… That naysaying has gained much greater currency in recent years as California’s population has contracted for the first time in more than a century. The “exodus” has become an industry, stoking real estate markets from Nevada to Tennessee, fanning the red-versus-blue political flames and launching a thousand what-went-wrong analyses. The latest insult — or bracing reality check? — came last week in a Los Angeles Times poll that found 50% of adults nationwide believe California is in decline. (Bummer, man.) Nearly half the Republicans surveyed said the state is “not really American.” Whatever that means. L.A. Times columnists Mark...