their defeat) was a hopeful sign. So was the election of Republican Mike Garcia, who defeated Christy Smith in a May 2021 Special Election to replace Democratic throupler Katie Hill.
But from the Globe‘s perspective, one of the surer signs that sanity is starting to sprout up from the nuclear-charred remains of decades of wokeism occurred in the LA Times.
In an op-ed over the weekend authors Robin Goldstein and Daniel Sumner take the position that the state’s legal marijuana program is failing. That’s obvious. California consumers are still purchasing 75% of their weed from illegal sources.
What’s surprising, however, is that the two authors—who clearly favor legal marijuana and are professors at UC Davis, and therefore make us willing to bet a car against a donut that they are far-left activists—cite reasons for the failure of legal marijuana that would be right at home on the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
“Regulations and taxes are not free. Far from it. In California, many of the operations that made a good-faith effort to go legal and follow the rules have gone out of business from underestimating their costs or overestimating the size of the legal-weed market. A legal system works well when people and businesses are rewarded, not punished, for following the rules. … The best way forward is for policymakers to take a practical view about the real-world effects of regulations and taxes. Some careful cost-benefit analysis could yield a set of pared-down regulations that maintain the most effective health and safety rules while loosening up on some unnecessary restrictions that are strangling the young industry before it is up and running.”
People are starting to get it. Even lefties. The craziness of the state is no longer creating a tone for the nation. It’s creating punchlines for the nation.
When Assemblywoman Lorena “Queen of Bad Ideas” Gonzalez (D-San Diego) pushed through regulation AB5, which would have forced every Uber and Lyft driver—but also the state’s musicians and actors and so on—to become employees, other states didn’t follow. Instead, California retreated and carved out so many exceptions that the law is now essentially meaningless.
A couple weeks ago a new form of nuttiness was launched in which the work week was shortened to 32 hours, and yet companies were magically required to pay their workers the same as they had been paying for 40 hours. Californians currently paying six dollars at the pump understand the linkage between sudden unfunded raises for employees and the high price of goods. We get it, and Assembly Bill 2932, authored by Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) and Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), disappeared before it too could be added to the laughingstock pile.
Where the legislature hasn’t seen the light, the courts sometimes have. The ridiculous and clearly unconstitutional idea that companies based in California would be required to set quotas for the number of women on their boards was struck down by Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
No longer is America transforming itself to look more like California. Instead, California is belatedly realizing that if it wants to compete, it’s gotta look a little bit more like the rest of America.
With Joe Biden‘s popularity at an all-time low – not just for him, but lower at this point in his presidency than any president in history, including the one he replaced — the Democrats already face an uphill climb in 2022. Add to that particularities of California, where its leaders on the national stage have fossilized. Nancy Pelosi is 82, and Dianne Feinstein has been acknowledged by everyone but Dianne Feinstein—including the twin Comms Directors of the Democratic Party, the New York Times and the Washington Post—to have faded. As the Chron put it in a brutal headline, the honorable senator is now “mentally unfit to serve.”
These are not just the fever dreams of California’s remaining conservatives. The LA Times ran a story just yesterday with the shocked headline, “A Republican has a shot at becoming California state controller. Yes, you read that right.” And the steady stream of brutal news for local Democrats—from Eric Garcetti’s unraveling nomination as Ambassador to India to the widening scandal in Anaheim that has now claimed the secretary of the state Democratic Party—Dems are stumbling.
With midterms nearly six months away, it’s too early to assess whether Kevin McCarthy and state GOP Chair Jessica Patterson have recruited GOP candidates who can help turn the tide. Pelosi likely won’t face a meaningful challenge this year and Feinstein and Biden are not on the ballot. But in a way, they all are. One-party rule has left California disillusioned, depressed, and defeated. If the choices are “pack your bags for Austin” or “remain in the most beautiful place in all the world and fight for common sense,” more people than usual might just vote for an alternative.
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I’m a California anomaly. I recently moved INTO the state while others were fleeing. I was hoping to find a fair news outlet that did not parrot Democratic talking points and I found it in The Globe. This piece gives me some semblance of hope.
FYI: Whoever proofread this piece needs to go through it again.
First, thanks for the good read and good words. Second, welcome to the most beautiful place in the world. Third, re-proofed and found a couple minor things but compared to our usual “can’t afford a proofreader” standards, this wasn’t that error-riddled!
these are great articles but the use of terms like “bull shit” and minor typos like “disillusion” make it hard to share as serious reporting. All of the information in here including the editorializing is supported by facts and it’s strong without resorting to common swearing and is weakened by failure to proofread. Keep up the great work, but do a little better!
Points taken! We disagree about the occasionally profane language, which we use sparingly but deploy when no appropriate PG word will do. You’re right about the misspelling but we suffer from the same lack of funds that has ravaged the entire industry. We will keep trying to do better but cannot afford a full-time proofreader, alas. Thanks for the careful read.
Those of us who are “terrible spellers” understand the difficulty of inconsistencies in English spelling “rules”. Not really a big deal, imo. The message is more important. Really wish that comments had an edit option but, again, lack of funds is an issue.
I know that I will be voting red for the first time in my life.
I have watched while the selected officials have destroyed my home state in just a few short years.
The only dems that will get my vote is the one who actually helped when I had to contact
all of my reps.
They all worked during the whole pandemic.
But they did not DO their jobs.
They still have not taken back the emergency powers from Newsolini.
Defund politics !
Mary, just wanted to let you know, for what it’s worth, that I have been so glad to see you commenting here! You always have a fresh and interesting take.
Thank you, Show, that is really nice of you to say.
I like the California Globe and the regular group of individuals that comment here.
The LA TImes headlines notwithstanding, movement to the center-right includes many more than just Elon Musk. The upcoming primary results will, imo, show several non-Partisan/Republican candidates with a chance to win California statewide office in the fall; including for Attorney General. Just look to the north in ultra-liberal Oregon, where it appears that Christine Drazan (R) has a chance to win. This movement is a national trend. People feel that the COUNTRY is heading in the WRONG direction. So California is just following; regardless of what Newsom might believe: “As California goes, so goes the country.”
Nancy Pelosi needs to be sent packing back to Baltimore? She has destroyed California just like her Italian mafia crime family destroyed Baltimore? Her father, Thomas D’Alexsandro Jr., was a corrupt Democratic Party politician and Baltimore Mayor. Under his leadership as Mayor, the Baltimore mafia flourished with impunity. They were called the “Baltimore Crew,” and were probably the most untouched mafia crew in the United States. They controlled gambling, extortion, drug, labor and prostitution rackets with impunity. Nancy learned everything she knows from her father?
Boring facts and fantasy of a different outcome for California.
The fact remains that the voting laws need to be reversed to what they were in 2006.
Why does the super majority and the leadership act with IMPUNITY?
Answer: They do not have to answer to the voting public because they control the drop boxes and all of the false mail in ballots.
When we change the voting system back to the way it was, California may turn purple once again.
How to change the voting system back to the way it was when there is blatant Democrat voter fraud, rigged voting machines, and RINOs in the state GOP who allow elections to be stolen? California’s GOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson seems to be more interested in helping Democrats win elections rather than addressing voter integrity? Why is it that there are some state political races in state that GOP does not even field a candidate?
FYI: As a trained voting observer, I watched the process in my courthouse during the 2020 election.
I then considered helping at the polling place. When I read the rules for volunteers and they stated that I was NOT allowed to ask anyone for identification I decided…….why bother! This is just one example of just one law that needs changing.
The super majority has been slowly eradicating the integrity of California voting laws over the last16 years.
Change they voting laws and you will change the leadership in California.
California no matter how many people grow disinterest in democrat policies – Democrats have established the cheat where Democrats determine who wins and loses. This state is under tyrannical rule and voting has been seized.
Until there is a large stand-up against this it wont change, Democrats will continue to rule which votes count
I moved to Austin.
As long as Cali has mail in ballots and Dominion voting machines, elections are a bad joke.
And if the population has no say in the states leaders and policies, then you are all slaves.
Until California passes solid, transparent election laws that stop fraud instead of facilitating it, and that will never happen now, the state will never become rational.
There is something about a ballot system mailing ballots to “Last Known Address”, belies the seriousness of voting.
DMV and Online Voter Registration have corrupted the system. Vote by mail and No ID complete the corruption. Need to get back to voting in person in one day.
Unfortunately, with mail-in ballots and ballot drop boxes…California is doomed to be blue for a long time. Taxpayers and businesses will move to kinder environs while the legislature continues in the fiscal madness.
Allow me to, belatedly give a glimmer of light. You’ve heard of NextDoor, aka NaziDoor, that hard leftist ‘social(ist)’ group. I and a few friends in Santa Clara Valley had between us over 2,500 sane Trump supporters on our 3 chat boards. We kept the leftists out and we kept growing. WE outnumbered the WOKE fools by close to 3:1. I knew that the NaziDoor management couldn’t allow us to continue and I was right, they shut down each of the groups because we didn’t toe the Marxist line. The sane people are out there, you just have to reach them over the noise of the WOKE idiots. We see the FRAUD in the Santa Clara Valley Registrar’s office, witnessed but unable to show because of their rules, we saw it in the 2020 election, we saw it in the June election.