Is “Republican” now a dirty word in California?
Then-Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, hitched his re-election campaign to Proposition 187, which denied public services for illegal immigrants. That included banning children from public schools.
And even though Proposition 187 was thrown out by the courts, “the bill is coming due,” says Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. “This has mobilized vast numbers of Latino voters. Now they’re really pouring to the polls.”
The growing Latino vote definitely got the attention of Republicans on the national stage. Last Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said the GOP must change its tune on immigration reform or risk further losses in the nation’s fastest-growing voter group.
“We have nobody to blame but ourselves when it comes to losing Hispanics,” he said, “and we can get them back with some effort on our part.”…
“Some Republicans are now re-registering as independents to run for office — simply not to have the word ‘Republican’ next to their name,” he says.
Blowback
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Welp, looks like Mr. Reagan got out just in time.
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on November 17, 2012 at 5:39 PM
Makes sense. The GOP brand is dead in California. Better to repackage core conservative fiscal ideas under a new or independent label and sell them free of the GOP label.
Outlander on November 17, 2012 at 5:45 PM
Let it be. We’re going to want to make sure everyone knows who owns California’s inevitable collapse.
Red Cloud on November 17, 2012 at 5:48 PM
Yes, and that will end up reflecting well on the GOP.
Mark1971 on November 17, 2012 at 5:49 PM
This is the same California that was declared the #1 state for poverty, correct?
Punchenko on November 17, 2012 at 5:50 PM
There are many bad assumptions made when talking about the “future of the Republican party”
1. The Republican party itself has to exist.
2. The United States of America will always exist.
ninjapirate on November 17, 2012 at 5:52 PM
Not true.
Blake on November 17, 2012 at 5:52 PM
Well, the upside is that California is now a one-party ruled hell and there’s really no other way to describe it…
Good luck, Dems. You have 20% of the nation’s population and 33% of the nation’s welfare recipients.
As Joe Biden would say, “God love ya!” But, with a caveat: ‘Cuz, I won’t.
Obama’s America: You Can Check-Out Any Time You Like, But You Can Never Leave???
M2RB: The Eagles
Resist We Much on November 17, 2012 at 5:53 PM
No need to read any further. Flat out untrue since SCOTUs ruled in 1986 they had to be educated.
arnold ziffel on November 17, 2012 at 5:53 PM
Im glad about this. The less the Republican Party is associated with the cluter*cough* that we generously call California the better!
Valkyriepundit on November 17, 2012 at 5:53 PM
Yeap… which was one of the worst rulings the Supreme Court has every made… Plyler v Doe IIRC…
They may be talking about public colleges and universities though.
ninjapirate on November 17, 2012 at 5:56 PM
Like everyone knows it was the unions’ fault in the collapse of Big Auto?
BTW, Obama will bail out CA just like he did GM.
itsnotaboutme on November 17, 2012 at 5:58 PM
America’s most impoverished–U.S. Census 2009-2011:
1) California
2) District of Columbia
3) Arizona
4) Florida
5) Georgia & Nevada (tie)
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on November 17, 2012 at 6:05 PM
#1 poverty state. 47th in Science. Racing to the bottom.
MechanicalBill on November 17, 2012 at 6:07 PM
Of course we are all preaching to the choir here. We need to branch out to these liberal blogs. Stop waiting for the establishment GOP to try to counter all the dem marketing.
MechanicalBill on November 17, 2012 at 6:10 PM
“California” is definitely a dirty word to conservatives.
RoadRunner on November 17, 2012 at 6:22 PM
I live here and I’m a registered independent. I have been sorta kinda wanting to change my reg to Republican these past few years without a sense of urgency, and I was once again all set to do it after the recent election.
Given the results, I have once again lost motivation. Why? No one likes a loser. Sure, the dumbed down Santa Claus constituency and the generally libtarded constituency that I am surrounded by on a daily basis are hard to reason with, but sometimes it just seems like the GOP couldn’t sell ice cubes to an Arab. Or propane to an Eskimo. Or whatever.
Xasprtr on November 17, 2012 at 6:28 PM
Still Republicans in CA. But we’re outnumbered and election days are depressing.
MikeknaJ on November 17, 2012 at 6:35 PM
Judgements formed with inadequate information are part of why the GOP lost. You have access to the whole of the Internet in the very same browser you using to make these uninformed comments.
Type Proposition 187 in the upper corner of your browser and read element six.
It specifically excluded public education for illegals.
dieudonne on November 17, 2012 at 6:47 PM
The california experience…..coming soon to a state near you if Republicans get their way.
xblade on November 17, 2012 at 6:51 PM
Which of the two feeble lefty blogs on the hotlinks are you referring to? There used to be more of them once upon a time until they removed them one by one. I think Salon.com was one the last ones removed. Most of the people here aren’t interested in seeing or engaging liberal opinions – simply reviling and feeling superior to them.
dieudonne on November 17, 2012 at 6:55 PM
And the Supreme Court has since ruled that illegals must be educated in public schools. Maybe when you get a chance, you can fire up that browser of yours and use that same internet you mentioned.
xblade on November 17, 2012 at 6:59 PM
Who said anything about the Hot Links, lol? Moron.
Pond scum is superior to liberal scum such as yourself.
xblade on November 17, 2012 at 7:06 PM
Sorry, but Wilson bears a lot of the responsibility for what’s wrong with California’s government today, and Schwarzenegger didn’t exactly fix it either. (As the article states, Wilson also hurt the party; 187 might’ve been ahead of its time, but that doesn’t mean it was politically smart.) Fewer than seven of the last 30 years have seen California with a Democratic governor (Brown and the recalled Davis are it). We’ve had the worst of Republican leadership, unfortunately; while we can’t blame the national GOP for that, it’s hardly fair to blame the Democrats alone. That said, the one-party state is not going to help matters.
calbear on November 17, 2012 at 7:14 PM
Lets have a close look at the original comment.
Proposition 187 was from the 90′s. Implementing it would have prevented public schools from educating illegal aliens. He cites a ruling from the 80′s that didn’t apply to the prop and shut the source down as unreliable with no further reading required. Apparently no checking of his own “facts” required.
The court case you cite is from a few years after appeals for the prop stopped.
Which of these make the case that the prop would, if implemented as written when passed and before the court case you cite, would not have banned illegals from public schools thus making the “flat out untrue” comment carry water?
dieudonne on November 17, 2012 at 7:50 PM
The original comment was not uttered in isolation. The winnowing of lefty sites for people to see and engage is emblematic – not a restriction.
I’m not a liberal (except possibly in the classical Jeffersonian sense). If I were you would have nicely given weight to my suggestion that a lot people here enjoy conservatism in as much as it allows for anti-social tribal execration of liberals and feelings of superiority.
Thank you.
dieudonne on November 17, 2012 at 7:59 PM
Really no need for that. We can debate and knock down ideas and policy without insulting the person – especially when the person in question is not being trollish.
MikeknaJ on November 17, 2012 at 8:22 PM
HA is designed to be a water-cooler for the center-right. It’s tribal. The lib sites don’t listen to us, either.
alwaysfiredup on November 17, 2012 at 8:24 PM