It’s no secret that California is a juggernaut, exercising influence in national politics even disproportionate to its status as the largest state. And it’s all bad news. From California comes progressive authoritarianism in all its toxic iterations: climate fascism, big tech censorship, Hollywood cultural propaganda, and billions in campaign contributions to Democrats in every state from New Hampshire to Hawaii.
Often lost in the chorus of condemnation coming from the American right is the fact that struggling within the one-party state called California is a beleaguered minority of GOP voters. A minority so sizable, in fact, that in the 2020 election, Donald Trump received 6 million votes in California, edging out Texas and Florida to have the most Trump voters in the country.
If you examine California’s political geography, a pattern emerges that is precisely the same as in most other states. The big cities, run by politicians typically controlled by public sector unions, are solid blue. But in the hinterlands, many rural counties are solidly Republican. The registration numbers reflect a sizable number of Republican voters, despite being not nearly enough to win statewide elections. The pattern is typically 60/40.
For example, in the 2022 elections for higher state office, Democrats swept the field. Newsom got 59.2 percent of the vote to be reelected governor. Eleni Kounalakis got 59.7 percent to win Lieutenant Governor. The down-ticket Democrat candidates for state office also all won; Secretary of State 60.1 percent, Controller 55.3 percent, Treasurer 58.8 percent, Attorney General 59.1 percent, Insurance Commissioner 59.9 percent, and Superintendent of Public Instruction 63.7 percent.
In the California State Legislature, it’s the same story. The Democratic candidates hold 32 of the 40 seats in the State Senate, and they hold 62 of the 80 seats in the State Assembly. Democrats exercise absolute power in California. But this disenfranchises a sizable minority, since 40 percent of voters can be relied on to vote against Democrats, and in California’s top two general election system, that means they’re voting for Republicans.
There are many ways to look at 40 percent. On one hand, you can consider it indicates landslide proportions, which it is, and give up. But if you take a good look at the mess Democrats have made of California, you might decide it’s entirely possible to swing an additional 10 percent of voters against Democrats and start winning elections. You’d be up against a powerful coalition of public sector unions, who are the top contributors to almost every Democrat that’s had a seat in the state legislature in at least the last 20 years. And you would find them allied with tech billionaires, Hollywood influencers, and an assortment of activist nonprofits and their affiliated PACs. Together, these special interests fuel an agenda that has turned California into a feudal society and stands poised to turn the rest of America into the same medieval mess.
This failure needs no explaining. Californians live with it every day. Tens of thousands of homeless, dying on the streets because politicians are too crooked and too cowardly to just round them up and get them sober, like they used to. Criminals openly looting and terrorizing citizens because prosecutors—elected by Democratic megadonors—have decided incarceration is not the answer. The highest taxes and most burdensome regulations, all for nothing, because California has unreliable energy, rationed water, unaffordable homes, terrible schools, and it’s not safe.
California today is run by this formidable coalition of special interests, more united and more powerful than their counterparts in other states, serving themselves and their donors. They win because, along with all that power and all that money, they sell a message that goes something like this: “Vote for us because Donald Trump will destroy democracy.” Meanwhile, compliant “news” networks associate any Republican with Trump—that is, when they’re not selling climate porn, systemic racism porn, pandemic porn, gender bigotry porn, and other distracting forms of fear-based propaganda.
Propaganda works, but it’s a dangerous game. One by one, people see through the lies. All they need is a wholesome alternative. A message of hope and an agenda to back it up. It isn’t enough to say that Democrats ruined the state, because Democrats have convinced voters that Republicans will ruin it even more.
These are serious disadvantages, but the only healthy approach is to consider them as excuses because Republicans can win in California if they focus on and offer solutions for just three huge things: education, public safety, and the cost of living. These solutions are known and rehashed so often you can’t enumerate them without being stamped as a wonk. Oh well. Here goes:
For education, streamline the process for new charter schools to be opened and for existing charter schools to stay open, implement universal education savings accounts, and reform public school union work rules so teachers can be hired, retained, and compensated based on their success in the classroom instead of based on seniority.
The biggest issue with public safety is to repeal the laws that downgraded penalties for drug and property crimes. Close behind is to insist that funds to help the unhoused go into erecting inexpensive tent cities on inexpensive land, with some of the savings going into mandatory drug treatment and job training. Break the homeless industrial complex which has wasted billions only to make the problem worse.
As for cost of living, candidates need to openly proclaim that the scarcity agenda imposed on Californians will not fix the climate, if there even is a “climate crisis.” Then they need to promise to repeal every law and regulation that unreasonably stifles private investment in new home construction, along with laws that restrict investment in practical energy and water supply solutions. They can begin by promising to repeal the California Environmental Quality Act and the Global Warming Solutions Act. And they can remind concerned voters that there will still be an overabundance of federal protections that will remain to safeguard the environment.
California just needs more candidates with the courage to stand firm on these three issues of universal and nonpartisan appeal and with the charisma to communicate the upside of these positions. The opportunity here is that if a few businesspeople, engineers, and other pragmatic, capable individuals were to step forward to run for office, they would dilute the inevitable attacks from the corrupt special interests that run California today. The more good candidates step up, the more will be willing to step up, because there will be strength in numbers.
Emphasizing tough solutions that will solve California’s three biggest problems will find growing support from an electorate that’s reaching the limit of its patience. With courage, optimism, and adherence to specific solutions, a team of like-minded politicians, sharing a unified message, will eventually realign California. The way things are, it may be just a matter of time.
I truly love Mr. Ring. His articles are always thoughtful, well documented, and concise. And though I don’t disagree with anything in this article, there is one glaring thing he failed to mention; Democrats stay in power not just by their numbers and massive funding, but by cheating at scale. In other words, even when we outvote the left, they still win, i.e. 2020 and 2022 election.
I recently read an article by a fairly well-known conservative pundit (he’s something of an outlaw among conservative wags, but he’s also right most of the time), who commented that the farmer protests in Europe presages what we will see in this country, but with a distinctly American flavor.
What the rogue conservative predicts (which I have said for almost three years must eventually happen at some point) is that it will take a "literal physical confrontation(s)" between the law-abiding and the lawless–or if you will, between the globalists and America-First patriots. Now, that “confrontation” may assume the character of coordinated civil disobedience like the farmers of Europe, or perhaps the truckers of Canada, or it could be something uniquely American. But whatever form it takes, the only way to defeat the left is to confront them “physically” and remove them from power.
Which brings me back to Mr. Ring’s analysis of California Republican opportunities. Samuel Adams said, "It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” And though Adams is correct, I would add that when the opposition is equally keen to oppress those irate, tireless minorities by any means necessary, it then becomes a matter of physics–an irresistible force of freedom meeting the immovable object of tyranny.
IOW, ideas alone will not be enough to dislodge the megalomaniacal tyrants in California, in DC or in Brussels. Or, as my mother used to say, a faithful farmer prays for rain…but with a hoe in his hands.
Mr. Ring continues to fight the good fight, but I feel his efforts to turn California around are doomed for failure. Every battle contains a series of tipping points that results in the outcome of the war.
During the lean years at the federal level, Republicans maintained thirty to thirty-five percent of the House and Senate. In any vote requiring a two thirds majority, Republicans held enough clout to eke out some compromises. But as Mr. Ring so deftly demonstrates, Democrats hold an 80% majority in the State Senate and a 77.5% majority in the House Assembly.
How many election cycles would it take to overcome that kind of clout? It wouldn’t happen in one. I doubt it would happen in two. Could it be done in three? Maybe. But when looking at actual election cycles that means 8 to 12 years. While California Assembly members hold two year terms, Senators and state level officers hold four year terms.
Face it, people are elected on their promises to deliver. If they fail to deliver, the electorate swaps them out for someone else. Do California voters have the patience for a twelve year slog through the polls?
Under federalism, each of the fifty states have the power to go their own way. It is the grandest of all grand democratic schemes. (and I use scheme in its best sense) Let California be the example of what occurs when power is not shared equally----or even cyclically.
Oregon currently is the California Mini-Me. However, Oregon is currently demonstrating that even they can reverse a disastrous course. They discovered that legalizing most dangerous drugs resulted in a very bad outcome and are now taking steps to correct the error. In other words, saner heads are prevailing. But what allows a modicum of sanity is that the Oregon House is split at 30 members of each party. The Oregon Senate is still dominated by Democrats at 18 to 12–a bare two-thirds majority.
So even at the Senate level, negotiation and compromise is still an important part of any legislation.
Oregon, I believe, has taken note of the disaster that follows single party rule. Perhaps citizens of other states can look and learn. California has long been looked upon as the canary in the coal mine. What happens there usually shows up in other places within four to six years. People seeing the disaster there are taking note. Most decide they want no part of it.
Davy Crockett once famously said, “Ya’ll can go to hell. I’m going to Texas”. Wise Californians are saying the same thing. They are also going to Arizona, Tennessee, Nevada, and Florida.
So let the Great Sorting begin, and let California go to hell.
A slight (or maybe not so slight) addition would seem to be in order here: the media have to give the Right a fair shot. Is that ever going to happen?
A little difficult, and far more than a little late, to fix California. If anything we need to concentrate on Texas based upon what we have seen happen to California.
Several weeks ago Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and Mayorkas said that the border was secure. Now they see the polls and suggest that a bill that will make illegal migration legal will do for the border what mass mail-in-voting does for honest voting.
Got it?
What Baja has done for Democrats in California Mayorkas has illegally done for them in Texas. The election is about the invasion. Yet I still see many women, despite their awareness of the nation’s plight, who put immigration on their list of voting priorities, but second to easy access to an abortion.
Ring delegitimizes everything he writes by ignoring the impact of both legal and illegal immigration on California and the entire country. In some school districts, more than 80% of the student body consists of illegal aliens who bear none of the costs, but get all of the benefits at our expense. I’m weary of those who either will not or cannot see what is in front of their eyes.