What OC Register Gets Wrong About The CA GOP - And What The CA GOP Needs to Get Right

Once again, the press whines about the fate of the California Republican Party.

What they should lament is their dwindling sales, readership, and circulation.

As Middle-income earners flee California, and as more Democrats define the politics of this state, there will be fewer people reading their propaganda.

Generally, I have a better opinion of the OC Register. The editorial readership tends libertarian, and the previous parent company attempted an expansion into Long Beach and Los Angeles.

It was short-lived, sadly.

With Election 2016 drawn to a close, the post mortem has begun on the California GOP which lost Assembly and State Senate seats. Democrats have re-captured their supermajority, however tenuous.

What will happen to the Republicans? Is there any hope for us? We have the Presidency, and our party controls Congress.

Republicans have swept governorships and state legislatures across the country.

But in California, we took a dive, a left-turn for the worse.

trum

Struggling state Republican party faces deep divide

A new president usually lifts all boats in his party.

But Donald Trump lost California by a 2-1 margin, the worst loss for a major-party presidential nominee here since 1936. The Republican share of the state’s voters is 26 percent and shrinking, and the party faces a deep divide on how to reverse its fortunes.

At one time it was 29%. Now it's slipping. Migration and frustration are taking their toll on the state party and the registration. Prop 14 has not helped.

Many say the party needs to soften its posture on undocumented immigrants and social issues to attract more Latino, Asian and young voters.

The language alone is so biased. "Undocumented"? Really? How about "illegal"? Does the Republican  Party want to take cues from the press?

How can anyone expect to win minority voters who are pro-family by embracing liberal views? Again, the liberal press and their press junkies are the last ones to go for advice. More to follow:

Others, particularly in the GOP’s traditional voter base, counter that Trump’s victory nationwide is proof that a stronger stance is called for.

Yes. Caving on principles has actually driven people away from the Republican Party. Orange County is still conservative, for example, but Republicans are not voting, or they leaving.

At stake is the very relevance of the Republican Party in California.

The party has lost relevance, but the party system in general is under attack because of Proposition 14, which has eliminated the closed primaries and eliminated a number of Republican contenders in races throughout the state, including Los Angeles County.

“Logically, they cannot win elections the way they’re going,” said Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of CSU Los Angeles’ Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs. “But if they go a different direction, it’s going to create a big fight within the party.”

Do I really care what Raphe Sonenshein thinks? This man is an uber-liberal from Cal State Los Angeles. He is a mouth-piece for left-wing dogmas of all kinds. I have no interest in what this man thinks about conservative values or politics.

He is a blight on the discussion! The last person that anyone should cater to is this guy!

But he does have a point on one matter--lurching the party to the left (or the "center" as the more politically correct like to claim) is going to create a YUGE fight. It already has, since the 2015 convention, which saw the removal of "illegal alien" from

The dilemma reared its head Dec. 5, the first day of the state legislative session.

The 72 Democrats in the Assembly and Senate all voted for a resolution critical of President-elect Donald Trump’s various campaign proposals on immigration. Two Republicans supported it, voting with Democrats, and 19 abstained. Only 17 Republicans stood with the incoming GOP president and voted against it.

Republican lawmakers are behaving in a gutless fashion. The disarray on key values is deeply disturbing. Republican Assembly minority leader did not help matters when he claimed that Donald Trump was "divisive" while slamming the Democratic Party majority's show-boating with two offensive resolutions against "mass deportation."

“The bill (said) a lot of good things about the contributions of immigrants,” said Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Fountain Valley, a Vietnamese immigrant who abstained. “I’m a product of that. ... My family was on welfare and I have held minimum-wage jobs. Not everybody who is on welfare is abusing the system.”

She needs to understand that "immigrant" must apply to those individuals who entered the country legally. "When words lose their meaning, the people lose their freedom.'

While she objected to the combative approach of Democrats, she supported many aspects of the resolution. Republicans, she said, should focus on common ground for all Californians.

The issue is no longer about common ground. It's all about trying to stop the Democratic demagogues from running the state of California into the ground!

We need a principled, consistent opposition in Sacramento, and right now it's simply not happening!

“We need to be able to talk about health care and education, and continue to talk about jobs and the economy,” she said.

But why don't we? The Democratic colossus is only interested in consolidating more power for the left-wing aristocracy of public sector union guilds, welfare queens, and illegal aliens. We the People are turning into serfs and second-class citizens in our country. One limited interest gets to dictate its policies and force its agenda at the expense of everyone else. This is corrupt. This is evil. This is wrong.

And it needs to be confronted. Playing nice is not working. Republicans in Sacramento either need to be ready for a fight, or need to go home and let someone else serve in the state legislature. I remember reading about one Inland Empire Republican who just decided to quit because he "got tired and frustrated with working in the state legislature."

Did he really think that it was going to be tea and cake up there? We expect our elected officials to put up some kind of fight.

Most of them are just collecting a paycheck, layering up their resume, then looking for a cushy local job to retire early into guaranteed incumbency.

Raphael, go away. Just go away!

Nguyen, a former county supervisor and city council member, is one model for Republican success. While her working-class district has more Democratic voters than Republicans and more Latino voters than Vietnamese, she easily beat former Assemblyman Jose Solorio, a Latino Democrat, to claim her seat in 2014.

It was an incredibly low voter turnout. It was so low, that Democratic lawmakers in the Southeastern stretches of Los Angeles County finished below 60%. That never happens. Republicans should not have to depend on very low turnout to win.

It would be nice to enforce voter integrity in California. How about Voter ID? How about repealing the ridiculous and criminal automatic "Motor Voter" law?!

Nguyen supports a pathway to legal status for most of those in the country illegally and empathizes with families fearful of being broken up because of deportation.

NO! HELL NO!

Legal status would be terrible. We would have a permanent under-class of migrants, just like in France, where violence and lawlessness become the norm.

Sorry, Republicans, but winning elections is about standing on principle, and winning that way. Or not talking about certain issues altogether. Why are local and state legislative officials talking about immigration? That issue belongs to Congress, to the federal government.

Redlands’ John Berry, a California coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, is on the other side of the GOP divide. He wants undocumented immigrants deported.

There we go again. "Undocumented" is all wrong. "Illegal alien." Republicans should not roll over for every idea from the press. To solve some of these problems, however, requires stiff resistance to this leftist lunacy from President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress.

Also notice no reference to stopping public  sector union abuse? Or what about ending welfare abuse?

Not a word. Why is that?!

“Republicans need to take tough stances on social issues and immigration,” he said. “Like so many Republicans, I’m very frustrated with the California Republican Party. They don’t stand up for anything.”

"Tough", "true", "accurate"  -- I am open to all of these terms. Principled is a good word, too.

He said Tea Party activists knocked on 15,000 doors in his hometown on behalf of Trump.

What about representative reforms? How about enacting  Proportional representation, in which Presidential candidates win electoral votes based on the number of Congressional districts they carry--just like Nebraska and Maine?

“Our key issue was illegal immigration, and our people were well-received,” Berry said. He believes the issue can attract Latino and Asian citizens to the party, arguing that Trump did better with those groups than Mitt Romney did four years ago.

I like that word "Citizen." And the demographics in this state will shift one way or another. There are more Asian immigrants entering our state--and Asian illegal aliens, too. Those who entered this country legally, who have formed ties and built families, become more conservative over time. They will be ready to join GOP ranks, if only people will show up and bring them in.

Exit polling by the National Election Pool, whose data are used by TV networks and The New York Times, found that 29 percent of both Latinos and Asians voted for Trump. Romney received 21 percent of the Latino vote and 18 percent of the Asian vote, according to the group.

More minorities voted for Trump. Guess what? He reached out to them and he connected with them moreso in swing states. California is too large, and the media markets are so expensive. The ground game is shot, as well.

Where is the coordination? Where are the Central Committees to work with grassroots leaders and activists to make a difference in the state?

“As they establish their roots in this country, they see how illegal immigrants are hurting the country,” he said, saying undocumented workers undercut wages, among other things.

Repeat after me, liberal media: ILLEGAL ALIEN!

But others dismiss that part of the National Election Pool’s exit polling, calling it an unreliable outlier in measuring minority voter sentiment. Sonenshein is among those who favor Latino Decisions’ bilingual polling of Latino voters, which showed 18 percent favored Trump nationwide.

What did I tell you about Raphe boy? He is bad news, a left-wing pundit who wants everyone and everything to reflect his backward, disgusting illiberal views.

A ground plan

Jim Brulte, chairman of the California Republican Party, is intensely aware of the need to connect better with the growing populations of Latinos (now 28 percent of the state’s voting-age citizens) and Asians (11 percent).

Sitting on a post-election panel last month, Brulte laid out the future demographics in stark terms: Of Californians who will reach voting age in the next decade, 52 percent are Latino and 11 percent are Asian. Just 16 percent of Latinos and 23 percent of Asians now register as Republican, he said.

I do not agree with the Chairman on this assessment. I told him plainly and respectful. Goodness knows that I have shared my massive disagreements with the man. Focus on demographics alone is not reliable, anyway. These numbers will change.

“We didn’t get in trouble overnight,” he said at the event, held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “It took 30 years. And we’re not going to be out of trouble” overnight.

What are some disturbing trends which overtook California in those 30 plus years?

1. Forced unionism for public employees.
2. Expanded public benefits for non-workers
3. Open border, illegal alien inducements/entitlements.

All of these programs have to be reformed, reduced, and removed.

California is not historically a Democratic stronghold. Since 1920, it’s voted for the Democratic presidential nominee 13 times and the Republican 12 times. It voted for the Republican every election from 1968 to 1988.

No kidding.

But it’s gone with the Democrat each year since. Every statewide elected official, including the governor and both U.S. senators, is a Democrat, and the state’s congressional delegation skews heavily Democratic, 39-14. Democrats also picked up four seats this election in the state Legislature, giving the party a two-thirds supermajority in both chambers.

Thank you, Prop 14, for removing our chance to have Republican lawmakers running for statewide office, particularly the United States Senate.

“California is a state that wants to vote Democratic,” Brulte said at the event. “It’s going to be that way for a long time. It’s been trending that way for a long time. And now the Democrats get to own it. I’m fascinated by who they’re going to blame when the economy cycles down and the mythology that we have a balanced budget exposes itself.”

Trends can change, but these changes will require force from on high, from the federal government.

But he’s also not sitting idly on the sidelines.

“Our plan has been to rebuild from the ground up,” he said.

That means tilling the fields at the school board, city council and county supervisor level. While demographic changes have pushed Democrats to within 4 percentage points of Republicans among voters in the traditional GOP stronghold of Orange County, all five of the county supervisors are Republicans – as are the vast majority of city council members.

Now the good news trickles in. Republicans are kicking butt at the local level. Republicans have taken over the Board of Supervisors in Orange and San Diego Counties!

How about that! Republicans also can Board seats in San Luis Obispo County, too.

Republicans, who have a dedicated organization called Grow Elect to recruit and support Latino candidates, also boast that they now have two Latino Republicans on the school board in heavily Democratic Santa Ana.

Yes.

Republicans also hold all five seats on the board of supervisors in San Diego County, where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans.

Part of the GOP’s success on the local level has to do with the relative absence of partisan immigration and social issues. In that, lies a lesson.

More importantly, Republicans are not corrupt and given over to special interest conniving, like the Democrats.

“The challenge going forward is to find issues that the base and the rapidly growing new voter group agree on,” Brulte told the Register. He pointed specifically to charter schools as a winning issue for low-income areas and to GOP-favored initiatives to create jobs.

YES!

“The way you grow any organization is to focus on the issues that unite you and divide the other side,” he said.

“If we can ever figure out how to get it right, we will provide a road map for the country,” he added. “Because the country is looking a lot more like California.”

 I disagree with this assessment.

The country is not turning into California.

Californians are fleeing California.

Transcendent candidates

But having a strategy and actually turning around the steady declines are two different things. That’s especially true with illegal immigration rooted as a central issue for much of the GOP’s traditional base and unlikely to be easily reconciled between the two Republican factions.

“For internal reasons, it’s going to be quite difficult for them to change in California,” Sonenshein said.

The first change and the easiest change? Stop listening to liberal lunacy, like the self-important pontificating of college professors who want an aggressive left-wing agenda devouring the state of California.

Immigration aside, the state’s voters gave plenty of other signals in November that they prefer left-leaning policies, approving ballot measures legalizing recreational marijuana use, increasing gun control and banning plastic bags.

Yes. This is a huge problem, the result of the leftist take over of education, from K-12 to college (although colleges are starting to look more and more like bigger versions of kindergarten, complete with safe spaces and snacks for the adult children).

But examples of what has worked for California Republicans come up repeatedly, and they are often stories of individuals like Nguyen who transcended political partisan labels by tapping directly into the gestalt of their communities. San Diego’s Kevin Faulconer and Fresno’s Ashley Swearengin, both Republican mayors of Democratic cities, are among others mentioned as doing the same.

Faulconer is losing more supporter, and Ashley Swearingen is embracing the very policies which are ruining the state, including Governor Brown's crazy train and the Cap and Tax program.

Who needs Republicans like these?!

“You spend all this time discussing what the party should do and then somebody shows up and runs with a message different than the party and they win,” Sonenshein said, citing both Trump and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as such renegades.

God bless Donald Trump. Schwarzenegger sucked.

After Romney’s 2012 loss, the Republican Party produced a road map for the future that called for numerous changes, including an approach to immigration reform that would appeal more to Latinos and social policies that were more in tune with young voters.

This is wrong. It's time to stand for our values and educate others rather than abandoning them and caving to the Democratic failures.

Trump turned his back on many of those recommendations – as well as some more traditional GOP positions, including free trade – and created his own winning formula.

HE WON! He resonated with vast swaths of the country.

California is out of joint. We are not on the cutting edge. We are getting left behind. California is backward, lost, regressive.

“You don’t create a candidate by talking about direction the party should go,” Sonenshein said. “The candidate shows up and defines themself.”

"Define themself." Yes, a college professor actually wrote that.

Another reason to write him off and not listen to his lunacy.

Final Reflection

Conservatives need to accept that this is a culture war, not just politics.

I think that Republicans in general are just tinkering around the edges and staving off the death spiral by shifting away from the values and principles which define the party. All of this is fundamentally irrelevant when public sector unions can buy politicians and purchase assembly seats without thinking twice about it.

How more of those who vote for a living are outwinning those who work for a living? How long can this anti-economic insanity continue?

Some cynical voices in the state and in the party have suggested that the state of California may have to collapse under its own weight. The free ride on taxpayer hides cannot last forever. Detroit eventually went bust. So will San Francisco and Los Angeles.

And We the People are going to get tired of the public safety concerns going unnoticed by our elected officials, who are more committed to protect their jobs and Theiler legacy instead of protecting our rights.