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Maryland
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Illinois
Posted on 01/02/2008 4:57:57 AM PST by FlatLandBeer
In talking with my brother, who lives in California last night we discuss some politics. He belives that California has become a one party state. My question to all of the Californians on FR.. Do you think California has become a one party state? If so what do you see as the future of the state?
It doesn’t matter, we have the 9th Circuit.
¡California es un lugar maravilloso a vivir!
Maybe I’m out of line for posting on this topic since I don’t live in California. But I follow its politics and I’d say it is becoming a one party state. That doesn’t mean there aren’t conservative and GOP regions there. On a colored map, a large part of the state is red, probably most of the state geographically. But it’s the inland counties without the massive populations.
The state is now dominated by the massive Los Angeles and Bay Area regions, plus Sacramento and some coastal hippie strongholds. These places eclipse the rest of the state in statewide elections. They also pretty much assure ‘Rat control of the legislature and U.S. House delegation.
And these aren’t old time labor Democrats or moderates, they’re rabid leftists who vote as a monolithic block on things such as abortion, redistribution schemes, homosexuality, and so forth. The ‘Rat party in California is controlled by radicalized racial minorities, upscale white liberals who live in gated and secure neighborhoods or condo complexes, sex perverts, environmentalist whackos, and anti-American “peace” activists.
Large numbers of Republican oriented middle class folks have fled the state, while millions of foreigners have moved in.
The only reason Arnold, a Republican, is governor is because he’s enough of a RINO that he wasn’t viewed as a threat to the state’s leftist slide, and he was a big movie star and that got him a lot of votes as well.
California’s future is left, left, and more left. Increasingly one party control with only an occasional RINO breaking the pattern.
As far as political ideology is concerned, it is pretty much common knowledge that the agricultural central valley and sparsely populated far north are largely conservative, while the dense urban centers around LA and up the coast to the Bay Area are largely liberal. There are anomalies like liberal college towns in otherwise conservative areas, but the generalizations above are reasonably accurate.
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
New York
New Jersey
Delaware
Maryland
Pennsylvania
Illinois
Like all 50 states California is purple rather than red or blue.
The governor is a Republican. Several previous Governors have been Republican.
18 of the 50 districts are Republican.
Its only in a winner take all Presidential vote that California has been a lock for Dems.
I live in the Central area of California and I rarely discuss politics because the local media are all heavily weighted for Democrats.
Even when I am with known conservatives, we talk carefully unless we are in our homes.
It feels like being under some kind of evil censorship.
Oh well at least I have my vote this year and don’t have to watch everyone else make their choices.
With all due respect to the state GOP, California’s governor is a Democrat.
The state assembly OTOH, belongs to the PRI...
The state is going bankrupt thanks to bleeding heart, clueless Liberals. The state is one flush away from going down the toilet bowl. Taxes and insane Liberalism will continue to chase sane people away taking their taxes and companies with them. There are pockets of conservative Republicans here who are beating their heads against this wall of insanity that is destroying the state. The moronic legislators are passing insane laws that will result in more taxpayers leaving. Many more are fleeing daily.
>>With all due respect to the state GOP, California’s governor is a Democrat.
The state assembly OTOH, belongs to the PRI...<<
Yeah, I had some hesitation listing Arnold as a Republican... He’s clearly different than California Democrats but here in Georgia its not at all clear he would be a Republican.
Reagan and Nixon, though were actual Republican Governors even if Nixon didn’t look like a Republican President.
Yep, California is one BIG party state.
With all the booze, drugs, and group sex -— they can’t see straight.
I don’t disagree with you. The reigns of power in Sacramento are solidly in inept liberal hands and have a stranglehold on the entire state politically. I was just trying to map it out by regional demographics.
The really frustrating thing is, he originally seemed like he was going to be almost a Duncan Hunter Republican.
Even better - a combative advocate. Remember the “girlie men” slam? Those were the days.
Then there was a special election - and the positions Ah-no was supporting were (heavily) advertised against by labor and the left. The election was not a success.
From that moment, it was like that movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. My own opinion is, at that moment he made a conscious decision to put his after-office commercial interests in Hollywood, above his political positions.
I miss those days of Ah-no taunting the democrats. That was some good stuff!...
As far as voting for Senators and Presidents, yes a Republican vote hasn’t mattered for quite some time now.
My vote for President next year will be a protest vote.
No, it’s not; but if you listen to the morons in the news; etc; you would think so. And, of course, having a Gov. who is a RINO would appear that it is.
I am sure there are pockets of liberals there; but not everyone is.
and you have just described the peoples republik of michigan to a tea....
The greater question is has “America become a one party country”?
That's true, but California was once a state that was pretty evenly divided when it came to state politics, and actually leaned GOP in national politics. From 1952 to 1988, California went GOP in every presidential election except for the 1964 Johnson landslide.
That has changed dramatically in the past 15 years. Huge numbers of middle class voters have left the state, only to be replaced by immigrants. The GOP has lost or is losing its key electoral centers.
Orange County was once one of the most conservative strongholds in the nation. I remember reading a satire in some leftist rag back around 1980 mocking the county for being so conservative and Republican. Now it's full of Democrats and represented in Congress by a Marxist loon named Loretta Sanchez. The same thing has happened to dozens of once reliably GOP L.A. suburbs.
San Diego was once a solid conservative city, drawing strength from its military institutions. It isn't as far gone as Orange County, but its conservative leanings have been neutralized. Recall the recent episode there where homosexual city leaders forced the city's firefighters to march in a "gay pride" parade.
Ronald Reagan couldn't be elected in California today. Not a chance.
It doesn’t surprise me at all. I grew up there, and now live in WA state. WA is DEFINITELY a one party state. I’d say, however, that such a condition never lasts. Its inevitable that they Duke/Duchess in power overreach and finally the middle lefties get made about that confiscation and switch parties for a couple of years.
States almost as “blue” include Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado.
The tragedy is, if you had asked that question 3 years ago, people who would be frightened by the answer, would have been ... democrats.
Bush squandered so much, for Mexico.
I hope it was worth it, whatever the reason was.
From what I read about California, it is one party that runs 24/7 and everybody there is either high or drunk...........
...California’s future is left, left, and more left. Increasingly one party control with only an occasional RINO breaking the pattern.
Cheeze, change a word here and there and you're talking about England.
Washington is a lot like California in its political geography. Probably two-thirds of the state is Republican in terms of territory. But the less populated East and Central GOP regions get outvoted by the massive leftist Seattle area, plus Democrat Tacoma and the environmentalist & hippie coastal towns.
Washington’s such a beautiful state! I hope folks like you can save it!
California has a lot more in common with Mexico than it does with Alabama. And the gap is widening.
Now look (if you can stand to) at the composition of Massachusetts' legislature: the House is controlled by Democrats by 140-19, with 1 vacancy (87.5% majority), and the Senate by 34-5, with 1 vacancy (85% majority). In the entire rest of the state, there are only about six (I can't recall the exact number) elected Republicans at the county level (D.A.'s and Sheriffs). Now that's what a one-party state looks like!
And states in which we lost senate races last time include:
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It’s a de facto one-party state, currently; the GOP holds only about a third of the state Assembly and Senate, and no statewide office except Governor, and that’s Schwarzenegger who’s a very atypical kind of governor.
I place that state of affairs, however, mostly to mismanagement by the state GOP. California is a majority Democratic state, but there’s no reason why Republicans couldn’t win to the same degree here as Democrats do in several western and southern states. There’s absolutely an opening here, since California (while socially liberal) has a right wing streak when it comes to things like immigration and affirmative action, and anyone who harnesses the public mood on a key issue that the other party is vulnerable on can be very competitive.
However, you’re not going to elect a Haley Barbour or Rick Santorum here. The most viable candidate would probably be a populist or RINO, or combo of the two. California hasn’t elected a pro-life governor since Deukmejian in 86, and barring major demographic changes, we won’t see another one. I don’t think the state GOP has reconciled themselves to this; the last regular politician the party nominated (Arnold is sui generis) was Bill Simon, a doddering right wing cardboard cutout who’d do fine in Wyoming but got his clock cleaned in CA, by an incumbent governor so unpopular he was recalled less than a year later.
Most Of California’s Prop. 187 Ruled Unconstitutional
LOS ANGELES (AllPolitics, March 19) — A U.S. District Court judge has declared most of California’s Proposition 187 unconstitutional.
Approved by voters in 1994, the proposition would have denied health care, education and welfare benefits to illegal immigrants. Almost immediately, Judge Mariana Pfaelzer granted its opponents’ request for a restraining order, which prevented it from taking effect.
In her final ruling, Pfaelzer rejected California’s attempt to regulate immigration, which she said is the federal government’s responsibility.
Judge Pfaelzer’s ruling strikes down portions of the initiative that would have required law enforcement, teachers, social service and health care workers to verify a person’s immigration status. Under Proposition 187, they would have had to report illegals to authorities and to deny them social service, health care and education benefits.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s Southern California chapter was one of the five groups which sued to stop Proposition 187. In a statement, ACLU spokesman Mark Rosenbaum said Pfaelzer correctly denied California’s attempt to regulate immigration.
“[It is] not a matter for individual states to attempt to formulate their own rules and procedures,” Rosenbaum said. “School teachers and doctors are not substitutes for INS agents.”
But California Gov. Pete Wilson, who supports Proposition 187, vowed to appeal, “so that the will of the people can be upheld.”
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/03/19/prop.187/
Is it any wonder that Americans fled California?
California looks like a one party state because our state GOP nominates very conservative candidates to state-wide offices. California is not a conservative state, even though pockets of it, like my home county of Placer, are very conservative.
We have not recovered from Pete Wilson’s victory over K. Brown and Prop 187. We won those battles but lost considerable ground in the hispanic community - a community that we need to win. Latins are, by nature, a conservative culture and are a natural fit in the GOP.
The Duncan Hunters and Tom McClintocks of the world aren’t helping us make inroads there.
California (and increasingly the rest of the U.S.) is a lost cause if we continue to embrace the GOP of our grandfathers. Of course, that’s ok with most posters here on FR who would rather stand tall before the mast.
The perfect is the enemy of the good.
The California coast is truly liberal and Marxist, left-over hippies, radical homosexuals, wigged out. The entire rest of the state is pretty conservative. The urban centers of the big cities — LA and SF — much like Chicago, are very liberal in the center and conservative, suburban the farther out you go.
It’s quite depressing here, currently, and the Ninth Circuit CoA doesn’t help things. The legislature is run by Utopian Marxist Idiots.
However, it used to be pretty conservative, and as liberalism runs amok, I believe more and more people will see the damage and seek to change course.
But then, I am a pig-headed optimist. The Lord is on first.
The People’s Republic of Kalifornia a one party state? Not as long as they have the Communist Party, the Green Party, and the Democrap party. That’s three right there.
When Reagan first ran for governor, all statewide offices except one went Republican. The only RAT to win was a very nonpartisan moderate.
If the GOP lost ground with Latinos for opposing welfare benefits for people who are illegally in our country, then Latinos are not a “natural fit for the GOP”.
We’ve been hearing for years that Latinos are natural Republican voters, but to the best of my knowledge the only Latino community in America that votes GOP is the Cuban community in Florida. And that’s a unique situation because when the Communists came to power in Cuba, it was the productive, educated class of people who fled and came here. In California, Texas, Arizona, and elsewhere we’re getting Latino immigrants who are basically the type of people who elected Chavez in Venezuela and who kept Mexico’s Marxist “people’s party” in power for something like 80 straight years.
Also, why is the abortion & illegitimacy rate for Latinos so high if they’re family values voters?
We have had an influx of hard working, conservative people from California move here the past few years. Of course, there are many liberals from CA who just LOVE Austin. Most of the conservatives live outside the big cities.
LOL. Rick Santorum couldn't get elected again in his state, either!
You raise interesting points. I’ll add some thoughts:
We are doomed if we become an “anti-populist” party.
The success of the GOP depends on a stong middle class.
Democratic tax policies are harmful to business creation and wealth generation - key issues for the middle class.
Latinos that fall into the gang or hip-hop (GTA San Andres) sterotype are a problem for the GOP.
Yep. About the only places an FR darling can win consistently are where the GOP has about a 20 point advantage.
The Republican Party, unfortunately, has squandered a lot of opportunities for state government in the name of perfect ACU ratings and the like. The Democratic Party is taking over places like Colorado and Nevada on the state government level, where John Kerry only polled about 47%. That figure is comparable to George W. Bush’s showing in California (44%), Oregon (47), Washington (46), Wisconsin (49), Illinois (44), Michigan (48), Maine (45), Connecticut (44), Pennsylvania (48), and New Jersey (46), but out of those states we’re pulling virtually zip.
A lot of those places get dismissed as “People’s Republics” around here, but if Dubya did that well in them then GOP candidates more specifically tailored to the state ought to win quite a few of them. Out of those places our party has only scored one Republican governor, in Connecticut.
Do you know how well the Democrats have done in the states Kerry lost in ‘04, but carried at least 44% of the vote? The Democrats are EIGHT for ELEVEN in the state governor chairs.
Conservatives who remain in California with the hope that someday the political environment will turn once more in their direction are nothing more than fools.
California will never "go back", anymore than will New York state or Massachusetts. Blue states just "get bluer". Conversely, the red states will gradually "get purpler" (with a few possible exceptions).
Conservatives who remain in California with the full understanding that the political environment can never be reversed - but who choose to remain anyway - face an uphill battle against the moonbats. Perhaps it's worth it to them, for whatever reasons....
- John
Sometimes it’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry! Exactly when was Nixon the Governor of California?
Quite right.
A libertarian-leaning GOP would hold its own here and even score some surprising successes. Many of the new technology elite are disgusted with excessive Democrat taxation, regulation, and mismanagement but feel they have nowhere to turn.
The RINO/Big Government/Democrat-lite GOP we are told we need as an alternative would remain in the minority, only breaking through when the personal charisma of one of its candidates (like Arnold) outweighs the party's uncompelling message. This group will usually lose to real Democrats and their "cause of the week" style of campaigning.
The social conservative GOP we actually have will continue to get its clock cleaned - especially when they insist on running well-groomed white male TV evangelist-types for statewide office. This isn't Alabama, and the areas of California where these types of candidates can be successful are dwindling fast.
Come up with a good-looking Hispanic male with an MS in computer science, Silicon Valley experience, a good television presence, and a passion for cutting taxes and regulations, and such a candidate could win the governorship for the GOP by a 60-40 margin.
The average California voter is not especially Leftist, just rather naive and misinformed and doesn't pay much attention to politics. And when you ignore politics, the bad guys always manage to weasel their way in.
Nixon ran for Governor in ‘62, he was not elected. He was Senator from 1950-53.
This is partly Rush's fault, I think.
Nobody has done more to hurt the conservative movement than when Limbaugh repeated the demonstrably false mantra that "conservatism works every time it's tried."
No. It doesn't.
People latch on to that concept the same way Marxists claim that Communism just hasn't been implemented correctly by the right people yet.
I've named the FR purists "broken glass inactivists".
People who will crawl across broken glass to stay home and NOT vote for a less-pure conservative even if it means Hillary or worse in the whitehouse.
There are many who indulge an arrogant purist pride to contribute money only for a politician who prances the right sermon out, knowing that he's alienating >50% of the country and dooming his chance to lead.
These people are enabled by Rush's false premise, as with Santorum, Steele, etc.
I like Bush because of anti-ABM treaty, anti-Kyoto, Libya disarmed, tax cuts, Alito, Roberts, etc---and I honestly think Saddam had to be toppled. That he fumbled the "mission accomplished" and immigration snafu and hasn't personally imprisoned abortion doctors is acceptable to me. For some, that damns him as a failed president.
EVEN RONALD REAGAN WOULD FALL SHORT OF THESE FOLKS' EXPECTATIONS TODAY. Though they won't admit it.
Meanwhile, 50% of American voters voted for AL GORE and JOHN F'N KERRY. Hello? Do you think those people were just gritting their teeth and voting for "more nuance" because there wasn't a Tancredo or Duncan Hunter choice in 2000 and 2004?
I'm not surprised that the abortion rate for mexican immigrants in the US would be high, considering that abortion is illegal in Mexico.
Make Northern and parts of inland CA our 51st state. Let the ‘Rats have the land west of and near the San Anderas fault.
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