Being Right vs. Being Relevant….
As I’ve said before, the saying goes that California is like the rest of the country, only sooner. The GOP in the Golden State has only remained politically relevant because of the bizarre requirement for a two-thirds majority to pass state budgets. Now they may have even lost that perk. I’ll share a couple of observations from what happened here that I think may be germane to the current situation nationally.
The state GOP has never shaken the bad reputation they built with Latino voters and other immigrant groupsfrom the Proposition 187 campaign back in 1994. This statewide initiative banning immigrants from state services was the final hurrah of the California GOP, which was then hit by a wave of immigrants showing up at the polls from which they have never recovered. They perhaps could have, but they seem unable to get agreement within the party on a non-hostile policy towards immigrants, while the Democratic party has been immigration friendly
The state GOP has never shaken the bad reputation they built with Latino voters and other immigrant groupsfrom the Proposition 187 campaign back in 1994. This statewide initiative banning immigrants from state services was the final hurrah of the California GOP, which was then hit by a wave of immigrants showing up at the polls from which they have never recovered. They perhaps could have, but they seem unable to get agreement within the party on a non-hostile policy towards immigrants, while the Democratic party has been immigration friendly