Southern California used to be home to staunch conservatives in large numbers. With the exception of Los Angeles proper, with its large concentration of blacks, Jews, Hispanics, and movie people, the region once reflected the conservative mores of the Midwesterners and Southwesterners who came in huge numbers in the first half of the last century. Southern California was the birthplace of the Pentecostal movement, and the religious climate of the region was conservative overall. Men like Duncan Hunter were once very commonplace in Southern California politics. In the 1960s, Orange County was so conservative that a local office holder joked that he joined the John Birch Society to appeal to the middle of the road vote. Such people, or their children, would be the ones most likely to leave an increasingly liberal and immigrant-heavy California. Yet common wisdom is that ex-Californians are a major reason for the leftward shift in the political climate in many Western states in the past decade.
Where are the grandchildren of the "little old lady from Pasadena"?