What in your opinion made California turn blue? Do you see any way California can fix its current political climate? It’s easy to bash California when the idiotic headlines seem to come from that state every week but I wonder if there is any way to change that? There are a lot of Republicans in California, how can they make their voice be heard? Is it a lost cause?

What in your opinion made California turn blue? Flood of Illegals , drugs
Do you see any way California can fix its current political climate? No
It’s easy to bash California when the idiotic headlines seem to come from that state every week but I wonder if there is any way to change that? Too many crazies, too little time, the kids have been indoctrinated for years.
There are a lot of Republicans in California, how can they make their voice be heard? Sorry they are simply out numbered
Is it a lost cause? Yes

This state is completely Godless and with no hope. Maybe Trump will also extend the wall on California’s north and east state line?

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
What in your opinion made California turn blue? Do you see any way California can fix its current political climate? It’s easy to bash California when the idiotic headlines seem to come from that state every week but I wonder if there is any way to change that? There are a lot of Republicans in California, how can they make their voice be heard? Is it a lost cause?

Having been there from when Ronald Reagan was Governor until 4 years ago, I observed the in migration of people from all over the place. Me, too, actually. I came there on Navy orders and ended up staying, but a great many came to seek their fortune, take advantage of the terrific weather, be discovered and become famous, etc.

In the 1960s, it was a fantastic place, to me. Ricky Nelson lived there, Annette too, there was Disneyland. The worst part was smog in LA, but that was not a factor in San Diego where I was, unless you had to go there.

There were a lot of doper dirtball hippies, somewhat concentrated around Berkeley, but many in LA. There were avowed Commies teaching at UCSan Diego, Herbert Marcuse, Angela Davis at UCLA, to name but two.

Young people were especially attracted to the beach surfer lifestyle, many of them easily impressionable, sympathetic to ideas that promoted or allowed the laid back lifestyle, and sympathetic to the illegal alien crowd. Those old hippies started running for office, rose in public employee ranks, in the union, etc.

The center of political gravity has shifted to the point that Republicans will eventually be like dinosaurs..... you hardly ever see one anymore.

Social justice is far more important that prosperity and security, so physical conditions will deteriorate, like they have in all other socialist hellholes, and “the Golden State” will eventually be a sad joke, if not already.

East coast liberals have been fleeing to CA for decades. Since the late 70s, gays have been flocking to CA, specifically San Francisco, and now SF is the powerhouse center for CA politics.

IMO, there is zero chance of "turning" CA into a red state, or even slightly purple. The system is totally rigged with how it is set up with illegal aliens, who have rights to drivers licenses, and with the Motor Voter law. Without a doubt, CA is the most leftist state in the union.

As far as Republicans, the last one as governor was Arnold, and by all intents and purposes, he was a Democrat, more left than a RINO. In the presidential election, CA gave Hillary 2 votes to Trump's 1. She trounced him in CA. There are more registered Dems than Republicans.

I have determined that CA was a lost cause years ago.

Prop 187

I spent a lot of time there in the 80s and 90s. I moved some folks out there and hired some locals when we opened an office in San Diego. We were running the electronic claims side of CHAMPUS/TRICARE in partnership with first Aetna and then Foundation Health.

I liked San Diego and most of the surrounding areas and dealt with some relatively sane people. LA and north through Oakland and SF was a nightmare.

The upper rural parts could have been South Carolina or anywhere in the south. Very conservative.

Interestingly after our contract was done 4 out of the 7 people I moved out there stayed and took other jobs when the 5 year contract. I had moved them all from the Columbia, SC area.

I have stayed in touch with a couple and while I like them personally they have drank the Kool Aid and are now very liberal.

The only exception was my team manager and he is still normal. Went hunting with him in Iowa last year and he attributes his attitudes to his religious side and the fact that he has stayed in Rancho Bernardo area which while near Dan Diego is still kind of isolated.

I know it's a Pipe Dream, but:

Split it up. Let's see those urban areas stand up under their own weight.

There are plenty of good folks not in those areas, but they're hamstrung by the sheer numbers in the LA/SF megalopolis.

California's always been the land of opportunity. The problem is that opportunity has changed. It's gone from a place of offering opportunity for those who wanted to innovate and do something different to opportunity for those who want to benefit from the work of others.

I'd say urbanization swung California blue. Same thing is happening in NY. Good luck getting back barring things I'd rather not see happen.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
What in your opinion made California turn blue? Flood of Illegals , drugs
Do you see any way California can fix its current political climate? No
It’s easy to bash California when the idiotic headlines seem to come from that state every week but I wonder if there is any way to change that? Too many crazies, too little time, the kids have been indoctrinated for years.
There are a lot of Republicans in California, how can they make their voice be heard? Sorry they are simply out numbered
Is it a lost cause? Yes

Conservatives are leaving the State. Why?
To find a better life elsewhere:

"We Don't Belong Here Anymore" - Even Landlords Are Fleeing The Bay Area

Peter Thiel and his band of libertarian-leaning Silicon Valley-types aren't the only ones scrambling to leave the Bay Area: As we've noted time and time again, staggering economic inequality is a daily fact of life in the area surrounding San Francisco - largely because rapidly growing home valuations have left couples earning as much as $500,00 a year feeling like they're being steadily priced out.

And while we've previously covered the exodus of renters to low-cost states like Texas, in a report published Saturday, the East Bay Times explores an even more troubling trend: Landlords are increasingly taking the cue from their tenants and joining in the exodus.

After all, with one in four US homes sold during 2017 going for more than $500,000 above their asking - particularly in hot real-estate markets like San Francisco, where buyers battling for the highest bid have begun relying on clauses that will automatically - and incrementally - raise their bids until they either emerge victorious, or reach a predetermined ceiling.

For at least the last nine months, the Bay Area has led the country in the number of departing residents, as everybody who isn't a tech worker - including essential civil servants like police and fire fighters - begins to feel like a secondary servile class. One landlord said several of his tenants asked if they could move with him when he announced he was selling the building and departing for Colorado

Tony Hicks moved to San Jose in 1981, but he’s had enough.

Hicks told his 11 tenants he would soon place the three homes he owns on the market. He expected disappointment. Instead, most wanted to move with him to Colorado.

"It didn’t take them long," Hicks said. "I was surprised."

Hicks first bonded with many of his tenants over their shared appreciation for conservative politics in an environment that is openly hostile to views that don't conform to the dominant neoliberal ideology.

"I’ve been thinking about this for a long time," said Dan Harvey, 60, a retiree in one of Hicks’ rentals who is concerned about the traffic he fights on his Harley Davidson and the high cost of living. "A fresh start."

Rising prices, high taxes and his suspicion that the next big earthquake is just a few tremors away convinced the retired engineer to put his South San Jose properties up for sale.

The groundswell to leave Silicon Valley — the place of fortunes, world-changing tech and $2,500 a-month-garage apartments — has been building. For at least the last nine months, the San Francisco metro area has led the nation in the number of residents moving out, according to a survey by online brokerage Redfin.

San Jose real estate agent Sandy Jamison has seen many long-time residents and natives leave the state recently. The lack of available housing, leading to some of the priciest real estate in the country, is driving many from the region, she said.

The landlord and tenants came together through Hick’s rental ads on Craigslist and in the newspaper over the last two decades. They grew close with common bonds of conservative politics, religious faith and motorcycles.

It’s an unlikely collection of 10 men and one woman — a retired engineer, a few military veterans, blue collar workers and others on fixed incomes. Few say they could afford to go it alone in the sky-high housing market in San Jose, where a typical two bedroom rents for about $2,500 a month, far more than what they pay Hicks.

Most of the men are divorced, widowed or never married, and many suffer from health ailments and a crankiness exacerbated by Bay Area traffic, crowding and the state’s liberal policies on crime and immigration.

Hicks, 58, was an engineer and marketing executive at IBM, Xerox and other companies before retiring in his early 40s to raise his daughter from his first marriage.

...

He bought a few investment properties in South San Jose, and looked for long-term returns when he sold them. He kept rents low — between $500 to $1,200 a month for one bedroom — and never raised prices once a tenant signed a lease.

Many of his tenants have been with him for more than a decade.

"We became brothers," said Mike Leyva. The 64-year-old Army veteran and retiree signed a lease in 2004 and never left.

And Hicks and his compatriots aren't alone - not by a long shot: A five-county poll conducted for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the East Bay Times found that more than one-third of Bay Area apartment renters and one-quarter of residents in their 20s and 30s say they are struggling to afford their housing.



Many longtime residents also describe a feeling of alienation that seemed to accompany the tech boom.

According to one real estate agent, the top reasons people leave the Bay Area are as follows: high taxes, cost of living, quality of life from traffic to homelessness, politics and high housing prices. For many long-time residents, she said, "they feel like they don’t belong here any more."

For Hicks, lofty real estate valuations were the last incentive he needed.

In recent years, Hicks began to believe there was a better life outside the valley.

Vaulting real estate prices added incentive. He kept up on tax laws that could maximize the returns on his property. Selling his San Jose rental houses and buying new properties with the proceeds would allow him to defer taxes. “It’s a great financial move,” he said.

Hicks was also moved by discussions with his pastor and sermons at his church, the Vietnamese Living Word Community Church, about Biblical journeys. His spiritual beliefs guided him to his decision to move with his new wife, Fidessa, 31, and her 8-year-old daughter.

Cautiously, he broke the news to his friends.

"I was totally shocked," Leyva said. "I thought he was joking me. I had a lot of questions about it."

The tenants who are accompanying Hicks expect to save hundreds of dollars a month in rent when they relocated to Colorado...

QUOTE

Levya spent two days researching the move and became convinced. He expects to slash his rent from $1,200 to about $800 a month, with more room in a newer home bought by Hicks. “I’m excited,” Leyva said. “It’s going to be a new journey in my life.”

Ed Blomgren, 70, pays $495 a month for one bedroom and a shared bathroom. The retired machinist, a Navy veteran, lives on a fixed income and couldn’t afford market-rate rent.

Blomgren grew up in Colorado, and he welcomes a chance to return to his home state, where he still has family. "At my age," he said, "I think it might be a good thing."

After he finishes selling off his portfolio of Bay Area propterties, Hicks expects to get a much bigger bang for his buck when he buys a new home in Colorado. The median home value in Colorado Springs is $263,000, compared with $1 million for a single family home in San Jose, according to real estate website Zillow.

Hicks' plan, as it stands, is to sell all three homes and buy a half-dozen newer, bigger and cheaper homes in the smaller, mountain town that's home to the US Air Force Academy.

Within a day of listing his Raposa Court home, Hicks had two offers in hand that - like most sales in the area - were well above his $1 million asking price...

https://www.zerohedge.com/news...are-fleeing-bay-area

From Victor Davis Hanson:



https://youtu.be/v1eNcuGcPW4

Probably not in our life time, but is there any chance of California becoming so bankrupt they have to enter into some consent decree with the Feds to remain functional?

I recently read that there is no serious republican candidate for the California senate seat in 2018. No one wants to spend that kind of money for a lost cause. It is getting to be like a republican running for mayor of Chicago.

quote:

like a republican running for mayor of Chicago.

Now that's funny, right there!

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
What in your opinion made California turn blue? Flood of Illegals , drugs
Do you see any way California can fix its current political climate? No
It’s easy to bash California when the idiotic headlines seem to come from that state every week but I wonder if there is any way to change that? Too many crazies, too little time, the kids have been indoctrinated for years.
There are a lot of Republicans in California, how can they make their voice be heard? Sorry they are simply out numbered
Is it a lost cause? Yes

Perfect response.

I could write a giant book about what happened ...

What I will say is the GOP did swallow a coupe of poison pills: they got locked into the religious politics that the GOP courted during GWB-era and that largely turned-off the centrists and merchant class. Secondly, CA has a very large group of small business owners who are of Asian and Hispanic ethnicities, entrepreneurs of hardware stores, groceries, restaurants, general household shops, legal services, yet, the GOP largely ignored them, allowing the Dems to shape the political discussion along racial color lines. Orange County has a very large Vietnamese population, a vast majority of them escaped the South when Saigon fell, they were the bulwark to LA's Democrat unions who they saw as nothing more than the useful idiots that Castro would comment about. Today, their kids don't see things the same as their parents, as they view the GOP as a bunch of puritanical zealots who are out-of-touch with modern times, too afraid to interact with those who aren't white. This is the same story with Chinese and Filipinos around the San Francisco Bay Area, in Sacramento/Stockton areas, around Fresno, Koreans in LA and Mexican's in every small town in the Central Valley. The in-state GOP has been beset by bad leadership for awhile and I don't see anybody on the horizon who's gonna be able rise above it all, make the connections but, more importantly communicate.

quote:

Originally posted by lkdr1989:
From Victor Davis Hanson:

This was a terrific speech! I don’t talk about it much, but my wife and I actually lived in California in the mid-80s. We worked on a horse breeding and training farm in Los Olivos (Santa Barbara County). I liked what I was doing and the rolling live oak hills of the Central Coast area are stunningly beautiful. We lasted two years.

You really DO need to watch the VDH speech.

quote:

Secondly, CA has a very large group of small business owners who are of Asian and Hispanic ethnicities, entrepreneurs of hardware stores, groceries, restaurants, general household shops, legal services, yet, the GOP largely ignored them, allowing the Dems to shape the political discussion along racial color lines. Orange County has a very large Vietnamese population, a vast majority of them escaped the South when Saigon fell, they were the bulwark to LA's Democrat unions who they saw as nothing more than the useful idiots that Castro would comment about.

That sounds a LOT like what I think I saw happen in the Seattle area before I wrote it off and headed South.

quote:

Originally posted by lkdr1989:
From Victor Davis Hanson:



https://youtu.be/v1eNcuGcPW4

This guy explains it well. He doesn't go as far as saying CA is a lost cause but if one follows what he is saying, it becomes clear.