The state of California's GOP

[gyeonghwa]

I'm sure I discussed this topic before but this is a more in depth analysis. The GOP of California continues to slip further into irrelevancy.

At one time in its history, The Golden State was a red state. It is the state from which the tax revolt, popularized by Governor and then President Ronald Reagan, was launched in the United States. Recently, however, the Republican Party in California has been slowly dying.

As reported by The Sacramento Business Journal, Republican registration in the state has dropped seven points over the last decade. This new data from the Public Policy Institute of California shows that 43.9 percent of the registered population are Democrats, but Republican registration has declined to 28.9 percent. In addition, independent voters are more likely to lean Democratic. Four out of 10 independents lean Democratic, versus three out of 10 who lean Republican.

Yeah remember we were the state that passed Prop 13. But over the year we found out the only people who benefited from Prop 13 were rich folks in rich areas like Orange's "South County" (the cities bordering the San Onofre wilderness minus Irvine). There were some research that showed Prop 13 contributed to a major slip in academic performance among California's student.  Some have argued that the passage of Prop 30 in 2012 will alleviate some of the damage caused by Prop 13 but is has remained to be implemented.

Now the article mentioned that the GOP had lost major Congressional power in Riverside County, a former major GOP stronghold, and that Riverside County twice voted for Obama. Now, the article seems to be a little over-optimistic considering that the Democratic party only won over by a narrow margin and that there were are a lot of "other" votes that didn't get categorized. But it's also not surprising that the GOP is losing it's grip over Riverside County considering two factors: 1. the population of Whites of all ethnic identity has dropped from 65% to 61% while the population of Latinos of all races has increased from 36% to 45% 2. The huge amount of older gay men in Palms Spring.

Additionally the article failed to mention that in the past two election the GOP lost two rural county, Mono County and Alpine County. And it lost it's other urban hub in San Diego County. As far as it seems the GOP's remaining strongholds are the central valley area and northern most counties, and their major urban stronghold is still Orange County. Even in Orange County, the GOP power has slipped in "North County" (cities bordering Los Angeles County).

Now the article seems to think the GOP is dead but I'd like to remind them that at a State level the GOP is still trying to gasp for air. It's naive to think that even with the lost of "North County" Orange County that Orange is going to be Blue county. The Rich white affluent people in areas like Newport Beach (75% Republican), Laguna Beach, etc. still have political clout in our system. And even if North County votes Democratic on some issues (medical care, taxes, immigration) they still vote conservative on other issues (LGBTQ, abortion) thanks in part by the presence of a large Evangelical Christian force there.

Still the fact that the GOP lost San Diego County and Riverside County, which has a combine population of over 5 million, is a real blow to their party.

[PosthumanHeresy]

Well, glad California is looking good.

[KZN02]

Funny, since I live pretty close to the Ronald Reagan library. Heck, where I live is rich and rather conservative from what I heard.

[gyeonghwa]

Like I said the article is over optimistic. I work in southern Orange County and I can tell you I've seen so many dumb ass anti-liberal bumper stickers out there. I know that right wing conservatism still has some political clout. But I guess the argument is that as long as the GOP still continue to assault minority rights, they'll lose focus with most of California.

[Witchyjoshy]

For every one vehicle I see that has something pro-liberal on it, I see about 30 vehicles with pro-conservative bumper stickers on them.

[Cataclysm]

Hopefully some Californian 3rd party will rise up and strike the nail in the coffin.

[Leafy]

The Republicans lost San Diego County? YES!

[Her3tiK]

Hopefully some Californian 3rd party will rise up and strike the nail in the coffin.

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha 3rd party. You're funny.

[ironbite]

Hopefully some Californian 3rd party will rise up and strike the nail in the coffin.

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha 3rd party. You're funny.

He's actually not.  At the State and Local level, third parties are actually pretty viable.  It's when you're hitting the national scene they start to become...not.

Ironbite-Presidential...forget it.

[PosthumanHeresy]

For every one vehicle I see that has something pro-liberal on it, I see about 30 vehicles with pro-conservative bumper stickers on them.

One of my, admittedly many, complains about my fellow liberals. We're not loud enough.

[Alehksunos]

For every one vehicle I see that has something pro-liberal on it, I see about 30 vehicles with pro-conservative bumper stickers on them.

One of my, admittedly many, complains about my fellow liberals. We're not loud enough.

Another is that I just don't see the point in having a bumper sticker on my car when most people who wear them on their vehicles look like assholes. And I've even seen some of the people driving those vehicles stamped with abhorrent ideology, ad hominem and other personal attacks, logical fallacies and things that are just plain stupid and I actually wanted to punch those people driving those cars in the face.

[Witchyjoshy]

For every one vehicle I see that has something pro-liberal on it, I see about 30 vehicles with pro-conservative bumper stickers on them.

One of my, admittedly many, complains about my fellow liberals. We're not loud enough.

I think of it as more like "We're too smart for that kinda bullshit."

The liberal bumper sticks I've seen have been rather reserved.  The conservative ones tend to be a bit more numerous, though nothing obscene.

[PosthumanHeresy]

For every one vehicle I see that has something pro-liberal on it, I see about 30 vehicles with pro-conservative bumper stickers on them.

One of my, admittedly many, complains about my fellow liberals. We're not loud enough.

I think of it as more like "We're too smart for that kinda bullshit."

The liberal bumper sticks I've seen have been rather reserved.  The conservative ones tend to be a bit more numerous, though nothing obscene.

You don't know my somewhat friend Alex. He's extremely left wing, and the back of his car is an explosion of bumper stickers. It's like a bumper sticker factory orgasmed all over it. But that's my point. By being "too smart", we're being idiots, by being so quiet. It looks bad. It makes us look less numerous, less imposing, and less willing to say what we want to say. We look scared. It doesn't matter the real reason. It doesn't look like we're too smart, it looks like we're too scared, or that we don't exist. Liberals suck at getting attention, barring the Stewarts, Colberts, Takeis, Nyes, Mansons and some others of the world. We need to be louder than the conservatives, not meek and quiet. We need to do everything we can to enrage and offend them like they do to us, because part of the reason they do good is because they don't ever shut up. One of their best tactics is just to repeat the same thing for so long and so much that it worms it's way into the public consciousness. Occasionally, liberals pull that one off, like with the not-Palin quote "I can see Russia from my house". But think about it, even liberals call it a "defense budget". Even liberals call anti-abortion, anti-choice dipshits "pro-life", although that one has been improving. We rarely call them "hacks" outright, but instead "something advocates". We use their "ex-gay" term instead of saying "gay in denial" or "brainwashed gay". They're making English have a conservative bias and we're letting them. When your foe fights dirty, you cannot win unless you fight dirty back. We need to learn how to play their game. Use their tricks. Use fear. Use non-logic. Beat them with their own weapons. They try slippery slope with gay marriage? We fire right back, saying first they'll start with gay marriage, then try to undo interracial marriage and then try to ban non-white people from getting married at all and bring back the "rule of thumb". They try to play the "a fetus is a person" card, we argue that first they'll ban abortion, then condoms and the pill, and then premarital sex. We have just as big of an uneducated base as they do, but ours votes less. If they're scared, they'll vote just as much as the right wing does.

[RavynousHunter]

The sad part is...that'd actually work.

[wrightway]

I always thought it was because cars with liberal bumper stickers are more likely to be vandalized.