Can we PLEASE stop hating on California?
Why the modern conservative movement needs to stop running away from the Golden State
What happened to California? Why do conservatives run away?
I get it. California, in the eyes of the conservative movement, is a lost cause. The Golden State seems to be a stronghold for progressive ideological legislation that has destroyed our education system, ravaged our cities (check out the homeless situation in places like San Francisco), and placed the interests of illegal migrants above law-abiding American citizens. For the average conservative voter who values independence, low taxes, and clean, curated city streets, California does not fit the bill. We have a radically leftist governor (Gavin Newsom, Democrat) who has lowered the boom of totalitarianism on our state ever since the coronavirus pandemic swept the nation in March 2020, closing businesses, masking schoolchildren, shutting down churches, and demanding fealty to the almighty god of the health department.
The Golden State is not the ONLY place with problems
Sure, things in California could be better. But I’d like to point out that things in America as a whole could be better, too. Our executive leadership is a joke. Joe Biden’s popularity has taken a severe nosedive over the past year (if there was any organic popularity there to begin with – let’s be honest here), leading even Democrats to reject him as a potential 2024 candidate by over 50 percent, according to a new SSRS poll. Federal mandates have been shoved through in some settings (like healthcare) despite the Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down the mandate for private employers. Inflation is at an all-time 40-year high (Biden makes Jimmy Carter look like a glamorous success), the country is still licking its wounds from an embarrassing and botched withdrawal from Afghanistan (leaving behind billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment to the Taliban…yeah, really), and now, Biden’s administration seems hellbent on wedging the United States into a conflict overseas to keep Russia from invading Ukraine.
The U.S. is not “free”
I’ve made this argument before, but if you take a look at the policies in place on the federal level and the trickle-down effect it has on states, the U.S. is far from a free market. We are over regulated and over-taxed. We operate on a system of social credit. You can be successful and maintain that success only if you keep your mouth shut and your head down. Tow the party line or stay quiet. Those are the rules. Follow or be cast to the dogs. Repeat federally-approved Covid treatments or be censored. Don’t ask questions, because you’ll be banned from social media. Don’t point to flaws in the election system, or you’ll be blacklisted by corporate America. Whatever you do, don’t speak freely.
America maintains only a sliver of her freedom today, and what’s left of our First Amendment rights (along with all the other equally important rights) are slowly being eroded away by the stronghold that is “Big Tech.” When all information tributaries flow through three or four major online platforms, it becomes very easy to shut down public discourse.
Bringing it back to California
Why does any of this matter? Well, I think it’s a little too easy for the GOP to politically pound California as an example of what not to do in the political arena. Bad legislation equals bad outcomes for the middle class. However, as a born and bred Californian myself, there are a few things I’d like people to consider when the GOP gleefully slams the Golden State for being a complete lost cause:
· First, consider that when people refer to Californians as being unwelcome in states like Texas or Florida, I believe who they are actually referring to are the progressive-leaning policies of big corporations who relocate from Silicon Valley (for example) to a rural Texas, conservative county. I think GOP candidates do themselves a disservice by making the implication that hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding, conservative-voting California citizens should be lumped into the same group as mega-corporations or progressive cities like San Francisco. People need to realize that California is a huge state. There is a lot more to the landscape than a couple of blue-leaning urban strongholds.
· There are millions of conservative voters in California. I previously examined some of the statistics on this in a previous op/ed, but I often make the argument that Californians who are fleeing the progressive policies of Newsom and the Democrat-run legislature are not Democrat voters. Migrating Californians are settling in conservative states because they are drawn to and support conservative policies. Florida, for example, now has more registered Republicans than Democrats for the first time in history. Why? Because conservatives are turning red states redder.
· The GOP likes to forget that California has a super economy. World Population Review reports that coming into 2022, California has the highest GDP in the United States, accounting for 14.7 percent of the entire U.S.’s total GDP as a whole. California’s economy is so massive, as a matter of fact, that our output is on par with an independent country. We have geographic diversity unlike any other state. Mountains, deserts, valleys, and moderate, dazzling coastlines. The temperate climate (it only snows in the mountains of California) makes for a perfect environment for agriculture, which created the “World’s Fruit Basket” as farmers and laborers have turned the entire Central Valley into an agricultural stronghold over the past century that is unrivaled anywhere else in the union. Boasting a Mediterranean climate that stretches for a jaw-dropping 450 miles with some of the richest soil on the planet, more than 230 different kinds of crops are grown here, contributing handily to one third of the entire nation’s fruits and veggies (VTD, 2019). And, according to the Visalia Times Delta (2019), the Central Valley is also more densely populated than Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Oregon combined. And did I mention that agricultural workers and farmers tend to vote Republican? Have you ever heard of Devin Nunes? He represents the farmland of the Central Valley and the demographics of the people who vote there.
California progressive policies stem from a few things:
First, California is so massive that it bears the burden of balancing the corruption of two major cities that enjoy voting blue: San Francisco and Los Angeles. The policies there are socialist. The lawmakers who are elected in those districts are usually Democrats because they keep their constituents on the government dole, which keeps the voting masses there placated. Additionally, city councils in L.A. and San Fran are notoriously radically leftist and most likely corrupt (just like every other political sphere, down to the local level).
Second, California’s illegal immigration problem has allowed the literal invasion of millions of undocumented migrants who have poured into these urban centers or taken over rural California farm towns. President Donald Trump stated during a Save America rally in Conroe, Texas in January that this type of unchecked foreign invasion usually is not seen unless a country has fallen on the field of battle. A disturbing and accurate observation. Heritage Foundation found that in 2018 alone (before the border debacle of 2021 had even happened), one quarter of ALL federal drug arrests were made at the U.S-Mexico border. We know for a fact that human traffickers have poured over the border, along with drug cartel networks and even terrorists who are using the border as an open access pathway into the country. I live in California and I see the effects of the socialist policies in place to support illegal migrants. Illegals in California get more assistance than law-abiding, naturalized citizens. Illegal migrants have access to healthcare, free education, and government-subsidized housing. I live in a farm town in the Central Valley that has slowly turned into a collection of WIC centers (food assistance), Social Service offices, migration offices, United Healthcare clinics, and once-safe neighborhoods now rampant with weekly shooting sprees and M13 graffiti. It doesn’t look like my hometown anymore. And hey, let’s not even talk about how crime has risen incredibly as more illegals stream into the city. California is a sanctuary state, which gives those migrants who have broken the law to enter the country a sense of security that most countries would never allow (except for us, because we’re so special!). Do I understand that some of these migrants come to America because they are seeking an escape from the cruelty or despotism of Mexico or beyond? Of course. But that does not justify living in unrepentant criminality for an entire lifetime. And it certainly does not justify taking tax payer dollars from hardworking American citizens to give it to someone who is not a citizen. It doesn’t make sense. A good father cares for the needs of his own household first. California has failed to fulfill its obligation to its own working class citizens.
Third, California has a dubious election system, just like the rest of the nation. It boggles my mind that while countless nationwide reports of shocking election fraud and irregularities (and jaw-dropping corruption down to the county-level) stack up, nobody is looking at California. California is wildly corrupt. Our election systems have been permanently relegated to mail-in voting (thanks, Newsom), which we know for a fact opens the door for easy fraud to occur. Our votes are tabulated with Dominion voting system machines in multiple counties (you can confirm this with your own eyes on the California Sec. of State’s website!). We know what that means. Gavin Newsom’s recall was a statewide, organic effort that should have seen him thrown out of the State Capitol in September 2021, but we’ve been told that conservative voters lost badly. Did we? Do we know for sure that we did? Has anyone checked? Audited the counties? Even if the recall really did fail, I’d be willing to bet that it was by a much slimmer margin than anyone would be willing to admit.
Lastly, the GOP has abandoned us. California is an electoral college rock star, offering 55 votes during a presidential election. Imagine, if you will, a red California. How could that change the voting landscape of presidential elections for conservative candidates? Yet the GOP has scoffed at California, continually mocking it for its progressive downfall and smearing the hardworking California citizens who are trapped under the leadership of corrupt politicians who have been propped up by equally corrupt urban centers and a sketchy election system.
Wrapping it up
I ask you, how is California’s situation any different from the rest of the country’s? Are we not all trapped under the thumb of a tyrannical administration that nobody wanted in the first place? And yet do we decry the good, salt-of-the-earth Americans who live across the country and blame them for the progressive policies of Biden and his cohorts? Is it fair for us to blame common sense, red-blooded Americans for the corruption of the federal and state level? Is it fair for us to disparage Americans for being beaten down by arrogant politicians who have persecuted them financially and economically and then turn around and tell them, “You are NOT welcome where I live?” It’s not fair at all! So, why does the GOP and well-meaning conservatives from other states insist on blaming Californians for everything happening in their state? We, too, have been taken advantage of. We have been infiltrated by devious politicians, liars, and weak city councils. We have tried to fight back. There are countless people who do, every day. Valiantly. And what do they get for that effort? They get ignored by the GOP. They get lumped into the demographics of San Francisco, which is grossly unfair. Why does the modern conservative movement and its leaders insist on relegating California to the dustbin of history? Do they know something we don’t? Will no one come to our aid and help us clean up this state?
When Californians flee, they leave because they have grown so tired and weary that it hurts. Leaving the state is heartbreaking. It means leaving family, friends, and a lifetime of memories. It’s not easy, and for conservative pundits who say, “JUST MOVE IF IT’S SO BAD,” I say, shame on you. Some people can’t move. The elderly cannot relocate. Many people are not in a position, financially, to just sell their house and move halfway across the country. Some people have health problems. Maybe they physically cannot do it. It is arrogant and demonstrates an inability to understand what it’s like in the “real world,” to tell people to “just leave if you don’t like California.” Also, let’s face it: if all the conservatives leave California, who will be left to fight for it? Will you? As conservatives leave California and resettle in red states, they leave behind a vacuum that is being filled with blue voters and, if Democrats get their way, illegal migrants who will soon be legalized and cast their votes eternally for Democrat policies. To abandon California is a strategic misstep, in my opinion, by the GOP. It wasn’t very long ago that California boasted Ronald Reagan as our governor, and imagine the impact that a red California could have on the entire country. It wouldn’t take much. Fresh, common-sense legislation, a crackdown on illegal immigration, and better tax policies would go a long way to kick-start the process.
Imagine the possibilities. Imagine the power and economy of a California harnessed for conservatism instead of radical socialism.
I think the vision is worth fighting for, and I wish the national conservative movement would face California’s problems (and potential) instead of running away from it.
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Research Links:
Bergon, Frank. (2019). Here’s why the Central Valley has the most productive agricultural land and diverse communities. Visalia Times Delta. Retrieved from: https://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/story/life/2019/08/15/california-agriculture-central-valley-productive-land-diverse-people/1989722001/
Ramirez, Laura. (2022). Biden loses majority of Democrat support heading into 2024, new poll suggests. Right Side Broadcasting Network. Retrieved from: https://rsbnetwork.com/news/biden-loses-majority-of-democrat-support-heading-into-2024-new-poll-suggests/
Spakovsky, Hans A. von. (2019). Crimes by Illegal Immigrants Widespread Across U.S. – Sanctuaries Shouldn’t Shield Them. Heritage Foundation. Retrieved from: https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/crimes-illegal-immigrants-widespread-across-us-sanctuaries-shouldnt
World Population Review. (2022). GDP by State 2021, 2022. Retrieved from: https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/gdp-by-state