What a lovely fantasy. The folks who arrive out here are not looking to replicate California, they are looking to escape it. You should try a visit.
114
@LTJ I suspect what they're trying to escape is high housing costs and congestion. So if Utah is California w/o those aspects, they'd probably love it.
44
@LTJ When do they start drilling in your National Parks?
80
@LTJ Two close friends recently moved from California to Utah. They are definitely going to vote for the Democrat!
113
KD,
I moved to Manhattan in the 1970s and it was not safe in certain area. When Rudolph Giuliani became mayor from 1994 to 2001, all that changed. He cleaned up the city and crime dropped considerably. It still is a relatively safe city. I have no hesitation of taking the subway at 11:00 PM as do many others. I also do not mind walking at that hour and am not afraid.
Can you say that about San Francisco? No. I would not think of walking around there after dark. Also the streets are littered with refuse and feces. Not an exactly pleasant site. They need to clean up their streets or people will exit to more desirable places. The Democrats are responsible for this disaster. They better do something or tourism will be affected and not in a positive way.
136
The author presents an abbreviated list of horribles in California that are caused and further exacerbated by the Dems in power and which are making life there unaffordable, unpleasant and undesirable. The once state of fresh opportunity has nothing fresh about, but only the smell of garbage on its city streets.
His nutty logic then goes on to teach that these individuals will then demand more of the poison that triggered their departure.
What may be turning the former red states to blue is the influx of illegal aliens which the Democrat party and voters are insistent on supporting in order to finally achieve their electoral majority.
I was promised twice by both political parties that the illegal immigration would be stopped. I am the child of immigrants (legal immigrants who came here under the legal requirement that they would provide for themselves or by a sponsor and would not rely on the govt for assistance). Now the Democrats seem prepared to force Medicare for all, including illegal aliens. Any estimate that the Party of Ilegal immigration supplies is not and cannot be believed. In reality, the current Medicare plans will have to be curtailed as to what will be covered. There will also have to be more age limits because American senior citizens must die to curtail expenses under the plan if it is to be equal for all. Bernie Sanders will not say what it will cost. Neither will state Democrats who want the power before they spring it on consumers. Bon chance.
26
From what I can tell a lot of conservative Californians are moving to Idaho for its conservative government and, possibly, lack of people of color. What are the stats on this-is it perception or reality?
51
You are all welcome in Texas. A few more years, and you will turn the state a wonderful shade of blue.
367
Such a glorious notion, so detached from reality. If only Native Texans had voted, Beto O'Rourke would be the junior Senator from Texas.
Ex-Californians are like Ex-Cubans, they don't want the socialism to destroy their new home too.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2018/11/09/native-texans-voted-for-native-texan-beto-o-rourke-transplants-went-for-ted-cruz-exit-poll-shows/
41
I hope for a large influx of Puerto Rican’s to Florida for the same reason.
181
So you move from a Blue State because of the way it has been badly governed. And then, in your new Red State, you vote Blue again? What?!?
131
Trump was elected with the help of Russia, incompetent vindictive Hillary Clinton, Jill Stein, and the very deranged electoral college that punishes populous states like California and New York and rewards states like Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota that don’t even make up a county in California.
Revenge. No we don’t want revenge. We want Justice and that means defeating every Republican and then impeaching Trump Judges after investigation.
293
The taker states offer great real estate buying opportunities for people from civilized america.
You can pick up a huge house in the backward welfare queen states in the deep south for the price of a parking space in CA
201
Endless population growth is bad in so many ways! 40 million people is too many.
72
California is terribly overpopulated so this exodus is a good thing.
55
From your keyboard to God's screen!
50
The Will Rogers phenomenon...
"7.3 million people who have left California since 2007."
To borrow from Will Rogers, writing about the Okies moving to CA during the '30s and '40s, "It raised the IQ of both states".
29
It’s comical. The liberal Democrats fleeing California because of failing Democrat policies and still voting Democrat in another state and thinking things will change.
What’s that definition of insanity again?
100
Dear Mr. Egan,
Answering to your confessed dislike of migrant Californians:
I went to grad school at the University of Washington. Even back in the seventies, I had several encounters with anti-Californians when asked for ID. The near inevitable “you Californians are coming up here and ruining everything” comments I countered with “You know, there were people living here before the white man showed up, maybe now you know how they felt”.
No one really owns any place, they only think they do.
261
This is the same newspaper that declared Hillary a winner, until she lost. I’ll believe California values are changing these states when I see the votes. My take? Don’t stay home thinking someone else will be the change you want voted in.
71
The Dakotas and Idaho are the low hanging fruit for flipping the Senate, but good luck convincing anyone from California to move there.
60
What a strange column. Progressives made CA a horrible place to live. So now they want to move someplace so they also ruin their new home.
83
Ah, those progressive ‘California’ values! Been to San Francisco Bay Area lately? Garbage-strewn homeless encampments are everywhere now...along city streets and under highway off-ramps. The city now hires a team whose job it is to scrape human waste off the city sidewalks.
Overpopulated, unkempt, expensive, and increasingly mismanaged. Who wouldn’t want THAT in their town?
77
Almost all of those who are leaving California in droves are leaving because of the absurd taxes. The better-educated, higher earning people are getting hammered by their "progressive" i.e. tax and spend buddies running the state and they've had enough. Only the NYT could turn this progressive ultra-high tax state problem into a Trump problem. What "bad" thing is Trump not responsible for lefties, you have plenty of your own problems, but hey, isn't the liberal way to spin the story so those responsible for their own behavior/problems are somehow "victims" of those more conservative/Republican. Just absurd.
61
Blue State fails, Blue State voters move to Red States and implement Blue State policies. Guess what happens next?
46
Imagine trump being the last Republican president. Ever. (Are you listening, god?)
125
Go and proliferate, my Californian friends...from CA to NY Island. Then we can start justifying why many states have 2 senators...
43
trump hates my beautiful, (mostly) liberal, prolific state because he never gets invited to the better pool parties!
102
as someone who lives in the golden state, I do feel the assault by the president. he makes us feel we are not US citizens - it's very ugly, he is very ugly.
if I move, and i have considered it, it would be to Arizona so there is another solidly blue vote for that state - fyi
141
California is the pistons of America's economic engine. All red state conservatives should fall to their knees and pray west three times a day, thanking California for all it does for America.
311
Arizona has not brought in enough fresh critical-thinking blood to affect the ultra-nuts state legislature or governship. But the threat is real. Just this week my HOA called to tell me it was illegal for me to put up Warren signage on my property. But it is not! Those darned Trumpsters don't want to know an alternative point of view exists in their communities. They must sense change in the air.
130
"As someone who grew up loathing the hordes who moved north to my native Pacific Northwest, I get it." A typical elitist putdown with nothing to back it up. I used to travel regularly on business to Oregon from my Bay Area home. "Don't you move here," the locals would sneer upon seeing my California plates.
Being a polite Californian, I resisted the temptation to say that I would never think of moving to such a backwater. In my dotage, I have decamped to Palm Springs, where we loathe the Oregonians who flock here in the winter to display their boorish behavior. We're too polite to say anything about it though.
85
It’s a very written piece with lots of good data points. One question - what does your friend mean by “sumbaked barbarians” ? He seems to share Trumpian ideology of berating and name calling 😀
16
Californians who have moved to my coastal SC area claim to like it because it is a "red" area. I wish they'd go back to CA. We don't need more people who lack tolerance for others.
59
Ironically, Californian companies like Facebook took revenge on our entire democracy in 2016.
48
I'm one. Arizona is definitely in play and there's little doubt the inept and rude Martha McSally will lose her seat to ex-astronaut and naval officer Mark Kelly, the type of Democrat that runs well here.
But beating Trump will be harder. Jeff Flake's Republicans will play a major role and they'd better show up. As well as native Americans whose three coal fired power plants on reservation lands are all closing or have already closed. Trump did nothing to stop that from happening and they are not happy. Again, turnout will be key.
87
I am a 73 year old 5th generation Texas whose ancestors came to Texas when it was still a part of Mexico. But, it makes me very happy to see every Californian moving into the Lone Star State. We need all the help we can get to get the pitiful Republican dominance into history.
206
With all the gerrymandering perpetrated by the Republican party it's high time we had a constitutional amendment using population to determine the number of senators in each state, the same way it's done for the House. It's absurd that there are the same number of senators in Alaska as there are in California.
88
Moved to CA in 1973 from NYC. CA was shockingly RED! Moved to Long Beach from Santa Monica. In 1996 yikes, LB was RED! Then moved to the always RED OC in 2014. CALIFORNIA, LONG BEACH AND ORANGE COUNTY ARE NOW BLUE! So if our Voters take that Blue spirit to other States, they can spread the word. Red is dread. Blue stands for courage.
111
i am not leaving calif, but i have thought of moving at least temporarily to Florida so i can vote there.
62
Yes, Trump hates us Californians (and New Yorkers), but the feeling is mutual. Revenge is a dish best served cold. If people moving to other states can help tip the scales, show Donald the door and flip the Senate this year, how sweet that would be. Kind of like a dish of payback ice cream--Yummy!
104
California is a unique location that has become overgrown with problems mostly of the expense variety. I just moved to Texas a year ago and while I struggle with the weather after 50 years of being a sun baked barbarian as one ignorant, jealous, and insipid friend of the author was quoted as saying, Texas is much less expensive, still rural, quiet and peaceful. The people are friendlier than in CA. The population centers in Texas are going blue rapidly. I recommend Texas wholeheartedly to my recalcitrant friends in CA.
52
Bloomberg should found two cities called New San Francisco and New Los Angeles, the former at the intersection of MT/ND/SD and the latter at the intersection of MT/WY/SD, and pay Californian families $1 million each to move there permanently. He could flip seven Senate seats.
60
Let us never forget that California voted for Proposition 8.
14
I've been in SoCal from NJ for what will soon be 16 years (geez that went fast!!). It is expensive, and I will likely eventually move somewhere else once I am done making my money and let the next generation take my place for their turn in the dream factory. But until then, no matter how much I crunch the numbers to try and prove otherwise......living in California is WORTH EVERY PENNY. From Hollywood to Redwood, from San Fran to Sandy Eggo, from the desert to the beach and the vinyards to the mountains, I love you, California!!
192
This topic of moving people from blue states to red states is why I wanted Amazon HQ2 to be in St. Louis where 50k more blue voters would make MO a blue state.
56
You missed one. Idaho, primarily the Boise area. Often now on the “fastest growing” lists. A tidal wave of new residents is coming from California. The catch here is that they are not brining liberalism. Quite the opposite according to local news sources, They are heavily Republican and attracted to Idaho’s lack of rules.
25
yep. progressives should move off the coasts to the heartland and take back the Senate, and remake the middle in their image with their 21st century values. 5G, Netflix and Amazon; and you can live anywhere. you might call it manifest destiny (the sequel).
28
Trump has never much understood his own best self-interest when you really think about it. He just thinks he does. The alleged vaunted brilliant billionaire after serial failures couldn’t borrow from anyone but Germany’s bank and corrupt Russians? And he’s made a hash of everything he’s touched as leader. The US and globe are already badly damaged by Trump. and he’s not smart enough to try to win over the most populated state while nevertheless obsessively lying to the nation in his vain hope of winning? What’s wrong with this picture will someday make a really funny Hollywood movie at the hands of the right director and cast
29
"Migrant Worker - person who moves to another...area to find employment..." (Google)
2013, with a J.D. degree, I left CA to northern CO for employment because I was destitute, needed a job, and found work in northern CO. It was culture shock to arrive in a conservative Republican area of N. CO. Although Caucasian, I didn't know if they were going to lynch me because I support LGBTQ rights & racial equality. When I got there, I had nothing. Conservative Republicans and a few closet Democrats opened their hearts to me the way almost every Democrat in CA had thrown me under the bus. In N. CO, human rights took precedent over politics. It caused me to reevaluate my beliefs.
My ballots went from 99.9% on Democratic party lines to voting Democrats as top executives, the rest 50/50 because local economies skyrocketed under Republican policies. In CO, there's a different sort of Republican. In CO, some Republicans care about conservation because tourism based on the environment generates revenue. When I had nothing, most CA Democrats lied, rebuked, & ostracized me; it was initially evangelical Republicans who I thought would hang me who saved me by offering me a job and winter clothes I couldn't afford.
Democracy, majority rules, let it not be tyranny of the majority. Let human rights and natural rights take precedent over polarization and political party. It will be interesting to witness how CA's liberal disbursement across states affects politics.
Will it matter?
19
People who move are likely to be younger. Most CA Republicans are older.
5
Some good news, for a change. As new impeachable wrongdoings arrive every day. Thanks, Tim.
12
I have two thoughts on this. First, the giant California tech companies should temporarily relocate a few hundred thousand workers to Wyoming and North Dakota for two year stints. California could use the extra Senators. Second, Musk should build Hyperloops to Fresno from San Francisco, so that we can fix the Devin Nunes problem.
41
This editorial is incredibly cynical. Isn't the bigger issue why are people fleeing California? Elected officials & even many experts in science have been cowed into silence when it comes to addressing the elephant in California’s living room: population growth. This state is on track to hit 60 million people by mid-century. The biggest casualty of the illegal immigration debate in the U.S. has been the ability to discuss openly the staggering effects of population growth on critical resources such as housing, water, hospitals & schools. Democrats control every important office here. They have obliterated the Republican Party. Affordable housing has always been one of the cornerstones of our party. This state should be a showcase of how well we can execute this policy. Instead, it's yet another example of our complete intellectual bankruptcy. It's also symptomatic of a much bigger problem. The growing divide between some Democrats who want to practice what they preach & fanatical progressives who want to strangle everything. Environmentalists will go to the barricades to stop any housing project from being built here. Mind you we are talking about affordable housing for working-class families. Thanks to their efforts the gateway to middle-class security, has been pushed way beyond their reach. The working class is getting crushed. Embarrassing & unacceptable. We all have a stake in solving this crisis. That's the story. Not whether Arizona will flip in 2020.
79
@Bill Brown Exactly. Not just CA, but MA, NY, PA & other other Blue states are losing their populations to Red States....so the question is - what are the policies that are driving people out? The failure to create affordable housing appears to be a major one - combined with high taxes that don't appear to help the middle class.
33
@Bill Brown It is not logical that refugees from CA would want to inflict CA politics on their new states since CA politics is the reason they left in the first place.
12
@Bill Brown Democrats did not "obliterate" the Republican Party in California. The Republican Party has failed to attract voters to its platform. Pushing anti-immigration legislation in a state with high levels of immigration was a strategic error for which they are still paying the price.
45
I do hope this trend holds true for Idaho, the Mississippi of the northwest, where I live. This place needs a good gust of clean air to blow a lot of politicians out of their comfortable seats in the capitol here in Boise.
69
Just absolutely right on!
I'm a native Californian, born in San Francisco and living all but 14 months of my life here. Those 14 months were in Tucson, Arizona getting my Master's at the University of Arizona. (A great university, by the way.)
I met my wife there; we've been married 43 years. We have spent that time living in the Bay Area, but visiting Arizona many times each year. My wife has 6 siblings and parents there.
When I first went to Arizona, I had cowboy gas station attendants with pistols on their belts telling me that they don't sell gasoline to people with California license plates.
I remember that the U of A had a 5% Hispanic student body. Beyond that, white like me.
Today the University of Arizona student body looks like that here at San Jose State. All ethnicities of the world. Young, professional couples with children in the local schools. New and different names on the local political entities. A whole new population not based upon race and some sort of historical privilege.
How did this ever happen? California invasion.
63
my eldest daughter and her husband left the bay area because they couldn't afford to buy a house. they moved to richmond, virginia, where they could buy a house outright with their savings. they're both teachers, both real bay area liberals, so they have influence beyond their money. their friends in virginia are all liberals. virginia is now blue.
spreading the california dream.
143
It took three attempts over three decades before I successfully relocated to California from a place where I was the only person of my kind within a 2-hour driving radius. It's been over 15 years, and I still can't believe how beautiful it is here and how wonderful it is to feel accepted and at home. I hope everyone, wherever they are, can feel the same way about where they live. Thank you, New York Times, for this uplifting article.
93
Trump bashes any "blue" state. Look at restrictions on New York's flyers. In Illinois, he has denied funding for a Corps of Engineers study on how to save the Lake Michigan shoreline from rising lake water levels. Today another winter storm is tearing at the shoreline. Suddenly, Chicago is being regarded by some as even more vulnerable to flooding from climate change than San Francisco, New York, or Miami.
This refusal might just flip the other two states bordering Lake Michigan - Wisconsin and Michigan - to the Democratic side. Those two states were critical to his (still, questionable) win in 2016. All three states bordering the lake just flipped the Governor's office blue.
48
We have fifty states, at last count. Some are experiencing high employment and scarce housing. Some are in crisis due to opiods. Some are home primarily to retired folks who once lived in colder climes. Some were doing well until a hurricane hit them. Others are prone to flooding or earthquakes. We are ALL Americans, folks. If we all suffered when one suffered, and all did well when one did well, we wouldn't have to worry about blue or red states. We could go back to talking about the United States.
47
@Emma Ess tell this to trump and the cult. they claim they love to see the rest of us cry.
20
Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania are our top priorities this election. But flipping Arizona, as Timothy Egan points out, and also retaining Minnesota are almost as important.
25
I've long said that a way to take back the Senate and White House is to move the "extra" Democratic Party voters to those States "needing" those votes. California has millions of such "extra" voters. Of course, I'm not volunteering personally for such a political migration.
14
Grew up in Chicago, lived in Austin during high school and moved west for college and the first part of my career. I was a reliable conservative for most of my life. In the last 5 years I've had to take a good look at what that meant and I didn't like what was looking back at me.
My family moved to Ohio a few years back and have been a friend of the environment here while still holding onto my past. 2016 changed everything for me and now I vote blue.
I appears this article is describing us!
96
I didn't leave the state, but I did move from deep blue Hollywood to CA25 north of LA, and we flipped it blue in the House for the first time in ~30 years. You don't have to leave the state to make an impact.
51
California could do very well for itself if it secceeded. How would Kentucky, or Arkansas do, without the inflow of federal money that is redirected from California's world-class economy? That Trump works actively to degrade the quality of life for 1/8 of the country should make anyone, living anywhere in the United States wonder why we have a president who doesn't care about the -whole- country, but instead caters only to his 'base'. This tribal Trump Republican 'us against them' politics is tearing the country apart, because Trump thinks it benefits him. But if the country actually is fractured, all Trump's supporters should take a clear-eyed look at which states really could make it all on their own. California is economically on par with the United Kingdom... we'd do just fine.
122
I like your style, Timothy.
6
MY I suggest Kentucky as a destination? I know Mitch would welcome all from California as he would enjoy a competitive election campaign for his Senate seat.
77
California would be happy to leave to Union if the rest of the country led by Trump want to make life difficult. My guess is that the south-western states and the north-western ones will want to leave as well. What will Trump do without foreign-operated twitter, Facebook, and such which may ban him.
6
US Grant settled this issue at Appomattox Court House in April 1865.
9
It might be cheaper for Bloomberg to pay some blue staters, CA, or otherwise to MI, WI, PA, NC and OH, than pay hundreds of millions more for his ads. If the margin of difference for President remains 80k votes in 3 states, he can easily afford it. Vote blue no matter who.
24
California's problem is that it is simply too nice. The weather is too perfect, the ocean too close, the mountains too beautiful. There will always be more people who want to live there, than can fit.
40
@James
There's actually plenty of room, except that most of the room is east of I5. The CA you're describing is mostly west of I5...
9
@HapinOregon you've never been north of san luis obispo if you think that.
the best part of california is west of 101
6
According to the 2017 census data, Texas, New York and California had out-migration figures of 467000, 452000 and 661000 people, respectively. Relative to population, California’s figures do not appear excessive.
In a healthy America, people move around in search of jobs and opportunity. The statement about “getting it” when “Californians” moving to the PNW encounter resentment particularly grates, since it smacks of elitism. Also, calling people who move around the country and stay in California for a relatively short period of time “Californians” seems to be just a convenient tag. If anything, America is becoming less mobile, which does not portend well for the future.
10
as a member of the vast diaspora of more than 7.3 million people who have left California since 2007 [2011] I can testify to the politics of Deschutes and Crook County Oregon being shifted leftward.
And of course the fact that Facebook's date center complex in Prineville which is 25 pecent of Facebook's global data center footprint will have far reaching consequences for decades to come.
11
My mother sold her house in Westchester county, NY last year. The house was nice and had lovely woods in the back. In the end though, the two things that sold the house were 1) the oil tank was above ground and 2) the property taxes came in just under $10k.
FYI -those fleeing NY, NJ, CA, etc are welcome to come help Arizona flip the state blue in November!
25
I'm a fourth generation Californian (and a graduate of the best public university in the world , fwiw). I'm sorry I was forced out of San Francisco by high housing prices, but I like Sacramento fine. In my long life I've thought occasionally about moving somewhere else, but then I always think, where could I possibly go? Where else could I find the physical beauty, the diversity, the adventurous and generous spirit, and the great food? And oh yeah, the weather?
47
I lived in California for almost seven years. It was hard to deal with the constant traffic, fires and taxes. California is quickly becoming a state for those who have a lot of money or good jobs that pay well. The state now has a surplus and would be wise to invest the money in an improved infrastructure including water desalination facilities.
When we left California because of our jobs we realized that we could live better while saving more. People leaving California should be a warning to states that have high cost of living.
6
I'm a fourth generation Californian, it's my family's home and has been since after the Civil War. We're not leaving, and we're here for the long run and to work out problems along the way. I have lived in other parts of the country (NYC, DC, Texas, Virginia, Mass, etc.) and although nice, they're not home. I will fight for my ocean, mountains, wolves, salmon, sandhill cranes, Canada geese and the tiny titmouse, it's their home too. If you're not in the fight, you're welcome to leave.
64
I am not sure your analysis holds in all destinations. It certainly seems true in Austin, but Austin was already far more liberal than the rest of Texas. In other areas you have to allow for the possibility the new comers are not interested in replicating the situation from which they escaped and, perhaps more important, may change their views to be more in line with their new home communities.
6
How, I must ask, is making California's primary early enough in the year to have much greater influence on the eventual Democrat nominee supposed to take revenge on Trump? By moving the candidate farther to the left? I might agree if there were a possible GOP alternative and an actual fair nominating process in that party this year, but the shrinking of the GOP in recent years has only served to winnow that party to reliable Trumpists.
1
I’ll tell you how! California is about to set the Democratic Party on a course to defeat Trump in November by handing Michael Bloomberg a BIG win.
3
Something is happening to the makeup of the electorate in Texas, and it isn't just that Californians are moving here. In El Paso County alone, 70,000 new voters have registered since 2018.
Change is coming, and it may (hope, hope) be sooner than you think.
33
Don't complain too loudly Tim, I was part of the California "hordes" that moved to Seattle (1975). We helped turn Seattle to blue.
25
Ever since I moved here I've encountered certain people who like to bash Cal and threaten to move away, which is okay. The state is heavily populated and that puts a lot of pressure on the environment, so people who don't want to be here shouldn't be, Personally, you'd have to drag me out kicking and screaming. That's not to say I dislike other states. I've had a blast in Texas, Oklahoma, Utah and I know I'd love life there if that's where life took me. Meanwhile the more people who don't want to come to or stay in California, the more of it there is for me.
21
I have lived in CA for close to 30 years. Yes, the homeless issue is a problem and SF needs better leadership, right now they are all in the pockets of the developers.
But the values which made CA great still exists, individual freedom, innovation, openness to people who look different than YOU. We love the land, the environment and our oceans. But everyone needs to think about overpopulation and their role in it.
Right now our country needs to get back to respecting each other, working together and ending government corruption (in CA too).
Which means leaders who really live those values need to get into office.
The worse part about Trump is seeing fellow Americans look the other way while he swamps the country out. We need to hold all our leaders accountable, period. California is the future, we fix it here, we fix it everywhere. It starts with politicians who care more about democracy and the PEOPLE vs their money, stature and pockets.
it’s not about party, it’s about quality of life. Period.
Yes in CA and elsewhere. We’re not perfect, no state is. We all care about our families, health and future
here in CA or elsewhere.
47
The Idaho perspective: I see the “conservatives” who are moving from California almost every day.
Here is a loose profile: White, retired with a Federal or California State Pension. Moving out of “High Tax” California after benefiting for 40 years from those taxes to pay services they greatly benefit from to include ongoing pensions. Benefiting from Proposition 13 that greatly inflated their property value and diminished their property taxes for 40 years. Now taking a windfall profit and buying a retirement house in Southwest Idaho and voting against any new taxes or levies for education / services.
90
I’m really tired of this generation bashing. I am a Baby Boomer. I did not do drugs. I have not spent my life studying my navel and pursuing hedonistic pleasures. I grew up poor and achieved the modest lifestyle I have through some smarts and a lot of hard work and long, long hours.
My children are Millennials. They are considerate, generous, kind, open-minded, thoughtful, compassionate, very smart, highly educated, and every other good thing you can think of. Oh, and life has thrown them some nearly crushing hurdles, yet they face another day, every day.
No group is a monolith. Can we stop the bashing, please?
21
I moved from Berkeley CA in 2005 because I wanted to retire and couldn't afford a mortgage so I moved to NC and my main thought has been "Another Democratic vote." With money I would return to Berkeley within seconds.
49
A simple solution would be to build more multi-storeyed (even if just 4-8 storeyed) affordable urban housing on the European model in California and other successful blue states, instead of unsustainable suburban single-family house sprawl!
40
@Prof Dr Ramesh Kumar Biswas
Thank God SB 50 was defeated again! Here in California we love our homes, our freedom and our individuality. We most assuredly do not want to live in Hong Kong or Minsk.
4
I grew up in Wisconsin, in what is now referred to as "fly over country". In my four years in the military, I spent a year in California, half a yea at the NSA in Washington and then 2 1/2 years on duty in Europe. I always remembered that in California, I didn't have to shovel snow. I used my GI Bill to go to UC Berkeley, and have made my home in California ever since. For 45 years, I have always felt that we have been living in the state that leads the world in innovation, environmental issues, globalism and multiracial tolerance. So do all my neighbors. Hopefully, the "fly over" states will join us soon. They deserve better than what their politicians are selling them.
126
@Joe Miksis The Fox News brainwashing is difficult to overcome. I traveled from Austin, Texas to Nebraska for a funeral. At the reception I faced relatives telling me that Texas was overrun with drug dealing terrorist rapist illegals, so people couldn't even leave their houses. No matter what I said, they would not listen.
So finally, I invited them all to come down and see it for themselves. I suggested they stand at the border, gun in hand, and watch as absolutely nothing happened. They got offended, and the conversation ended. Fox News is like crack cocaine for white people with a persecution complex.
72
I’m a native born Californian, born in 1940. And yes, I’m a Democrat and have been since 1961 when I first registered to vote. I’m also now a resident of Arizona, since 2001. We moved here for several reasons, house prices only being one, and not the most important one.
We moved to Prescott, which is very red, but has a surprising amount of Democrats who live here and are very active in politics. It's amazing how many people are at our town square on every single Tuesday protesting Trump. They have been doing that since 2016. We won’t be turning blue anytime soon, but the rest of Arizona may.
27
Of course, the logic of the argument Egan presents suggests that with more Democrats than Republicans leaving, California itself may soon be in play.
11
California is so overwhelmingly Democratic that losing a few percentage in population won't turn it red.
5
This article gives me a tiny bit of hope. I've often thought that the only way to get the Republicans out of power is to take over some additional states, given the structural disadvantages that Democrats are facing with the Senate and the Electoral College.
19
I will never understand Californians who finding CA unlivable move to other states then vote to enact the same policies that drove them out of CA.
20
We need to build houses that people can reasonably afford.
8
@Jeff L Build them in Montana.
5
Bullies always get hit back in the face harder than they themselves have hit others ; it’s a natural law which Donald Trump is too stupid or delusional or both to understand. In the meantime Democrats and Independents need to be fierce about ridding the country not only of Donald Trump,but also of the Republican senators and congressmen who have sold their souls in exchange for their loyalty to a mob boss president who is neckdeep in his own criminality.
43
"More than half of Californians say they have considered leaving the state, and a large majority of them are conservatives, as one survey found. "
So almost half of Californians are conservatives, is that how I am reading that? I know the whole inland empire is, pretty much, and there's always penthouse dwellers in every blue city, but still...
4
I’m part of the diaspora but really did leave my heart there. It’s horrendously expensive but it felt like permanent vacation.
605
@Bryant The diaspora is necessary in order to give remaining Californians (including wild life and other forms of nature) a little more elbow room. This is why we must continue to combat corrupt legislators like Scott Wiener who will do anything his Big Developer bosses tell him.
41
Thirty-seven years ago, I was a reverse Joad, moving from California to Oklahoma not by choice, but for a job. Over the years, I’ve harbored a fantasy that more like-minded Californians (and Oregonians and New Yorkers) would also help dilute the conservative politics of the state. When I became a department chair tasked with recruiting students and faculty members, I came to realize how difficult that was. Self-selectivity works against the hopes of progressives in states like Oklahoma, first because liberals may decline to even consider applying for a job where they know the political winds are not favorable, and second because those who do arrive are generally huddled in enclaves while the rest of the state remains deeply conservative. A little over a year ago, Oklahoma City elected the state’s first Democratic congresswoman in a couple decades, but whether she will be able to hold her seat later this year, especially after voting to impeach Trump, is not clear. And because the legislature is likely to hold a Republican supermajority after November, they can gerrymander her out of contention if she does pull out a miracle and retain her seat. I’d like to harvest some hope from Mr. Egan’s column, but the crop is nothing but grapes of wrath.
21
While I accept, in broad terms, Tim's argument, I think it needs to be pointed out that, to borrow a trope from Walt Whitman: California is large; it contains multitudes. By that I mean there are many "Californias" and Californians contained in the state of that name. I note this in particular to the many comments which seem to reflect an ignorance of this fact. LA is no more representative of California and Californians than SF. Or the high Sierras. Or the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. Or the surf and sand of the southern coast. Or the rugged shoreline of the north coast. Or the Mojave Desert.
I was born in the Bay Area in the early 50s. When I moved to Seattle in 77. I was seduced by a sunny blue sky April day and a relatively affordable cost of living. It reminded me in some respects of SF. It seemed vital and exciting to me, just as SF had.
Being retired now, I can no longer afford to live in Seattle, and quite frankly I don't find much any more to hold me there even if I could. I don't feel the vitality of SF now, either. I plan to visit this summer, as part of a road trip, and it will most likely be my last.
I still identify as a Californian. I felt more than a touch of grief as I watched the town of Paradise burn. When asked "where are you from?" I still reflectively respond "the Bay Area." I still refer to SF as "The City." (Please don't call it Frisco).
27
As an eight generation native Californian (some of my ancestors were here when it was still Mexico, others came during the gold rush) I am somewhat defensive of my state while also being fully aware of our many unique challenges.
But for those who call the state “ruined” - this state has the largest economy of any state in the Union. Would your state be ok without ours? Not by a long shot. So ruined seems a hyperbolic stretch.
Apropos of... something, one of the greatest joys of my adult life was seeing the odious Dana Rohrbacher finally go down in defeat after the midterms. Orange County is finally blue. Progress is possible.
60
@Elle Davi YaY!
4
We need to cluster Trump and his supporters in Florida, then they can be the first to enjoy firsthand the impacts of the climate change they've accelerated. California will be fine - we survived Reagan afterall.
33
As a proud Californian, I live in a state that cares about and proudly promotes everything the far right hates. Healthcare as a right, safe passage and sanctuary for the oppressed, and the rights of people to marry without interference from religious dogma. I wouldn't live in the deep south where bigotry lives in abundance.
45
Timothy - been in Washington several times. Nice place in the summer. But, still remember two jokes that seem appropriate. Pillsbury Doughboy flys in from Arizona - baggage boy in Seattle looks at him and says - "Nice tan mister". New resident in Seattle - from California - asks a kid on the street - "Does it ever stop raining here?" Kid replies - "Mister, I'm only 7 years old, how should I know?" But, you make a good point. Housing bubble her in the Golden State clearly an incentive for Californians to sell homes, collect their substantial equities, retire early, move to a lower cost state. Viola - Red to Blue. It's happening!!
10
@Gordon Jones
In terms of total annual rainfall, Seattle gets ~39 inches. NYC gets ~42 inches.
You can look it up...
2
May I remind everyone who are old enough to remember, it was Reagan who shut down our state mental hospitals and left the mentally ill to fend for themselves.
I live in San Francisco and I'm reminded everyday of Reagan's shameful legacy.
99
Thank you for saying this. Our homeless population is Reagan's policies come home to roost 40 years later. I say it every day also.
36
@Jeanne .. I do that, too .. but many people just will not listen.
12
@CGI .. I remember it well.
4
I am an immigrant and the Bay Area is the only place in the US where I feel at home. It is multicultural, diverse, exciting and close to some of the most beautiful natural sites in the world. When I go to states like Arizona or Wisconsin, I find myself in a culture that is way too rural and homogeneous for my taste. Small-town America strikes me as a nightmare of social conformism, religiosity and boredom (and since my husband was born in rural Iowa, I do know something about the flyover country). So there is no way we would ever leave California. This said, the plague of homeless on the streets of San Francisco is extremely irritating. The city that could be one of the greatest tourist destinations of the world is polluted by human waste and discarded needles. Perhaps we could import some of the liberal values of Europe to California: namely, involuntary confinement of the mentally ill in appropriate institutions. This would sweep a huge proportion of the homeless off the streets.
28
God bless California!
10
Good.
4
Yes, Cory Gardner is inept (as a senator and representative of Colorado priorities and values) and will likely lose his senate seat. But a better description of John Hickenlooper is "a formerly popular former governor." Hickenlooper severely damaged his brand with his doomed run for president. The message many of us in Colorado (including stalwart Dems) took when he basically dismissed the senate seat as beneath him is that "I'm too big for Colorado and I'm not interested in doing what is best for the state and the country." If he had gone directly to a run for the senate seat, this race would have been over a year ago.
Recent polls have shown "Any Dem with a pulse" beating Gardner handily. So if Hickenlooper gets the nomination and wins the seat, it's not due to his popularity. And Gardner is a slippery and savvy campaigner, so don't count him out.
3
Lots of Californians have moved to Oregon, too (including moi) over the years, and it has turned very blue since the days we had two moderate Republican senators (Hatfield and Packwood) who wouldn't have a chance now of getting elected. We just need to replace Greg Walden with a democrat and get rid of the quorum law in the state house, and we'll be good to go.
11
@Zeca And since the population has increased by more then 400,000 since the last census, we might have more (blue) representation in Congress in our future.
8
I feel for Californians leaving due to outrageous housing prices. It's the same in Seattle. After over 30 years of cost increases and moving I now live 40 miles north of Seattle, the very outermost edgy-edge of the Puget Sound Metro area, and can still barely afford it.
4
We left the bay area in 2009 and returned in 2014. Five years in Asheville, NC were enough. Even in a small city that is relatively progressive I tired of being asked, rhetorically, "...yer not from here are you? " I t was distressing to hear church used as verb, i.e., "where do you church? "
The last straw was being gerrymandered out of NC-11 into NC-10 plus experiencing the raid on democracy being performed by the state legislature. I was also stunned by actions of the Buncombe County School Board indicating that they had little regard for the 1st amendment establishment clause. The lower cost of housing wasn't worth it to me. I value the fact that as a senior citizen my ability to choose a Kaiser Medicare Advantage Plan essentially allows me a single payer option.
96
I moved from CA to NC in 2006 and you better believe I brought my politics. I've only become active in the dem party since trump but happy to see this recognition!
31
Great ideas in this piece with room for expansion. Co-opt a left leaning billionaire(s) to do some social engineering. Help left leaning Californians move to low density red states like Wyoming and Montana and the Dakotas. Subsidize them with housing and jobs in return for their promise to register and vote out the old and vote in the new. Flip these states. These states have few electoral delegates but each of these red states have two US Senators and that would be even more important. And best of all you’d hear Fox News and the hard right squealing about how unfair this is. Woe is me.
When Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico I was hoping that the Puerto Rican diaspora would plant some of those USA citizens in some of these smaller agricultural red states but the vast majority went to Florida and the NorthEast.
10
I like to joke to out-of-state friends that Californians aren't leaving the state, they're just colonizing the rest of the United States to spread our progressive policies.
55
Imagine if the dems pooled all money on campaign and provided housing grants to anyone in blue states to move to purple states? We’d only need to move 10k maybe 20k people... Talk about efficiency and efficacy, and TV watchers would welcome a reprieve from Tom steyer commercials lol
Let’s use the inane ridiculous citizens united ruling to our advantage and see how quickly that ruling would get overturned in legislation!
6
You talk about "the vast diaspora of more than 7.3 million people who have left California since 2007." Now compare that to the fact that 800,000 Syrians have fled in the last three months. Looks like California is winning the "Fleers United" race over Syria? (smile).
Personally I think it is the Republicans who are the real majority party but the present Republican party has become paralyzed by racism and money. And that means that conservative African Americans, Hispanics, and Indian Americans do not consider the Republican party to be their home, even though that party shares many of their conservative values.
For instance, "Abortion in Kenya is regulated by Article 26(IV) of the Constitution of Kenya, which states that: Abortion is not permitted unless, in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, ..."
Or, "Argentine law allows abortion (only) in case of rape or threat to the life or health of the mother."
But when African Americans or Hispanics face the racist face of the current Republican party, they turn to the pro-choice Democrats for protection.
What would the Republican party be like if it was not racist and was not dominated by money? It would be a far larger party and would not need to rely on gerrymandering to win elections.
3
Mr. Egan never explains how California became such an awful place to live. Is that because Democrats control the state and their inane social policies have ruined it? California's problems began long before Donald Trump came along.
17
What, like red states are paradises? Economics are important, sure. But there’s also a certain quality of life benefit to not seeing Confederate monuments proudly displayed, guns brandished during “peaceful” protests and quality schools, health resources, infrastructure, etc.
33
Excuse me, Timothy. California is not just the Bay Area (a beautiful place with serious issues). The Palm Springs area is a desert paradise, affordable, 300 sunny days per year, diverse and welcoming to all. There is a lot more to California than one area. Our only danger is Trump trying to destroy our air, water, and land.
11
Well, if the majority of Federal largesse wasn’t directed towards Red states where most of our population does not live, but equitably apportioned so that states like California can get their fair share of Federal assistance, I think a lot of initiatives that the state needs to support would get fulfilled. Moreover, if the Federal government joined California in supporting clean/green policies, that would help too!
16
Not any more than California is taking revenge on its citizenry with free healthcare for illegals (well, its not really free, California taxpayer) and the homeless encampments which might as well be called the largest cities in California. Not to mention human waste and needles covering the streets of downtown, about to be formerly a tourist destination, San Francisco.
15
I moved to Arkansas from Chicago. I am immersed in a red state. Maga hats abound, everybody talks about what they watched on Fox last night. People sit in their cars listening to right wing hate radio. But I have friends following me. One from California will be here next month to scope out the area (eastern Ozarks). The march is on. Ignorance may just get overwhelmed by liberals.
40
Yes, red even though millions of people just lost health insurance through Trump’s “work requirement” order- now blocked by a federal court. But they’ll continue to vote against their interests.
14
@Martin G Sorenson
My hat's off to you!
4
Slowly but surely the process of Californication will convert America and bring its people into a new age of enlightenment. Offal like Trump and his minions will be left to wander the deserts in spiritual rags and be consumed by their own poisonous misdeeds. A heart warming scenario, for sure.
16
Don't tell Trump, Timothy!
5
Revenge? Why use that term? It needlessly inflames people.
5
Any article that starts with "President Trump clearly hates the most populous state in the country he governs" is not worthy to be taken seriously.
9
Except that it’s true. So yes this piece deserves to be read... so I did.
13
odd, confused piece. people are leaving california (people who have the ability to) because it's a disaster, leaving behind about 39 million poor people and about 1 million rich people. poll the emigrants and see how likely they are to vote in ways which would turn their new domicile into what they left..
8
Or maybe they’re leaving because they have cashed in their home’s equity, and that and their savings and pension go much further in flyover country. It’s boomer flight.
11
If only the author understood that you don’t have to be a democrat to understand that you can have a flourishing multi racial US without allowing the fundamentally deceitful and undemocratic ploy of infinite illegal economic immigration which costs taxpayers 11 billion dollars annually. Or that you can vote for meaningful impact on the climate (nuclear being the most effective one) without voting for the socialist Trojan horse that is the Green new deal, which will turn other places into dumps like LA. So stop with the logical fallacy that voting for Trump means you’re at odds with those things.
6
As a proud Californian who has lived the vast majority of my life elsewhere, I find this article deeply heartening. California has massive challenges, but the people of the state have shown time and time again in recent years that they prefer inclusive and humane solutions.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party, with its racist, shrill and divisive blather has been reduced to an asterisk in the state, and a very small asterisk at that. As goes California, so I hope goes the country.
34
A lot of them are moving to Idaho as well because it has growing tech companies and great recreation opportunities. Mormons, like the governor and Senator Crapo are currently dominating the state government, but two counties, Blaine and Gooding, vote blue and even the conservatives have a hissy fit when Republicans want to open up mining and oil drilling because hunting, fishing and hiking as well as skiing are so important there. Even sage grouse protections as well as those for sandhill cranes, bald and golden eagles, elk, mule deer and pronghorns are important to most residents. If the EPA tries to take away clean water and air protections, the state will probably become at least purple if not blue. Farmers, ranchers and others who choose to live there are not stupid!
18
A wise politician once said, American voter's politics is always between the two polar opposite states of California and Texas. Simply put, Trump is Texas and Obama is California. Historically our cultural changes begin in California and moves to the rest of the country. Therefore when Texas mirrors California, the GOP will becoming a minority party for decades to come... Can't wait!
9
@beachboy Obama is California? Sort of like how neither supported gays getting married until the Supreme Court forced them to?
You know, I didn’t vote for Trump but he did always support legalizing gay marriage. Very Texan of him, I suppose.
2
Maybe these demographic shifts are the underlying reason for the GOP’ s destruction of the rule of law. They need to do it now before it becomes impossible.
9
California is a lovely state but it is too bad the liberals have spoiled it. People who used to live comfortably can no longer afford it. The only ones who will be left will be the poor and the wealthy. There will be no more middle class left. They will move to places like Texas and Florida where their dollars go much farther. The taxes are also much lower. The politicians are to blame and this travesty may never change. Such a pity.
15
So California is s model but everyone wants to leave? Interesting.
17
From the article, referring to Colorado:
“The state is likely to flip a Senate seat, bouncing the inept Republican Cory Gardner for a popular former governor, John Hickenlooper.”
FYI: In February, Hickenlooper stated:
“I’m not really cut out to be a Senator.”
And yet Chuck Schumer and the DSCC insisted on, once again, pushing their “moderate” (read corporate, Democratic elite, yes man) candidate.
His most liked opponent in the Democratic primary is Andrew Romanoff, who in some polls is ahead of Hickenlooper, even with several other candidates in the race.
Romanoff has key endorsements from multiple Dem party leaders all across the state, along with the backing of several environmental groups, including the Sunrise Movement. He has an amazing record of accomplishments and awards from when he was a Colorado state legislator.
In 2010 he ran against Michael Bennett for U.S. Senate. After leading Bennett by 20.8 points at the Democratic state convention, the Obama White House and the DSCC opened their bag of dirty tricks.
First, the White House tried to bribe Romanoff with job offers if he would drop out. He refused. Bennett later admitted he knew about it.
Then came carefully placed hit pieces in WashPost and other MSM outlets against Romanoff.
Then an assortment of other nefarious actions, including robo calls from D.C. area codes, with unfounded innuendos and covert accusations.
Chuck and DSCC: Please stay out of our primaries.
4
Guess I’ll have to think up a positive word for Californication. Never thought I’d see the day.
4
@Harry in Olympia. Challenge yourself and come up with a clever word to describe what the Caucasian hordes did to the people who lived in your area first. I can, but it’s not printable.
6
Excellent article. Here's hoping Californians - both current and ex - will contribute heavily in November to the ouster of the current occupier of White House.
13
I often wonder what percentage of people who leave California were actually born here. My guess is that many came here from other states and are simply moving once more to someplace else.
6
When our family came to the US in 1979, we came to Pasadena, California because my father, a rising star in India’s space program, was recruited to Cal Tech as a post-doctoral fellow. We stayed for 2 years before departing and eventually settling on the East Coast. Over my 40 years of being an American, I have had the privilege of living in Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon. My wife and I settled with our kids in the Bay Area 8 years ago, and I have considered it a homecoming of sorts. We can’t think of living anywhere else in the US that could provide the collision of so many wonderful world cultures and foods, to the beaches, mountains, national parks, cities, and recreational activities unique to the Golden State.
While many may complain about the “difficulties” of living in California, it has always struck me as weird. California is not a state, but is more akin to a nation-state. With an economic output of $2.7 trillion it ranks as the 5th largest economy in the world; based on population it would be ranked as the 33rd most populous. It is home to the global entertainment and (at least the Western world’s) technology industries, and has geographic diversity that is unparalleled in the rest of the US. So yeah, there are problems, but tell me even one country (not a US state) that doesn’t have similar issues?
And you know, being Californian is also being of a certain enlightened mentality - I am thrilled that mentality is spreading!
73
I've been saying for a solid decade, that the single best thing Democrats can do if they want to transform the country is MOVE BACK INTO IT.
Isolating ourselves on the coasts and in cities is handing states to the Republicans.
Move to cheaper places. Start businesses. Spend your money there. Nor just Arizona and Nevada. Go to Kansas.
Come to Virginia.
Vote.
14
People move from the Bay Area, California because they can sell their modest house for over a million and a half and buy a better house for a third of that price in other states and keep a million dollars. That does not look like any one's failure. Rather, it looks like people are coming from the Golden State with the gold!
Why housing is so expensive in the Bay Area? Because the biggest and richest companies in the world are there: Google, Apple, Facebook, Intel, Tesla and many others. When the stock of these companies grows exponentially so does compensation of hundreds of thousands of their employees. That drives housing prices up, not regulations. Regulations are the same for the last 20 years but home prices went up over 300%. Higher housing prices drive salaries up which in turn drives the housing prices up and so on until the next crisis. This enormous wealth does not affect all residents uniformly, but in which State it does?
15
Maybe the location of Mr. Trump's border wall needs to be changed to block Californians from getting into neighboring states. And, if it looks like this diaspora could alter Republican dominance in the Electoral College, the time may have come for a constitutional amendment of some sort.
3
I’m glad to read this article. I’ve seen others stating that the power of red states is growing because the population is growing. That makes the unreasonable assumption that, if you move to a given state, you adopt their politics. As a Chicagoan who has considered moving to Florida, I can say, unequivocally, that I would remain a loyal Democrat even living in Florida. When people move, they don’t leave their political positions behind. Thank you for reinforcing my assessment.
10
I am a native Californian and I love my state. From anywhere in my state, and within two hours, I can be in the mountains, snow, desert and beach. the weather is usually wonderful, and I have access to wonderful museums, art galleries, Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, the Hollywood Bowl, and a lot of other entertainment.We have a multi-ethnic population that allows me to eat a variety of foods, and meet individuals that I would never get to know and become friends with unless I traveled.We have good paying jobs and a number of prestige and outstanding institutions of higher learning. Yes, we have problems, homeless people by the thousands who I might add, come from other states, we have freeway congestion, and our taxes are too high. Still, I would not live anywhere else. As far as being an elite, that is a laugh, I earned every dime I have, my education, I worked very hard for and elite is a word that other people use to excuse their own behavior.
25
This is a column I really appreciate because I simply wasn't aware of the changes--the exits--in the demographics of California. It gives that glimmer--a weak glimmer, of course--of hope that just maybe there will be an end to the horrors of this monster in the Oval Office. Hopefully whoever secures the Democratic nomination will spend a lot of resources on these states, i.e., Colorado, Arizona. And, of course, states such as where I now live (Pennsylvania) which could be wins for the Democrats (actually musts if there is any hope of ousting Trump).
2
Trump's California bashing is nothing new, nor is it original. People have bashed California for decades. And yet, in spite of all the bashing, California has a monstrous economy. While some commenters doubt the impact of Californians moving to other states, the fact that Nevada is now blue and Colorado is going to be blue and Arizona may also move to a shade of that resembles blue more than purple suggests the thesis Mr. Egan presents is not wrong.
10
I'm a real estate agent in Missouri and have had several clients who relocated from California. Yes, they brought their liberal values with them. Yay! But they also wanted to live in already liberal areas that are solidly Democratic, so they probably didn't have much impact politically.
Where they could have helped more was a place like MO district 2, where Republican Ann Wagner (who has never held a public town hall in 7 years in office!) nearly lost in 2018 to a Democrat. Vote was 51 to 47%....pretty amazing considering the district has been solidly red since 1993.
So I say welcome Californians! We would love to have you :)
24
Well, let's hope that those leaving California don't bring the policies with them that have ruined California. Governor Newsom and the Democratically-controlled legislature have destroyed the State.
11
I agree with Egan, and I've realized for awhile now that we (Californians, that is) could easily flip those low-pop western red states like Wyoming, Idaho, South Dakota, Nebraska and so on with a few hundred thousand well-placed Democratic emigrants. Howdy, neighbor!
12
Growing up in post WWII central California was a delight. Beautiful scenery and climate to match. But we left in 2018 for 4 reasons: overcrowding, horrendous cost inflation, the climate had become so hot we couldn’t take it anymore, and (mainly) our daughter lives in Olympia, WA. Maybe the heat is an age thing but I know we’re not unique. Washington is cooler, wetter, and greener. We’re trading the beauty of the Sierra Nevadas for the Cascades. Our politics is “blue” and so, it seems, is Washington, at least west of the Cascades. We’ve even participated in two protests at the state capitol. I guess we’ve made blue Washington just a tad bluer, and we enjoy watching our Congressman, Denny Heck, on MSNBC.
4
Nice for them. But most of the 20,000+ Kalifornians who moved to Idaho are more conservative than us old-timers; are willing and able to afford higher housing costs than us (thus driving up costs); belong to some strange religions; are largely antivaxers; and have no clue about rural life.
Please take them back!
6
It's amazing what level of dishonesty Trump supporters will display. It is directly proportional to the irrational hatred they harbor towards the subject at hand. That California is successful really gets them angry.
7
My beloved Seattle, Home for the past 20 years, is experiencing a similar homeless crisis(many adults or psychologically damaged fellow human beings) as that of California. I am very tempted to return to the place of my birth - Kentucky - long enough to try to vote McConnell out!
35
This article is the best example of cutting your nose to spite your face. California is great for the very rich (for lifestyle choices). I wouldn't say it is great for the very poor (a poor person could have a better lifestyle in Salt Lake City than Los Angelos); but for the very poor such as homeless, the climate is better than alternatives.
So, who is leaving. Middle class people and entrepreneurs (those who are earning high incomes but not rich yet). This leaves California with a Gini index (inequality measure; 0 is perfectly equal and 1 is perfectly unequal) of 0.49 which is the same as Brazil. 0.45 is the factor for the rest of the country (Utah is lowest at 0.43).
https://www.statista.com/statistics/227249/greatest-gap-between-rich-and-poor-by-us-state/
3
Born and spent my Wonder Bread years, 1950 thru 1960, just south of San Fransisco growing up in the post war boom. During that period of life when awareness grows, the surrounding landscape was reimagined. Orange grooves and ranches became pavement and subdivisions. Since those days I have lived in places as far flung from Palo Alto as Seattle, El Paso, Philadelphia, New Jersey and finally the Coast Range in Oregon. I too am guilty as charged. I take a little bit of California with me wherever I go. California, the place that built "The Stick" on top of a landfill then tore it down. Transformation and innovation are not peculiar to California. You just get the Pacific Ocean and sunshine while you are doing it.
4
Thank you! As an unapologetic Blue State resident, I needed to read something optimistic today.
7
The Times recently published a photo of the intersection of Mt. Rose Highway and Geiger Grade in South Reno as prime for development. The new single family homes going up, announced as starting in the 400s, were changed to the high 400s in July. Last month, a new sign went up announcing that the starting price was in the 500s.
For the tech people moving from the Bay Area, the prices are a bargain. And they are educated and liberal. We welcome them.
623
@David And what about the families that cannot afford to live there anymore? Democrats used to be the party of working people; my father was one, he would not recognize it now. Democrats are the party of the coastal elites now.
32
@David Yep! Been here since 72 and couldn't be happier about our state turning blue.
70
@mptpab Nevada has nearly unlimited space for residential development (see Vegas). Not the same land driven costs that force the Bay Area to million dollar start point.
but with this boom, it behooves them to do sane zoning and permitting.
42
People are self-selecting where they move, and this affects several swing states.
Florida may be less important than it once was even if it was close in 2018. While a large exodus from Puerto Rico might keep it in play, the likes of Trump fleeing New York for Florida's unlimited homestead exemption and a reliance on taxing tourists could overwhelm that effect and turn the state pink.
People commuting into the greater Chicago area from Wisconsin are not randomly chosen either. Those who would rather endure a long commute than pay higher taxes seem likely to favor one of our two political parties. Winning Wisconsin may be tougher than it first appears.
Arizona seems likely to, pardon the pun, cement a reputation as the most Trump-friendly ("conservative" seems to not apply any longer) of California's neighbors, resulting in self-sorting among those leaving California that will eventually make Arizona more Republican. This effect could become stronger if California turns more uniformly Democratic and frustrated conservatives leave for political reasons, adding to the numbers leaving for economic reasons.
Flipping Pennsylvania and Michigan is, unfortunately, likely to be the easy part.
Even within California there is a demographic shift taking place. I’ve met more than a few former SF Bay Area transplants here in our formerly very conservative Orange County. Four of the Republican congressional reps were voted out of office and replaced by Democrats in 2018. Orange County is now closer to the Bay Area in voter preference. Hilary was the first Democrat in decades to win the area in 2016.
5
Indeed, the demographics are shifting away from the GOP, which is why they are in such a hurry to pack the courts and enact voter restrictions while they still can.
18
I’m tired of people blaming the homelessness crisis on local politicians. Urban affordability is a national (if not global) crisis. Until private capital is constrained and adequate government support directed towards building housing, there will be no resolution.
12
@Anthony To discuss homelessness, we must first divide the group into 2 populations.
Group A: Mentally ill and addicts. If you have untreated schizophrenia, a house feels confining and living in the street is the preference. Solution is tougher laws to allow the government to detain someone for treatment in a mental hospital.
Group B: Poor people down on their luck.
How much of the population of current homeless is group A vs Group B? I don't know, but will note that millions of undocumented immigrants have been absorbed into California without ending up on the street (live in dense conditions with friends and family, 10 people in an apartment). That makes me think Group A is dominant (since Group B would generally prefer to stay on a couch with a friend/family).
8
Thanks Tim,
I follow you work and am always very appreciative !
2
Don't forget Montana and New Mexico. The latter has become fairly reliable on the Democratic side, at least in Presidential elections, while Montana may yet get there. There's a good chance that, by 2032, the only consistently Republican states in the West will be Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah.
That phenomenon will move eastward, too. Democrats do well in New England and the mid-Atlantic states, for example. Virginia has shifted more toward the Dems in recent years. North Carolina is likely to follow, with Georgia also a possibility within a decade or so.
In the midwest, as Wisconsin shifts further right, Minnesota has become even more of a Democratic bulwark. Michigan had a weird 2016, but it's by no means strong Republican territory. Pennsylvania and Ohio will not make up for the GOP's losses of states on the coasts and in the West.
Texas, too, will fall to the Democrats in time. Maybe not in 2020 - though it's possible - but almost certainly by the late 2020s.
And when the Democrats regain control of both the presidency and both houses of Congress, look for a strengthening of the Voting Rights Act so that the unprincipled, bigoted Supreme Court decision of a few years ago is reversed.
If this prognostication is wrong, and this nation is forced to endure rule by the reactionary, corrupt Republicans for much longer, then I fear that we will instead see economic and social balkanization on a scale that will effectively mean that we are a political union in name only.
8
Californians do more than just bring more liberal politics to other states. They bring capital, high-tech experience and other professional skills that hopefully add to their new state's economy. One of my friends moved to Boise, ID about a year ago. He's planning to start his own business there. I've talked with other professionals who are now helping to grow the high-tech hubs in North Carolina. IMO, these benefits can mean more to these states than political attitudes.
22
The 48 senators who voted to convict represent 18 million more Americans than the other 52.
Maybe California should break itself into three states.
Its representation in Congress would then be commensurate to its population.
11
To all of my fellow Californians leaving the state I say, THANK YOU! Thank you for making our roads less congested. Thank you for taking the wind out of the sails of the overcrowding / housing "crisis." Thank you for making our school teachers less burdened. But also, thank you for helping bring vitality, sanity and balance back to many of our nation's other states. This exodus should have happened decades ago.
27
Trump thinks it's smart politics to accelerate worsening conditions in the air Californians breath and the water they drink; he thinks it's smart to rip healthcare from millions of citizens who depend on it; he thinks it's clever to punish states that are not polling pro-Trump. He seems to be getting smarter every day as he finds new ways to impoverish the lifestyle of millions of people, even as he nudges more millions of dollars to his rich friends, the one constituency that draws his most consistent caring, no matter where they happen to live. With a genius like that sitting in the White House, how could anyone be scared?
7
It would certainly be nice to add more states to my list to retire to and the Bluing of America would work well.
6
You're correct, Timothy, most leave California because of the obscene cost of housing and not because of the house-less or immigrants or California's multiculturism. Typically, the only people who whine about any of the latter are Republicans. If they don't like it, then leave.
Now, finally, on March 3rd, we from California are in a position to send an early and clear message to Donny & Co. on what to expect come November.
27
The quickest way to flip those precarious red states is for Mike Bloomberg to take some of that billion dollars and offer it as rent money to solid blue staters living near an in-play state. I’d happily drive the 20 minutes to PA to change my residence for a few months, and then register to vote there, if Mike would pay those few months rent on a cheap apartment in say, Matamoras.
Get enough blue voters in those swing states, and that big red stripe down the middle of the Electoral College map starts looking like a clear day’s sky....
12
Hey California!
In Ohio you can buy a beautiful house, with a big yard for under $200K! Check out Youngstown, Akron and other smaller cities! Let’s turn Ohio blue!
43
And Kentucky!
5
This time I will not only vote against Gardner-I'll contribute to Hickenlooper's campaign. All because he became a trump stooge.
9
Maybe if enough Californians moved to the upper mid-west we might get our country back.
14
This author's opinion seems very misguided.
Those leaving the state of California are not looking to turn red states purple. If anything, they're looking to escape the dysfunction of California where politicians claim to do more for illegal immigrants than legal, tax-paying residents who have to contend with snarling traffic, rising rents thanks to NIMBYism, rigid unions demanding ever higher taxes, and pet projects like the bullet train to nowhere whose costs are spiraling out of control.
The exodus isn't revenge on Trump. It's putting this liberal bastion's failures in stark view for the world to see.
16
That isn’t what’s happening here at all. NIMBYism is not a left or right-wing issue, it cuts across both sides of the ideological spectrum. It’s also an oversimplification of the difficulties of negotiating building.
Similarly, it’s republicans, not democrats, that are allergic to coming up with public solutions to low-income housing. They’re also opposed to public spending on infrastructure. And yes, they’re also opposed to trains that will take people off freeways. Finally, unions, really? In an era with extremely low union membership?
You have republican talking points down so well I wonder if you cut and pasted them from your Fox News feed. It sounds so coherent. Too bad it doesn’t have anything to do with reality.
13
I think you need to focus on NY. CA like the rest of the nation gets things wrong but we often lead the way. I love NY and my home state of ND. I would never trash a city, state or territory of the USA, because we are united. Don’t hate others like Trump, GOP, Fox, etc. Take action and make positive change.
6
@Nels Watt
Who's in charge? Democrats, by a super-majority at the local and state levels.
Hence, it's the Democrats' fault.
5
Added to the migration of Californians to neighboring inland states, as far as numbers of voters, are the 20 million young people who have turned 18 since 2016.
These kids are tired of getting shot up in their schools, tired of onerous college debt, tired of seeing their parents and grandparents struggle between buying prescriptions or groceries.
All in all, Americans are just tired of the status quo that allows those who have all the wealth to hoard more of it.
And most of US are tired of having our great Nation ripped to shreds by a narcissistic three year old.
15
I do not regard the President as vile or corrupt. So you say that the Dems might win the Electoral College? I thought the Dems were opposed to the Electoral College. Would they not regard the winner as not really the president? Would they not support the President if he won the popular vote?
3
In your alternate reality, Trump isn’t vile or corrupt. And until the archaic Electoral College is gotten rid of, in favor of allowing everyone who votes, to be counted, the Democrats have no choice but to work with the Electoral College. The Republicans make it very hard with their constant gerrymandering.
3
The Electoral College is a relic
that placated the former Slave States and last I checked, we still have to hack through it until it is abolished. Look it up.
2
Hard to say if this movement of population is changing anything.
Trump is targeting CA because it plays to his ignorant base. The author seems to share some of that ignorance about CA. We are just living our lives, and making our own laws as we see fit.
This is something our ancestors who ratified the US Constitution would have understood. The federal government was never meant to dictate state laws nor to coerce behavior through legal threats or by cutting off funds to which we are legally entitled.
The Bill or Rights was meant to prevent such actions by limiting federal authority. If these actions are allowed to stand, no other state will be safe from similar actions in the future.
5
Dems ,independents and informed republicans need to get behind democratic candidates required to rein in the authoritarian rule of the GOP under Trump, Barr and McConnell seek to impose on America close to Kim and Putin's style of govt long admired by Trump.
5
Everyone who left California were either conservative, or became more conservative, because of the costs and politics....
7
And yet they turned Nevada and Colorado blue. What does that say about hour theory?
11
You're dreaming. Trump is going to quash any hopes you had for a democratic president in this lifetime.
7
How preposterous. If I live as long as my grandmothers, I’ve got at least thirteen more presidential elections to look forward to.
5
I am leaving California cause I am retiring and want to live a simpler more peaceful life in a state that has beaches that enjoy warmer waters. Hawaii. I am also leaving California because our local town government is afraid to enforce the laws they have on the books to everyone equally and allows immigrants from South of the border to break laws and take advantage of their neighbors without consequence. Because our town is a "Sanctuary City", our town is afraid to be seen as discriminatory so they turn a blind eye to actions that would not be tolerated in other towns. I am tired of the litter, traffic and petty crimes that result in my area that continue to be ignored by our City Officials. Now don't come down on me as a racists. I am Latino too, but sometimes Latinos are not perfect and we have to play fair by the rules and never favor one over another no matter where they come from.
6
The irony of the photo of the moving truck was not lost on me, but it might be for many of your readers. Tiburon, where the moving truck is, is one of the most expensive on the planet earth to live. Those folks living in Tiburon are not suffering, trust me!
6
Though it would be nice to see anyone other than Trump, I don’t think it will happen in this election. Like 2016 the democrats will win the popular vote but lose in the Electoral College vote. However, hope is eternal. I think by 2024 the pendulum will swing back overwhelmingly to democrats but by then a lot of damage will have been done. So it goes...
1
I want to thank New York Times and all of its readers who contribute to Comments section. I feel less alone after reading your well-thought-out comments.
2552
@Alexander Beal What a lovely post. It's something I've felt, but that thought never really bubbled up to my consciousness. You are right, though. The comments section in the NYT is what the rest of the internet should be.
372
@Alexander Beal Thank you for saying this! I feel exactly the same. NYT Op-Ed Comments section is one of the most important resources that keep me sane these days. There are so many thoughtful intelligent readers. I not only feel less isolated but also learn a lot from them.
Thank you everyone for maintaining my mental health. Let's keep going until our goal in November and beyond.
364
@Steve Part of that is because the comments here are pretty heavily moderated. I post things that sometimes get blocked from going up, because they're too rude or disrespectful.
Frankly, the rest of the internet could use a little more of that. Sometimes we need to be protected from our own worst impulses, and the worst thing about the internet is that it puts the worst parts of all of us on display, to the point where we forget that we are something more than our worst parts.
254
As one who lived in CA for a decade, the experience of life there never leaves most of us.
California is large enough to set the de facto standards for auto emissions, in spite of the Federal regulatory meandering. And it has co-founded with WA State the Climate Alliance of the US, 23 states committed to achieving the Paris Climate goals promised by Obama.
California might be expensive but as in Hawaii, the beaches are free, guaranteed to be available to the public by the California Coastal Access Program.
Most of the Sierra Nevada range is also free, offering the best hiking in the US, hands down.
As Woody Guthrie sang, this land is your land. In California, it is more than just a catchy tune.
20
As a California-to-Colorado transplant, I am very proud of helping convert Colorado from a "hate-state" to the first one to elect an openly gay Governor. Next step: vote Cory Gardner out of the Senate.
23
Angry old white men, with time become fewer.
Angry old white men listening to Fox news!
Murdoch sale of 21 Century Fox to Disney.
Disney lost money on brand previous ownership, Disney will be wanting money back from Murdoch!
Young grow with diversity, long term for GOP is slow motion political suicide.
5
This entire column is absurd. Trump is not destroying California, it's being destroyed by the people who run every aspect of the state: Democrats. Having Trump as President is the best thing that ever happened to the incompetent party hacks who mismanage our state government. They can blame all the intractable problems we face on Washington and absolve themselves of any blame.
California proves that Democrats are not capable of solving or even making a dent in the problems they blame on Republicans. We have the highest poverty rates in the nation and the least affordable housing. Politicians focus on symbolic efforts to address big causes like climate change instead of problems that affect most citizens every day, like traffic.
Trump's election might have proved that Republicans are dumb, but California's continued unilateral support of the Democratic party proves that Democrats are just as dumb.
3
"...that would be enough to remove the vile and corrupt man occupying the White House."
You're pulling your punches!
1
Having left California for Michigan I can tell you that the presumption that California’s values migrated with its former residents is wishful thinking! You would be surprised how much the state you move into has in moderating your view of the world. Michigan was for me a surprising wonderful place: beautiful, incredibly affordable, especially compared to California, and populated with a diverse groups of people with a big range of political opinions. What’s different in Michigan is the lower intensity of political polarization. People here are very friendly, open and still rooted in traditional American values that help them build strong communities and make that makes them especially good neighbors. Their priorities are not shaped by political ideologies but by human principles of compassion, prudence and justice.
I loved my time in San Francisco but the values there were hardly a model for civic virtue. Given the wealth there, it’s surprising how bad the social problems are there. It’s a sanctuary state that allows the exploitation of migrants workers and where undocumented immigrants live in poverty. It is a very liberal state that has failed to solve the problem of homelessness and wealth inequality. It has a well educated population but its public schools test consistently near the bottom in the nation. California has a great climate and opportunities abound for young people but it’s no Utopia.
9
I don't think it's a straight equation of location and politics. Age factors into it. For decades NYC has sent many a folk to FL and Florida doesn't run solid blue. As we age our politics change.
3
Why the presumption that every Californian who
leaves the once Golden State behind, is liberal ?
147
@John Brown Nobody said every California who abandons the state is liberal. But I think the author points out that not nearly every person who leaves the Golden State is doing so because they eschew liberal policies. Clearly, the main reason is the cost of housing, as Eagan substantiates with poll results. The fact that the states to which Californians are moving seem to be shifting blue in their electorates shows that they are bringing "California values" with them, & are not, for the most part, abandoning them.
164
@John Brown They are not. But the more conservative ones tend to live in rural or very exurban areas like Bakersfield, Visalia and Redding, which have not been as affected by higher housing prices. Those people tend to complain, but not leave.
The sole exception might be Orange County but it has also turned blue, not from conservatives leaving, but from more liberal people moving in.
Those being forced out tend to either be white and liberal couples looking to raise a family in a place like Colorado or Texas where they can afford a house, or minorities who consistently vote democrat.
82
@John Brown even if they are right wing they are likely to the left of those right wingers in say like Idaho? I think most repubs in CA are for marijuana legalization. Whereas Repub in Idaho is still firmly against it. Hopefully they can get it thru in Idaho I might actually move there then :)
45
We can only hope
1
From your mouth to God's ears.
6
Any article that predicts the demise of the gangster-president makes good reading so long as the foundation of the arguments put forward are strong and believable. I get what Mr. Egan is saying here and while not conclusive, I do take some comfort in the premise that, little by little, the Republicans are being consigned to the dust heap of history, together with their leader, where they belong. Still....let's touch base in November, Mr. Egan, to see if what you suggest comes to fruition.
6
Love these migrants! Reverse the Dust Bowl diospora of the 1930s!
Oh, btw, don’t overlook Missouri and Tennessee!
Good luck!
5
And they bring "stratospheric home prices and unbearable rental costs" with them.
3
@M That's capitalism at work, not Californians. As more people move in, the higher the cost of living. Manhattan, knows a thing or two about this pattern.
6
California has some big issues to tackle (like most states), however the Californification of America is a good thing. It has a GDP that rivals some European countries such as France; it has been leading the nation on alternative energy and policies, and fostered a vibrant environment for innovation where new ideas can flourish. Way better that many Fed money dependent flyover states, if you ask me.
28
Red states should welcome with open arms the former citizens of California who built the best state in the world, with the most dynamic economy and tech miracles that created Trillions in wealth, millions of jobs, innovation (Tesla is now worth more than all other US auto companies combined), and a way to move humanity to the future (organic food, clean water, renewable energy, better healthcare) rather than conservative states clinging to old industries and lifestyles (coal, agriculture, oil, mining). Conservatives by their nature cling to the old ways. Californians are all about changing the world for the better. Red states could all use a lot more of that.
60
President Trump is the first President to speak the truth about California. This once beautiful state is becoming a sanctuary city and homeless destination. Neither political party had the courage to speak out about this travesty before our president spoke up. I want to visit San Francisco but hesitate to because of the terrible living conditions and fear for my security. Something needs to be done and fast before tourism takes a hit. People are not going to pay large sums of money to visit if their lives and safety are at risk. They will not tolerate dirty streets and conditions when there are so many clean and desirable destinations in America are available. The politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Gavin Newsom better wake up soon. Their bottom line is at risk. And that is money.
3
@KMW
Have been to San Francisco as well as a number of other locations in CA, such as San Diego, LA. over the last 20 years with my last visit in Sept 2019. I have never been afraid to visit any of the places there. Of course that might have to do with my living in New York City from the60’s through the 70’s.
17
dont speak of places you have no first hand knowledge about. i visit san fran often and walk everywhere and never had cause for fear. the weather attracts homeless from across nation. this us not CA problem alone but a national isdue of mental health care and income ineqality.
3
@KMW
Good morning. You can join many of your fellow New Yorkers if you come here https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/265
New York leads the pack of domestic in-migration states TO California. Texas leads for out-migration FROM California.
Tourism in California $140.6 Billion in 2018
https://industry.visitcalifornia.com/research/economic-impact
Tourism in New York $63 Billion in 2016
https://www.nystia.org/news/states-commitment-to-tourism-bolstered-in-2017-2018-new-york-state-budget
Your security? Crime statistics for San Francisco and New York City are a virtual wash on a population adjusted basis. SF 33/884,363; NYC 318/8,623,000.
Do not believe the drivel that is spouted by the current occupant of the White House. Come on out and see for yourself.
2
Generally, Democrats are more prevalent in urban areas, commercial hubs, university towns and cities.
Same with the states: California's rural central valley is GOP while the coastal cities are Democratic. When a state grows metropolitan areas, the demographics in those areas change.
And not a damned thing trump or the GOP can do about it, except, of course, suppress voting, gerrymander, skew the census, dirty trick the elections. Inevitably the GOP, as it is today will go and none too soon.
12
Those leaving the state of California are mostly people of some means. Will those remaining be content to pay high taxes to support those who do not have much? Will this become a state of the have nots and wealthy? Will the wealthy be content to pay for the poor? We will see what happens in the near future. This once desirable and beautiful state may be no more. What a pity.
4
@KMW
Hello again. Sorry you are wrong, high income/net worth individuals are moving TO California. Just as you would suspect since the cost of living here, and high end employment are the forcing factors.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/265
1
I'm reminded of a story an aunt of mine told me about a New York Republican moving to North Carolina only to discover that there his politics makes him a Democrat. Might be a bit dated but political spectrums are still a very regional thing.
16
One of my good friends who is a moderate Democrat moved from Dallas to San Francisco. He said he went from being the “most liberal person in Texas” to the “most conservative person in California”.
6
This might be a good counter to the Republican long game of seating conservative judges in every seat possible from the SCOTUS on down. In blue states that are comfortably blue, like my home state of Oregon, we should strategically send our blue minded neighbors looking for a change of scenery to potential swing states and make them blue. Oregon, Washington, and California can all afford to lose some blue voters. Are there any New Yorkers that are looking to leave the hustle and bustle of the big city? I hear Kentucky is a nice place, and is home to a certain Senator that needs to go.
16
@Clint
Blue eyes someone suggested that very thing after the last election
We need them in Wisconsin too!
I've seen a number of articles in a number of publications regarding the fear that former Californians are changing the nature of the electorate in their new home states. Missing from every single one of the articles and opinion pieces is the data proving that the influx of Californians is causal vs. coincidental.
I admit that I don't have data to back this up, but it seems to me that people move to communities where they believe they will be welcome and comfortable. That means that liberal Californians are more likely to move to blue states or at least blue cities in "purple" states, while conservative Californians are more like to move to red or purple states.
If I'm right, this supposed "mass exodus" from California-- which itself is not supported by data -- may have little net effect on whether a state votes red or blue.
So here's something really scary for Republicans to consider. What if the influx of Californians -- real or imagined -- isn't the underlying cause of the shift in how people vote in formerly reliable red states? What if the Republican "platform", candidates, and overall tone are losing their appeal to voters? Now that's something to really worry about because the Republican party has for decades been doubling down on limiting personal freedoms, intolerance, environmental and fiscal irresponsibility, and more recently eroding rule of law.
It's not easy to change your brand.
15
"Are they bringing California values?" Yes, they are. That's the problem. They've made California what it is, and that's why we'd prefer they stay there.
12
@Southern Man
Nonsense. California is a victim of its own success. It's such a wonderful place, it attracted too many people from other states, and they are loving it to death.
I'm a fifth-generation Californian, currently living in Oregon. Maybe if enough people leave Cali, I can finally afford to move back!
8
@Southern Man
Well, since California has better health care, education and budgeting than any state in the south you better hope some of those Californians move to your neck of the woods.
Or is it the tolerance of people who are different that offends you?
1
It is more likely that conservatives are leaving California for red states, not liberals. The exodus will reduce the number of electoral votes awarded to California in the next census and increase the number of electoral votes awarded to Texas, Florida, and Tennessee.
2
@RGV "exodus" is way overehagerated. People tend to take everything to extreme these days. So called "exodus" is not supported by any census data. To the contrary, 2000 California had a population of 30 million and today it is 40 million. So, whatever exodus you guys are talking about, does not exist. And, to be honest, California is overpopulated as it is. Not bad if few people are moving out. It is actually for the better.
1
Mr Egan,
Why do you think Californians that leave the state out of desperation, knowing how bad it has become under long-time democratic leadership, will continue to blindly vote democratic in their new home state?
6
Texas made itself the 'go-to' place for Tech companies. I'd guess the government didn't actually consider how inviting all those lean-liberal techies into their state would change the politics.
I have long advocated that Democrats should embrace a 'vote with your feet' approach to the Electoral College and gerrymandering imbalances. New York and California aren't the only nice places to live. I grew up in NE Washington and now I live just north of Dallas - been to Georgia, Florida and Virginia in between. All have their good points as well as bad. This would be even easier if more places let you work remotely (and it would be better for the planet).
2
The people from CA seem to be middle class households enjoying lower prices, larger homes, zero income taxes, good schools and life in the suburbs. Since the State Farm, Toyota and others moved to areas in suburbs or easily accessible from suburbs, the transplants likely have much shorter commutes with much cheaper gas. Whatever negative attitudes they may have started with, they quickly seem to enjoy the state. Texas is like the church. You may have done bad things elsewhere, e.g., high taxes, micromanagement by government, but we provide a tabula rasa and ask that you sin no more.
1
It is, of course, patently absurd that a national election should have a different outcome because voters move around within the nation's borders.
9
As a blue person in a red state, I would love to see some California dems move to ND. But the weather is a deal breaker. Glad to see they may be having an impact elsewhere. DT has to go.
14
Dolphin, I, too, am a native Californian, only from the Bay Area up north. Yes, indeed, we have problems, particularly with the homelessness on one side of the spectrum and on the other end the nouveau riche who have taken over so much of the state, particularly those in our tech industries. In my 74 years on this earth, I have seen the changes, most obvious the outrageous cost of housing. But we are trying; Governor Newsom is trying as well as our city mayors. There has to be changes, of course. Yet we have a lot to be proud of. We are knowledgeable about global warming. How can we not be with this new paradigm of yearly fires brought on by droughts and the dry earth? That knowledge leads to relentless proaction to protect our precious resources. We are diverse, and there is nothing wrong with that. Yes, we need immigration reform. However, many if not most of us are descendants of fairly recent immigrants. Let us get involved rather than complain. We can make things better.
17
This is the key to making our country a true democracy and overcoming the outdated Electoral College. If 40 or 50,000 Democratic leaning voters moved to North Dakota and South Dakota you'd flip four Senate seats. Michael Bloomberg could put a project together Forty Acres and a Mule to move to Wyoming and it would be blue in about a week and a half.
8
At the same time there is a mass exodus of right wing loonies moving to Montana, Idaho, and eastern Washington. They too are changing the politics of these places and not for the better. At least in CA their politics were diluted by numbers. Now, they can and do move to small towns and take over school boards and county commissions. The CA exodus is much more complex than Egan makes it out to be.
11
It's only a matter of time when the CA exiles bring the CA problems to their new locales. You reap what you sow: homeless everywhere (it only used to be cities), high energy prices, low performing schools, income inequality, high taxes, inadequate infrastructure, high housing prices, illegal immigration (remember they'll still need domestic help at below market wages) etc.
Many of the CA exiles are state employees who want to avoid paying CA state taxes on their overly-generous pensions.
I escaped the Bay Area after 3 decades and would have preferred to cross the border (but my wife prefers the weather, which is the only thing really left that's enjoyable).
2
A lot of the homeless people are from other states originally. A lot of them are from red states. Better weather in California if you have to live on the streets. Better social programs too.
4
I always wonder why nobody notes that the homeless population might also be a price for beautiful weather. If I were able to get a bus ticket somehow, I'd a whole lot rather be homeless in California right now that here or Montana.
14
I do! I just did, actually. Also better social welfare programs. The same is true here in Florida in certain cities. We get a lot of homeless drifters here in Kissimmee in the winter. Winters here are great. They go back north in the summer, when it is unbearably hot.
3
@Wanda: I agree with everyone who has made this comment. The year-round mild weather makes it possible for the homeless to sleep rough comfortably, and, as a bonus, nature provides a year-round bounty. Even as a middle-class resident who could well afford to visit the grocery, foraging was a surprisingly effective source of food. The wild fennel alone made my evening walk worth it. Delicious!
1
@Ben social welfare? You leave them on the street to die. They aren’t in public housing.
Mr. Egan alludes to but does not directly mention the negative aspect of this diaspora. Back in the day we called this the Californication of Ecotopia, which you can experience daily with a Seattle commute and the fifth highest cost of living.
As for California, where did all those people and their traffic and cost-of-living come from? Having lived and worked in LA and San Francisco and Seattle, I rarely met anyone who was born in California. Everyone seemed to be from the East Coast.
7
Having "escaped" California in the 80's and still having considerable family and friends there, I can only offer a "view", as we all do. Perspective of our own life journey will always paint our personal view. Trying to find a way forward in a cooperative way will be the key. When I escaped from California I moved to Oregon. When we moved here in 1983, it was very conservative with a mind set from the Republican Governor of ........"Come visit.....leave your money......AND GO HOME where you came from" I later discovered that Oregon had a long and storied history of far right conservatism. At one time it had the largest membership of the KKK outside of the south.
Now.......Oregon is very progressive and pretty much a "blue" state, except for the south east rural area. And it is getting more and more Blue. There is also a possibility of gaining an additional congressional seat after the 2020 census.
And how did this all happen......??????
Californian's moved north to the Pacific Northwest.
So the idea that California influence will be long standing will continue. And I do think that eventually Texas will be light Blue again.
10
@Hal
My story is similar to yours. I left the Bay Area in 1992 for Portland. Fortunately, I did well out of my house and can afford to live in semi-squalor on the coast. We are seeing lots of Californians moving here. Brookings is known as the Banana Belt of the Oregon coast. Much warmer than other Oregon beach communities, although we still get a lot of rain.
1
It's time to get clear about what we mean by liberal, conservative, progressive, all these labels. I'll bet that the vast majority of honest libs, progressive and conservatives hold similar values. The key is telling the truth and not just accepting trump and Congressional Republican lies as truth. Dishonesty in the conversation is useless. I think it's time to think, "forward", towards a north star, a new vision of the future we can create together. We must flush the liars, cheats, immoral, corrupt criminal, unethical dogs currently in power who have now destroyed the Repub party. Gotta crush them in 2020 and start over. (I am a lifelong Dem - and they need work also).
9
High speed internet will hopefully increase this welcome development, and I'm sure the education systems will improve as well.
1
As a Californian I'm tired of hearing all about our terrible homeless problem. If you've ever gotten to know any of these folks living by the millions on our streets or volunteered at a shelter, you might be shocked by the percentage of those vagrants who are not from California.
The homeless have been flocking to California (San Francisco and south to San Diego) because they figure they'll at least have a better chance of not FREEZING to death on the streets.
1952
@Entera We certainly don't have a homeless problem here.
19
@Entera When a motorist hit my motorcycle in San Francisco, the only people who came to my aid were the homeless. My fellow taxpayers couldn't be bothered.
When my wallet was stolen, it was a homeless guy who pushed his cart 3 miles uphill to my house to return it after finding it in a garbage can.
The homeless aren't, as a population, bad people and a lot of them are from elsewhere. But homelessness, filthy streets, ineffective government and property crime were the primary reasons I moved away from California.
132
@Entera
I have worked for city government trying to address homelessness in Oregon. I have come to believe that the efforts to help the homeless, however well-intentioned, are missing the point. Many homeless people DO NOT want to leave the streets. They DO NOT want housing. They do not want to quit using their drugs and alcohol; they do not want to give up their pets; they do not want the responsibility of paying bills, etc. They want a safe place to keep their stuff, and a warm place to sleep at night. But no one really asks them what they want. Their MSWs train them to get the homeless into housing and services. But that comes with a lot of strings attached.
Why not return to the SRO model? A cheap room, bare-bones, but secure. Only this time, instead of being run by private owners, they would be run by state or community government. There are probably thousands of old, run-down motels and boarding houses just waiting to be renovated and put to use.
Yes, this would cost money, but what is the current approach coasting? In policing, cleaning up homeless camps, the early deaths and violence associated with life on the streets? It's at least worth a try, don't you think?
252
California's biggest export:
Democracy!
15
I hope that the Senators who could of saved the country from Trump, yet chose to save themselves out of fear of loosing jobs that they don't do particularly well anyway, are fully digesting the blowback coming out of the WH this week.
6
That will show him !
1
A lot of the Californians that move to my area are pretty darn conservative. And they are degrading the quality of life here.
6
@Bill
Omigod, right? And housing is being bought up by speculators and people wanting second, third, and fourth homes. Bend is now completely unaffordable for the poor or working classes. Nice views, though ;-)
From your mouth to God's ears, Timmy!
3
Secede, California. Along with Oregon and Washington. And I’ll speed up Retirement, Sell everything except the Dogs, and move to Seattle.
Seriously.
5
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Ugh, not Seattle! It's almost as bad as L.A. With much worse weather. Central Washington state is nice, and they need the economic injection that Californians bring.
I like the idea of secession, though! Can't see it happening in my lifetime, however.
1
Sinema is "quirky"? You mean like a kid sister, Timothy? You would have thought that someone so significant would deserve a more respectful adjective.
2
Editorialists need to keep in mind:
"laws of unintended consequence"
"schadenfreude"
"sticks and stones" etc.
And https://nypost.com/2019/12/30/new-york-is-losing-residents-at-an-alarming-rate-report/
I.J.S.
"Are they bringing California values — fierce defense of the environment, tolerance of immigrants and a multiracial society, insistence on universal health care — with them?"
Gosh Mr. president -- are you just gonna 'Lock 'Em ALL Up'? Well, at least you won't be Nuking them.
We hope.
4
If the travelin' Californians help relocate Trump, all hail the golden bear.
12
As with most hopeless far Leftists, the authors writes what is hoped for, not what is real.
4
Let us all hope they do send him packing Gods speed!
1
"diaspora"?!! That's hilarious. California exceptionalism is not a good thing, whatever Timothy Egan says.
2
That would be irony indeed and a perfect ending of this mobster.
1
From my perspective in Bend, I like to say that we are all Californians now. Bend has exploded from a small town of 12,000 when I grew up here to at least 100,000. We all do California stops, it keeps traffic moving. But to be fair not all of the people coming here are Californians. Just yesterday I saw license plates in a parking lot from New Hampshire, Texas and Arizona. For some reason Oregon has always been somewhat left of center without any assistance, even though help along that line is appreciated. In the past we have had liberal Republican senators like Mark Hatfield and a Democrat, Wayne Morse, who was one of the two no votes in the Senate against Johnson's Tonkin Gulf Resolution.
3
18% of US voters control 51 Senators. No Taxation without representation! Secession Now!
6
This is the problem: People flee the blue states due to intolerable costs, taxes and crime, and then move to red states for a better life. However, they bring their liberal voting values with them, ruining those states, too.
6
@Jose Pieste With the exception of a weakly blue state (New Mexico) the top 10 highest crime states are all bedrock deep-red states.
7
A "California Conservative" is probably still pretty liberal in most red states they move to. So the apparent paradox could be that as more "California Conservatives" leave the state both California and the their destination red states become more liberal.
For example, say +10 is very liberal and -10 is very conservative. California may be at +8 and nearby red states may be at -6. If a California conservative is merely a -1, then as they leave, they raise the liberal ranking in both states.
3
As a 65 year old who lives half the year in LA and half the year in NYC I have to laugh at all these folks who don’t live in CA speaking with such certainty about the state of the state (yuh, I’m looking’ at you, Idaho). CA and NY have their undeniable problems but I won’t ever consider living anywhere else. Quality of life is a tricky individualistic thing and personal values have much to do with it.
9
Idaho is home to more white supremacists per capita than any other state. The Idaho panhandle is home to the largest neonazi organizations.
9
@Ben Not to mention that Idaho is also the favorite retirement destination of Law enforcement retirees.
3
Boise is a nice town though.
1
I came of age in California. I moved there after college at age 24 and left at age 34. I developed a liberal point of view that remains to this day. It was an unforgettable place for me. I never seemed to quite fit in in other places.
7
This article made me smile. As a Californian who has moved back and forth between CA and Colorado many times over my life, with family in both states, it's nice to hear something positive instead of the typical complaints that Californians are like a plague. I remember joking 20 years ago that Colorado was home to more Californians than Coloradans.
6
There are a few red states like Texas that have announced that they won't accept refugees, even those vetted by the Feds and approved as safe and needy, as Mr. Egan pointed out in one of his prior columns. Too bad blue states can't refuse to accept republican refugees from California, lest they spread their culture of greed, dishonesty and cruelty to the rest of us.
5
Nice try. People are leaving because California is: crowded, has ridiculous commute times, polluted, expensive, highly taxed, lousy schools, has a gigantic welfare population, in short California has become everything the left wants the rest of the country to be. Unfortunately they are moving to places like Idaho (the fastest growing state) and replicating this “brave new world”. The answer isn’t to just ruin California and then spread out and ruin everywhere else. The answer is to enact limits on growth, population and development in California and the rest of the country so that what’s left of the american lifestyle can be maintained and we can save some of the natural world that the Californians claim to care about, but in reality their lifestyle and growth are crushing under the tidal wave of people and everything that goes with it. It’s not rocket science. It doesn’t matter how much you say you care about the environment, if you keep stuffing people into a fixed area, eventually they will ruin that place.
5
@AT -- Yeah, my little house near the beach, with avocados, oranges and guavas in the yard, with a high of 68 and a low of 54 today-- horrible. It took me almost 20 min to drive 13 miles to work this morning. I know all my neighbors, and I can walk 5 blocks to bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and 5 different breweries/tasting rooms. I just feel terrible about it. Please save yourself the misery and stay away.
35
@AT Idaho teaching lessons to the 5th economy in the world? Go figure.
11
@Jorge
I noticed none of what you say is so great is because you have 40 million neighbors. In the end that will determines how you live, not an orange tree.
1
Many Californians may well leave the state and relocate to other western states, but the notion that Arizona is in play is laughable.
I know. I've lived in Arizona for 48 years. Remember, this is the state of Sheriff Joe, and SB 1070 - you know, the law that let law enforcement authorities to round up anyone they "thought" looked "illegal" (translate - brown-skinned)? This is the same state that voted down the MLK holiday. This is the same state that currently has white nationalist self-described militias "patrolling" the border, ostensibly looking for "illegals" (again, read those with brown skin).
I'm a 5'9" guy with no skill at sports. And I will go in the first round of the NBA draft before Arizona turns blue.
5
There are also a quite a number of "migrants" from Democratic states like Illinois, New York and New Jersey that are helping to turn places like North Carolina and Georgia a slightly groovier shade of blue. With trump nausea at peak levels good things could happen in these places.
7
@Innocent Bystander I am hoping that the groovier shade of blue happens here in NC. After living most of our adult lives in northern NJ, and my husband working in NYC, we both lost our jobs within a year of one another and could no longer afford to live in our home so we sold and moved to NC. I didn't realize just how conservative it would be and have felt like a stranger in a strange land since moving here almost 5 years ago. If we could afford to live somewhere else, we would! We write to our awful Senators constantly but they continue to kneel in adoration before our terrible President. My heart aches for our country.
8
Thanks for this up beat article. OMG the election looks promising now. I have relatives in calif and all i've heard is how expensive housing is. I have always admired Calif especially in the 60's. They really pushed 4 education for everyone. They have outstanding healthcare,beautiful parks nice weather a diversified population. Growth! Growth! Growth!
2
California is glorious. I call it Heaven. I feel I could spend the rest of my life exploring that state and never run out of things to do. I'm one of the ones trying to find a way to move from here to there. I just don't know if it's realistic on my retirement income.
I keep hearing about people moving from there to here and I can only think they are going to be disappointed. Las Vegas is an easy place to live and still affordable but it is very limited. Once you find the things you like to do here, you will be doing them over and over and over. Away from The Strip, it's just a bunch of strip malls and cookie cutter- fake stucco - Spanish tile roof houses. Every blade of grass is on life support.
Arizona is an alternative. I visited there once and thought, "Ugh - what a white man place this is."
I've always liked Texas but could I really live there? I remember driving through areas with anti-abortion billboards rising out of the farmlands. That giant cross you can see from five miles away when you drive into Amarillo.
The gun culture.
It's tempting to think you could do some good by bringing your blue vote to a red state, but you've got to know that you'll be leaving what you love and you won't be able to replace it.
7
Once upon a time, motor vehicles -- many of them -- with Idaho license plates, carried bumper stickers that read "don't Californicate Idaho."
Move to Wisconsin and vote there. Please.
7
I've never been prouder to be a Californian.
11
Might also some folks in New York consider escaping that obscenely expensive, crowded city for some purple states to the west? We could use some more Democrats out here in Ohio.
6
Everything that will help remove Trump from office is good.
4
Texas Turns Blue in 2022! Woo hoo!
But take note, potential immigrants: Though Texas has no state income tax and housing is still relatively cheap, the sales and property taxes may shock you.
1
Never know what conservative or liberal means. I think of myself as a reasonable citizen, I want good financial decisions, fair taxes for all, guaranteed reasonable health and education, improved infrastructure, a congress that actually works and spends time passing needed bills, less defense waste and more domestic spending, less stupid wars, infrastructure repair, No wall, reasonable immigration based on our financial needs, climate controls, allow women to choose their own fate and if a sin let God figure it out.
1752
@Richard Head
I have often reminded my children and their friends: labels don't mean much. Start by asking, "Is someone thoughtful, or not?" "Does someone believe in government, or not?"
Any good politician ought to be able to get 80% of the voters to agree on your list of what government should be able to do.
The best parts of the United States happened because of reasonable citizens.
111
@Richard Head
If you really don't know: you're a classic liberal (which is good, actually). Here's the evidence: "fair taxes for all, guaranteed reasonable health and education... more domestic spending .... reasonable immigration based on our financial needs, climate controls, allow women to choose their own fate and if a sin let God figure it out." All completely liberal positions and all completely contrary to what GOP conservatism wants for the US.
157
@Richard Head
Conservatives these days are against most of these things. They are not reasonable citizens; just try using evidence in a discussion with them.
122
Texas “the top state for California exiles...? The people I know, three at latest count, who’ve left the San Francisco Bay Area have relocated to Oregon. That seems to be the current destination state for exiting Northern Californians. The San Francisco Bay Area having become unaffordable for those not high income. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a cut off point categorizing an individual living in the city of San Francisco with an income of $82,000 a year as low income. A striking evaluation in that the median individual income in the US for 2019 was $40,000 a year.
3
Excellent and interesting piece. As a long-suffering Arizona democrat, though, I piece of your analysis is incorrect: while I agree with your intuition that the arrival of Californians has made Arizona less conservative, it has not made our state more diverse. We have always been ethnically diverse. Americans of Mexican descent have made up a third of our population as long as I can remember and we a significant percentage of our state's lands belong to native Americans -- including the vast and beautiful Navajo reservation. As with California, the arrival of the ethnic forbears of both groups predates the arrival of white immigrants from the east.
4
California's housing, rental, and homeless crises are largely a result of the millions of illegal immigrant 'strivers' our state has invited, offering them free education, medical care, and immunity from prosecution. Our schools have gone from the best in the country to nearly the worst, in large part because so many kids don't speak English, occupying teachers' time that could be focused on capable students. Property crime is going through the roof, taxes are among the highest in the country, our cities and highways are grossly overcrowded.
The flood of people fleeing this mess is hardly to be celebrated; it is a symptom of the abject policy failures of California's progressive leadership. Woe betide the other western states whose newcomers embrace the disastrous feel good policies which drove them out of California.
3
Yogi Berra once said nobody goes there anymore...its too crowded. Whether its too crowded or too expensive, the irony is not lost. People leave California because of the high costs of living and high taxes largely imposed by overly generous government programs. Then the Californians leave to Red states and try to institute the very same programs that raised their taxes in the first place.
2
California's move to Super Tuesday doesn't threaten Trump. It's an overdue assertion of political power against the DNC's policy of giving Iowa and NH undue influence in the nomination process. As Bloomberg must have recognized, Iowa and NH are superfluous. As we have seen, only marginal candidates were eliminated. The remainders, however, weren't as astute. Spending a lot of money and effort in Iowa and NH was misplaced. They should have focused on states like California and Texas.
If Beto, for example, had bypassed Iowa and NH for Super Tuesday Texas, it seems inconceivable he would not have carried Texas, retained and enhanced his political reputation, and had a say in his political future.
2
They say the best thing a Democrat can do for their country is to move to a red state and vote, vote, vote. Sadly, that would mean living in a red state. I think that may be above and beyond the call of patriotic duty.
15
Agree!
4
There are a lot of great blue cities surrounded by red states, though. Nashville, Atlanta, the Research Triangle in North Carolina, etc.
3
I am one of those Californian emigrees who resettled in a purple state - Minnesota. (We moved back to be near family.) I am shocked at how Minnesota, once a progressive leader, regressed in the decades since we left for California. Roads, schools, bridges, rivers, lakes, all neglected polluted, despoiled. A major copper mine, nearing approval, will pollute the Boundary Waters and eventually Lake Superior.
Minnesota is now conservative. Our new state motto could be, 'Now, whatever you do, don't spend any money'. Voters recently rejected a modest increase in the gas tax, and the legislature wants to return a large surplus to the citizens.
But there are dots of blue. Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, Mankato and other cities are progressive, and not coincidently, prospering. Democrats can win here. But the culture really needs to change.
6
Trump has shown time and again how he will turn on people, places and things when their subservience wanes. Voters should wake up to this fact and realize that their sacred cows , their states and cities and towns could go from favor to vile at the drop of a tweet.
Many of those who begrudgingly vote for him are single issue voters. They, too, should realize that while he might currently be supporting that issue, on any given day he could pivot; just as dangerous is that on other issues these voters might care about he will go in a different direction.
Wish they could all be California girls the song said. How prescient.
4
As a retired widower, I can sell my overpriced house and move anywhere in the country.
But between the weather and especially, the politics, I wouldn't live in most of the "cheap" states.
I think I'll stay put until I get a better offer.
11
I moved away from California about two years ago, after living there for about 50 years. My parents came to California in 1964 and settled in Compton, a suburb of LA. There were a few freeways then but almost no smog.
What has happened to California over the past 55 years?
The neighborhood my parents lived in was transformed from almost totally white, to mostly Hispanic and black. One weekend my parents took me to see what remained of their grocery store. It had burned to the ground in the LA riots.
LA has grown larger. The city is covered with smog. People often drive in from the suburbs with an hour commute both ways.
I moved up the coast to a community a safe distance away. I got interested in environmentalism. I appeared before the County Planning Commission and argued against a new real estate development that might have destroyed the refuge of Monarch Butterflies. Our side won the battle but lost the war. The housing development was defeated, but the community transformed as condos sprung up like mushrooms.
The pristine deserts of Southern California have slowly transformed. One can see the contrast when leaving Death Valley. As soon as one leaves the National Monument one sees buildings in the distance, smokestacks, the effects of civilization.
If there were a God, he would condemn what we have done to California. It was not Trump.
It was too many people crowding out nature.
Now global overpopulation has led to global warming.
9
I grew up in CA in the 1950’s when smog started to become a problem and by the 60’s I was having breathing problems. Laws were passed, cars began to have smog devices, etc. and the air began to improve. A pilot friend who is now 89 confirmed this as his base was LAX.
It is not perfect, but I very much disagree with your dystopian view of CA. I am 73 and doing fine here is Riverside County.
10
Strange that you cite a white neighborhood changing to a Hispanic and black one as the first item on your list of catastrophes.
5
True revenge for California would be our full seccession from a union that only has ever berated and extorted our resources, technology, and social commitments, while not allowing fair say in federal governance for a state that has a population its size. It has always been apparent that California's culture is separate from the rest of the country, and our policies and influence need to be wielded in our own light, not dominated by the regressive influence of Washinton. California has always been its own nation, and needs to be reflected as such.
6
The exodus from California has also included conservatives who have moved to Texas and less liberal states. This may just be the beginning of those leaving who are conservative and they may add to the Republican voting rolls if it continues. The Democrats are not guaranteed a win. Hillary Clinton was all set to win the presidency until she didn’t. Democrats do not count your chickens until they are hatched. There are still over eight months until the election and a lot can happen. I am sure the Republicans will be doing all they can to get out the vote for President Trump. He still has a very good chance of winning in 2020. His poll numbers have been outstanding.
2
Conservatives moving to less liberal states don’t change the voting demographics one iota.
1
Trump should have some respect for California. We pay way more to Trump than we get back. Our state has a budget surplus, unlike Trump. We are world leaders in technology and produce tons of agricultural products. I get that Trump gains nothing politically by helping us out, because he will never win votes from our state. But he should respect what we contribute to the country.
19
I grew up in the South and own a house there but I have lived in CA for almost 30 years.The difference is enormous. The water in CA is clean, healthcare is good, schools are good, and the people are optimistic. My southern community is just the opposite. CA does have a lot of homelessness and housing is too expensive. Both of these are a result of the good values of our community (charity), good employment, and good, corruption free local government. Taxes are high in large part because much of the rest of the US feeds off of us and a few other high performing blue states. I'm glad to see my fellow CAs moving elsewhere and taking CA's values of optimism, opportunity, community, free expression, and hard work with them. These values are desperately needed in the rest of America.
85
As a highly skilled builder/carpenter, I make close to $100/hr in the SF Bay Area. Plumbers and electricians make even more. I'd love the idea of moving to Colorado and enjoy its lower cost of living. I suspect, however, that incomes are lower too, thus taking away the motivation to move. What is the net gain derived from moving? Less traffic?
10
Come on to Texas, Californians. We need you here and have lots to give back in return.
6
So they trash California with their liberal philosophy, but think it will work somewhere else?
5
Everyone can’t live in a conservative paradise such as Arkansas. And don’t forget California pays a substantial portion of the federal money going into Arkansas since it is incapable of supporting itself.
12
It’s working a lot better than in Arkansas
2
I bet he doesn’t have anyone pooping in his front yard. Neither do I as a matter of fact...
1
The author is wrong. The people who leave California for Red states are not bringing California values. They are Trump supporters fleeing a state that is becoming more diverse every day. We get tons of California transplants here in Idaho. They move here for cheaper housing and lower taxes and because they like the 1950s lifestyle vibe of the place. As soon as they are here they immediately start complaining about Californians moving in, act to block affordable housing, and education tax increases. In a state with high poverty and extremely low wages its the California transplants fighting the hardest to block wage increases. They have their money and they like being wealthier than their neighbors. They also publish editorials complaining about the 'changing complexion' of Idaho. It's called white flight.
8
Actually, Trump got millions of votes from California in 2016. He's screwing them, too, but being Trump supporters they are too stupid to see the obvious.
18
We Californians are the largest, most diverse population ever assembled on Earth. Our state remains an idea, built on welcoming newcomers, protecting our environment, and working hard to build a life in a sun baked land. While for now Mr. Trump ridicules our well documented problems, know that we'll be thriving here long after this childish, bloviating bully-jackass is gone.
82
Secession seems so extreme, but is still better than an absolutely corrupt and fascist theocracy.
Trump has divided us, let's help him finish the job.
As the republicans seem to cheer on the end of democracy under Trump, let this destruction come back at them and bite them in their a----.
New York and California could be first to leave.
11
As a New Jersey refugee the same can be said of New York and my former state and their impact on states like North Carolina, Virginia and even Georgia. Florida is just too old and hot for many of us. The demographics in these states are changing dramatically with a Democrat as governor and despite voter suppression tactics. And in Virginia the shift o Democratic control is far along. In Georgia Stacey Abrams almost took the governorship. Conservatives in these states think of us as perhaps carpet baggers, but none the less we are their future. There is indeed a culture war happening.
5
@Middle of the road No, I am really a moderate, not moving to the right, but protesting as you do as our party moves left.
1
I'm sorry but how is Californians abandoning California in any way a slam against Trump and not their own state government?
People cite the high taxes, high rent, and homeless problems for reasons they are leaving, all of which can be laid at the feet of California's state legislature and governor, and ultimately the voters. Trump was not even president when these issues began. This goes beyond misinformation, it's outright deflecting blame from California's incompetent leadership onto Trump.
I get that Trump's a scumbag and easy to hate, but you can't just scapegoat him for everything. Hold Californian leadership responsible for squandering the incredible wealth and beauty of their state and turning it into a place people increasingly would rather not live in. You have to do this or else Californian expats will simply vote the same type of incompetent people into office in their new homes.
The ignorance of Californians is a plague upon this country.
6
Buried in this is the message that, yes, Democrats can go too far. San Francisco represents a true hand-wringing, tax-wasting pit thanks to the lack of responsibility from the officials who simply move from office, upwards to the next inoffensive position.
Yes, I am a Liberal, but I also understand waste and balance. Take a look at Seattle and you can watch how SanFran got where they are in real time.
6
I'm in a red state because of family needs, but I stayed partly to be a blueberry in the ketchup. We need some people who aren't too rooted to spread out. Doesn't take much to turn an empty state purple. One more area where Trump's idiotic policy hurts him as much as those he attacks, persuading people to leave high Salt states. No state tax doesn't suck, btw, though it does for the poor.
2
Knowing that there is an exodus from California is a vindication of people with enough sense to see that CA has become ungovernable and swiftly becoming uninhabitable. We must lay this at the doorstep of the Democrats who have run and are running the state. The idea of a lais·sez-faire environment and government has failed.
If the people leaving the state have understood anything, they will realize that Democrats are mostly losers. Time to go Republican.
3
@Bill Have you ever actually been to CA? CA is very much governable and inhabitable. Our water and air is clean. Our healthcare is good. Most of our schools are good. Our public university system competes with the Ivy League. We have strong agriculture, defense, high tech, and biotech industries. Our state park system rivals the National Park system. Our crime rate is low and we are working very hard to decrease our energy dependence and use of fossil fuels. We are surpassing our own state goals. Our government is not corrupt. We have problems but we are dealing with our problems. Does South Carolina outperform us in any of these areas or in anything else either?
18
@MKV
Well, yes. A few areas come to mind:
Clean air
Low taxes
Urban decay
None of which is a problem here. I have been to California and, indeed, some areas are beautiful. However, that does not excuse the damage done to date in the urban centers.
Tell me, have you ever been to South Carolina, particularly the upstate near Greenville? If not, please give it a try. If you do, please let me know. I would be happy to show you around.
1
Good to know California is good for one thing. Infecting the rest of the country with Big Government, high crime, high taxes and illegal immigration.
This is good news?
3
Democrats have been in control of Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio for decades.
4
I hope you're right.
1
From your lips to god's ears.
1
As a Democrat and multigenerational Californian, I say good for California. I stay and believe strongly we will meet significant challenges with political leaders here who do more than play golf and tweet. As for "he who shall not be named," I say: Though frequently gobsmacked or flabbergasted by the dingleberry in the White House, I refuse to be flummoxed or bamboozled by his malarkey and shenanigans.
7
Fingers and toes crossed that it's enough. We need him out and sent back to Mar a Lago, where hopefully he will be washed out with the rising tides. #VoteDemocrat2020
12
This is great, totally destroy your own home with yous politics and when it it too trashed to even live in, go to a new home and start the process again. Far left policies destroy.
4
@TED338 Huh. Maybe you missed the point of the piece. Far from being "destroyed," California has a booming economy and a whole lot of high paying jobs. But we haven't keep up with the necessary infrastructure/housing to keep up with everyone who wants to live here. There's a reason housing prices are high in California and not so high in North Dakota. My SIL and her husband just moved to South Carolina where they could buy a home at a fraction of the price it would have cost here. She has signed up for the local Democratic committee and committed to pounding the pavement and getting out voters. And I say hurray for her!
9
Left unasked, as usual: how “a fierce defense of the environment “ coheres with endless population growth via excessive immigration
4
There's a strong possibility that Trumpers are going to get a big surprise in November - they're dear leader is going to be voted out. They don't realize how angry and sickened millions of us are with Trump's disgusting behavior. They think his daily assaults on people, the constant bullying, are just "politics", just "harmless locker room talk." It is so clearly not. Trump is such a grotestque figure. By the time many of them actually realize that, it will likely be too late for them to save their party (if it even exists anymore) which will be forever be associated with him. Sad.
9
Yup. In the 1950's Vermont was the most Republican state in the country. Then came Boston and NYC. Look at us now!
5
When I lived in Seattle, they called them by a less flattering name: Californicators.
2
I’ve always lived in Seattle and that was never a common term.
2
From your pen to God's and the voters' ears.
Common sense and analytical skills must be in short supply as Timothy Egan appears to have none. Using his limited palette of paints, his graphic approach to bring divide uses only primary pigments with no flicks of subtlety or dabs of nuance. Not caring to fully explain the flight out of this Leftist holy land on the west coast, he merely surmises that these quickly exiting acolytes are proselytizing California values across the country rather than fleeing them as not to replicate the growing cesspool that is now California’s blueprint replete with sanctuary cities, unwalkable streets, and a class-based real estate market more consequential to racial unrest than anywhere in the nation.
3
Come to Ohio people. You can still afford to buy a couple acres of land and raise donkeys if you want to. We need you here.
6
I was born there and my family immigrated to Ohio in the early part of the 19th century. My dad left for flight training in CA in 1943, returned briefly to Ohio, and we moved to CA. He said it was the best thing he ever did and he was right.
4
I say Californians, welcome to Texas and help turn it blue!
10
The best thing that could happen is if educated people continue to self-deport from the backward states. After all, why would you want to raise kids in a state where a belief in the reality of the climate crisis for example, makes you a social pariah? Let the red-staters get their doctors from the graduates of the Moody Bible Institute. That leaves more of those went to Johns Hopkins instead and Cornell Medical School for the rest of us.
6
Californians are a pox on this great nation, raising rents and taxes (but not wages) everywhere they go.
Somebody should put up a wall.
1
Trump hates California because in his shallow, simple mind it’s the land of Hollywood. Glitz and glamour, the thing he truly idolizes and they despise him. He never could get in with the “in” crowd. Even when he was a tv celebrity, he was viewed as a joke.
8
I’ll be crucified for this: It’s vastly more important to win the Senate than the White House. Without his Collaborators, he would be a senile, toothless old dog, howling alone.
Apologies to actual Dogs, whom I love very much.
23
As a college educated millenial who moved to Austin, Texas from West Hollywood, I would just like to say MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
952
@Sean You want people moving to your state, increasing wealth, taxes paid and home values. If you have a strong culture, you can withstand influx of people.
23
@Thad Welcome to Austin, Thad!
162
@Thad
Who would anyone want to live here?
There's not enough water. There's too much crime. There are too many homeless. There are too many rich people. There are too many poor people. The traffic is a nightmare. There's a shortage of affordable housing. There's a shortage of housing period. There are too many republicans in love with Donal Trump, including Kevin McCarthy and David Nunez.
In short, California is a horrible place.
Is there any chance you can convince a few million more to relocate?
42
I love it. I live in California at the moment, and if I could, I would move to Wisconsin, not just for the great fishing, but to vote.
7
I think you're wrong, Tim. The question is why. Why are people moving out of states like CA, NY and NJ? The answer is rather simple. It's a case of show me the money. States controlled by liberal Democrats impose the highest taxes of any of the states. My home state of NJ has, perhaps, the highest property taxes in the nation. Our esteemed Governor Murphy, aka tax'em till they drop Phil, is doing a wonderful job of getting more people to move out of NJ than are moving in. Why should I pay $15,000 in annual NJ property taxes when in Florida, for the same house, I could pay around $2,500. As a retired social security recipient, it would be foolish of us not to move except for the fact that our kids and grand-kids live in NJ. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place! Those leaving high tax blue states should realize that bringing liberal political affiliations with them will soon turn their new states of residence into the ones they managed to escape from.
3
So, let me see if I understand this correctly: Californians - who have elected their way into the intolerable conditions they’re fleeing in their beloved state - want to spread out across the country to ruin other states. Do me a favor and stay out of Oklahoma, where I’ll be living in the near future.
3
This is the first I'm a little bit happy to be paying ridiculously high rent because of Californians. Keep 'em coming'!
2
Great piece on a new angle!
If Californians can help deter the destruction of our nation by Trump and the Republican Party I promise to be more grateful and appreciative of our giant neighbor to the south.
4
How many retired progressives moving to Wyoming this summer, establishing residence (in their motor home or tent), and registering to vote, would it take to flip Wyoming blue?
3
Trump's unchanging base of despicables is not enough to keep him in OUR White House, and out of prison. California has always been the leading edge of American Democracy, with New York a close second. THAT is where progress is made and tyranny is defeated.
Just like Apple seeds, Californians that migrate elsewhere spread the genes of what America CAN be, countering the depravity of the Trump administration and the xenophobia of his sick mind.
There is a reason that California is so successful, Democratic and so progressive, and it is most certainly NOT Donald Trump.
6
Good signs from Texas:
Here in Texas, Sen. Cornyn is despised. His approval rating is 30-something percent. He's done not one thing for Texas. He quotes Mussolini and won't defend Lt. Col. Vindman -- in a state with lots of active duty military and retirees.
Plus, some big Texas counties are now using hybrid electronic voting/paper ballot systems. So you can check your ballot on paper before feeding it into a machine. This is after some voting machines without paper trails "accidentally" switched votes for Beto O'Rourke to votes for Ted Cruz in 2016.
Texans are mad that the Republican-led state government earlier this year started kicking 100,000+ voters off the rolls for no good reason -- until a judge stopped them. That's why so many state seats are in play, for that and to reverse GOP gerrymandering that has essentially neutered the state's most populous cities. And yes, there are plenty of Californians living here now -- God bless 'em.
Texas landowners are livid that President Trump wants to seize their homes and property to build his despised border wall.
And every big Texas city already votes blue.
So yes, Texas is in play this year.
14
It is good to have dreams. The people coming to Texas from California are middle class households enjoying the large homes at reasonable prices, good schools for their children, zero state income taxes and minimal regulation by the state and local governments where they live. The large cities, not the metroplexes that include them, vote Democratic because the Republican voters left for the suburbs and exurbs. I have no idea where that 30 per cent number for Senator Cronyn originated. His rating is much better than Senator Cruz who won two years ago against Congressman O’Rourke. The primary for his Democratic opponent will start early voting in a few weeks with none of his candidates getting any traction or name recognition. No Beto’s in that group. Texas has very open voting processes, early voting for two weeks that includes Saturdays and ability to vote anywhere in the county during early voting, something that supports families that likely work 25-30 miles from home. We just expect that voters be able to proof who they are when they vote.
Keep sending those middle income households California. Once they experience life here, we are confident they will know what is in their interest. After all, why would they want to replicate the problems from which they flee?
1
And the weather?
1
That is why God created air conditioning, deregulated, low utility costs and cheap gas. Capitalism: learn it, love it, live it! Life is good.
Too bad you had to add this divisive statement, "The rest of the country has little sympathy for the “sunbaked barbarians,” as an old friend in Seattle used to call them. As someone who grew up loathing the hordes who moved north to my native Pacific Northwest, I get it." Did you mean to come off as a sneery, elite conservative? Is this the best you've got? Enough of this. We are all Americans. I happen to be a native Californian, whose parents moved here in the 1940s from Pittsburg, PA for better opportunities. My experience is that most Californian's I meet are from somewhere else. After living here, most embrace the tolerance and empathy toward others we are known for, and appreciate the same being extended to them. Many, many came here hopeful of a better life. No wonder we are overcrowded since we have much to offer. Yes, living here is expensive, but it is getting to be so in most places where people migrate to find jobs and housing is scarce.
11
I certainly hope this article is correct! California is our future and California will stand up to the trumpian forces of darkness. We will have our own universal health care, our own environmental standards, our own immigration laws - they will be contested by the trump Mafia, but I do think we will prevail here. We lead the way to the future, and against the retrogressive and destructive standards of the POD - the Party of Death (Republican Party).
3
I strongly recommend joining your local Indivisible.org group.
They coordinate grass roots groups all over the nation,
to target specific elections that are close, to keep them blue or turn them blue. Go to Indivisible.org
I found my group - and new friends - only a mile from my home.
4
I’m smiling very very broadly.
2
Oh please, make it so... pollinate those other states and help bring us back to sanity, Californians! Thank you for a bit of hope, Timothy Egan.
3
Correlation, that’s all. Californians moving to destination states that are getting Bluer. No data supplied or available to show that Californians moving tend to be Blue. Counter: Nevada, Arizona and Colorado are increasingly Hispanic and they do vote Blue.
2
If federal taxes generated by Californians went to California rather than red states that are too poor to take care of themselves, California would have a mountain of money to address their own needs.
5
In Phx we are seeing a massive increase in population due to the migration of former CA residents. And the impact has been great, most recently manifesting itself in the likely removal of Senator McSally in Nov. Republican McSally lost the last election but was appointed when John McCain died. A "died in the wool" Trump supporter, America needs McSally like I need toe fungus.
AZ has long been plagued by conservatives whose "so called" beliefs accrue wealth to themselves at the expense of everyone else. They lavish great health care on themselves but leave the 99% to fend with emergency clinics.
Fortunately, the incoming folks from CA seem to understand that America is not just for the rich and powerful. Working men and women need health care and their kids deserve a chance to prosper thru reasonably priced college.
So thank you California for sending people to AZ who understand that the 1% simply does not deserve all of the bounty America has to offer. Trump is a cancer and so is his lackey McSally. The best remedy is excision of Trump and McSally.
Coming soon.
9
“Sunbaked barbarians?” As long as we are blue barbarians, I’m OK with it. But, yes, it’s great that California will finally have an impact on the primaries commensurate with its Electoral College vote.
3
Great piece, and cause for hope, but I'm sure that there are many vile and corrupt men who will take exception to being compared to the "vile and corrupt man occupying the White House."
1
I always liked California. Now more than ever because it stands for everything Trump hates. Go Cali.
5
I had to stop, gobsmacked, some six paragraphs into your analysis, Mr. Egan: “California Republicans...cite...the failure to enforce basic standards of public behavior....[as an example of] how awful the state is”. Really? Perhaps these, and other, Banana Republicans should look themselves in the mirror and at the Frankenstein’s monster they have installed in the White House, and enabled and foisted on the general American landscape and people. I assure you that, in my quotidian travels through Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco and elsewhere in the Golden State, I have never witnessed “public behavior” as grotesque, despicable and venal as that displayed by the current occupant of the Oval Office. Those who live in glass houses, much less this forever besmirched, befouled and poisoned White House, are in no position to throw stones, Roger or otherwise.
3
Please consider Georgia, Californians who seek a good place to move. The Peach State is not as red as, say, Wyoming, and needs only a little help to turn it blue, as our last governor’s race showed. Georgia boasts some of the country’s best universities; suffers no significant earthquakes; offers affordable housing and ample job opportunities; is home to the Masters, the Braves, and the Falcons; and includes several thriving, energetic metropolises. Oh, and Atlanta’s nightmare traffic will make you feel as though you never left LA. Ya’ll come!
5
Personally, I think trump is his own worst enemy. Much of what he's done can be undone, including unqualified judge appointees. This is a diverse & vibrant country and trump has a narrow view of what he likes & all else is bad. This is why he will be gone after November. A racist & advocate for wealthy people will always come back to bite.
1
If this keeps going, we just might turn the Divided States of America into the United State of California!
2
The politics of mean-spiritedness will, in the long run, reach a dead end. At the rate that he's going, eventually President Trump will have offended just about everybody in the country. A few of these might still vote for him but the numbers will be small.
So, the only way that he can hold onto the White House is by some sort of post-election coup. Don't put this past him. He is perfectly capable of doing it under a banner of endless lies and vile biliousness.
1
Would Trump's supporters feel the same about Trump's views on California if a future president would turn vitriol to their state? I bet the answer would be no. Are they so short sighted to not see the implications of such divisive rhetoric? If Trump's presidency is the backlash to the Obama presidency, then they should dread the coming backlash as I do for the country.
2
Love--love--love reading Egan's writing whether it's books or columns! As far as those people leaving the Big C being conservatives, it is all a matter of degree. For example: years ago we moved our family to Oregon from SF Bay Area for a year. Our oldest girl who had just entered high school thought we were the strictest parents on the planet. Before the first high school dance, we told her curfew was midnight. Her girl friend was told curfew was 11 pm. Our daughter was shocked. We relished the glow of being "liberal" for about a week.
2
Nothing will change the fact that Trump is the best president, aside than Reagan, in the last decades. The demos candidates are obsolete. The 4-year witch hunt + impeachment, the soaring economy and the strong stand against illegal immigration, Iran and China will lend Trump a land slide victory in 2020.
17
@lieberma, I agree the STOCK MARKET is soaring and unemployment is low but those are just 2 components of the overall economy. Perhaps the traditional "Democratic candidates are obsolete" in light of economical factors but I have strong confidence a Bloomberg administration will not adversely affect those 2 components and will grow other aspects of the economy. #45 is incapable of doing that.
50
Pollution and climate change - worse
Debt and deficit - much much worse
Trade relations - worse
Border situation - worse
Healthcare - worse
US political divide - worse
Relations with allies - worse
But yeah, how about that stock market!
24
@lieberma
This seems inaccurate, xenophobic and disturbing. Collaborating in stories than can only be understood as lies is frightening behavior. Currently the Trump base has come out for his: being the best President ever (Lincoln, Washington), mischaracterize or fail to read outright the concerns of economic experts: provide no policy foreign or domestic policy plan besides hatred and anger.
5
One can find hope in this column and those it sends out into the rest of the country. Texas is changing. And certainly AZ, CO, and Nevada even has a culinary union. Can't imagine that here, but who knows? While not a techie and one who heard lots of what Andrew Yang said about the AI and robotic dire future regarding workers, CA stands tall for its many progressive ideas as evidenced by the former governor, a former Jesuit and current good guy, Jerry Brown. The current gov, a positive force as well.
President Trump needs to hold rallies in all the states mentioned in this article. He does not have any difficulty in filling the stadiums and there are always many more watching on large screens outside. He can certainly draw a crowd and they love him. He is a wonderful orator and this is his strength. The people love what he has to say and are his great supporters. I think he will win again as he is quite popular. His polling numbers are some of his highest ever. He just needs to continue doing what he has done since his time in office. That is make America great. If he can do this, he is guaranteed re-election.
1
In my rebellious moments I would love to see the west coast and the east coast blue states form their own country and bankrupt the US economy to prove a point.
The major engines of the economy in the US are in Blues states.
California alone is the 6th largest economy on planet earth.
Just a fantasy, so, it is heartening to see that CA is having an affect in other ways.
Trump is out of control and continues to destroy.
One thing I do is send donations to all the Dems running against GOP senators in the states mentioned and several others.
Tillis is vulnerable in NC. McSally in AZ. Collins in Maine as well.
I send money to Amy McGrath in Kentucky, because I think there is a real chance a Retired Marine Corp LTC Pilot may be able to knock off McConnell.
And that would be almost as great as defeating Trump
8
The books authored by Timothy Egan capture the reader in the scene of storied history, and from which we "should" learn. In the current circumstance, the villain has captured both real and imagined dissatisfaction which cannot be escaped for being enabled by those possessed in seeking opportunity in the ashes of disaster-in-the-making.
Mr Egan has hit on the solution to disparity the Electoral College creates.
Rather than focusing on 80,000 voters in 3-4 districts in MI, PA and WI to win a razor thin majority in the Electoral vote, Democrats should be focusing on a building the coalition that will bring Arizona, Texas, and Florida to the Blue column.
*And, Statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington DC.
3
They're moving to Boise, Salt Lake City and Phoenix.
Republican states which have been growing at insane rates before Californians (Utah had almost 10% economic growth last year, Arizona was ~8%) decide to invade. What made these states so attractive to Californians? Low taxes, freedom, lots of land, jobs. Utah's state legislature meets 45 days a year.
With all their failed California policies, tent cities, it's time to move to mountain west cities and ruin them, too. Raise the cost of living (see Salt Lake City's tent cities), pay cash for houses, and generally be disliked enough there are reports of Idaho residents kicking cars with California plates.
Lets take for example here in Arizona the new liberal Phoenix mayor wanted to raise fees on airport riders. The argument was 'Phoenix isn't a cheap city anymore and big companies need to pay their fair share. They're ruining our infrastructure'.
We have no weather and the best roads in the country, but don't let that get in the way of a democrat narrative.
The State of Arizona stepped in and basically crushed her, and will be overturned because Republicans were smart and put State constitutional amendments against tax increases on state services, and now will button it all up against liberals.
We also have state laws for constitutional carry.
Basically, Arizona was smart and preplanned.
1
Your us against them attitude is what is destroying the country. Whatever happened to all of us being Americans working together for a better life for all?
6
California has been a bellwether for a long time. Many of America's most dynamic ideas, trends, visions have originated there and most have been good for the country. Creative minds, open hearts and free thinking is what makes America great - always has and always will.
2
It's ironic that Trump's policies towards California are moving progressives into red and purple states shifting the politics left. Trump isn't solely to blame but it would have been much more in his political interest to have created policies preventing the exodus of many Californians. For once, thank you electoral college.
A correction that I feel I must share. As a native Californian, my whole life I’ve heard the complaints from neighboring states about the hordes of “Californians” moving in. Except most of them aren’t Californians. They are people who’ve moved to CA and are then moving on. Very few native Californians move out of state permanently. This influx to neighboring states is therefore just them getting their fair share of the hordes that have moved to CA in the last 40 years. Sorry, you get to share in the migration to the coasts too.
6
Since Trump's ran for president attacking the coastal elites it is not surprising he is sort of waging war on California just has he has been doing on his former home state of New York and actually as the Republican Party has been doing. Limiting tax deductions for real estate taxes was a direct shot at New York with its sky high property taxes compared with typical red states. Demagogues win elections in democracies by getting poorly educated people angry at so-called elites and Trump has followed this formula to undermine democracy. Whether this exodus from California will help prevent authoritarian rule in the US is unknown but anyone who cares about preserving democracy should hope so.
Here in Tucson our housing markets are dependent on Californians. They are indeed changing the politics of the State. After this election, it is likely that both Senators will be Democrats. Within 6-8 years, this state will be as Blue as California and Republicans will be approaching endangered species status.
6
Yep, we're one of those couples (both native Californians) who retired to New Mexico for many reasons, mainly since we could no longer live there comfortably on University of California pensions. Now, obviously not just because of us, New Mexico is all blue at the federal (all Congresswomen and men, and both Senators), and the state level (Governor and legislature). We may have only five electors, but it could be enough in November.
Oregonians used to say: "Nothing is more scary than a U-haul with a California plate". Not so much anymore.
10
Trump will always have his base supporters and that will never change. However, there is hope because the waves of people moving to other states from California and other moderate/liberal states to more conservative states are planting seeds of change in the electorate. It may take time but someday it will blossom.
2
California is a big place with plenty of wide open spaces where the older people made their living in resource extraction and the young people often turn to drugs or leave. The people there tend to be solidly Republican.
The difference between California and America in general is that California does not have an electoral college. A voter in Modoc County (population about 8500) has no more influence than a voter in Los Angeles County (population 10.15 million).
Needless to say, Los Angeles County tends to get its way, and Modoc County does not.
1
I was born in California and would love to move back there. However, I would not be able to afford it as I'm in my 70s and on a fixed income. I could sell my house here for around $135,000, but how far would that get me in California? So I stay in Iowa, which has become a red state--and do what I can to support Bernie. If any Californians want to join me, you would be welcome!
7
@Peggy I thought briefly about leaving California in the early 2000's b/c of housing prices but (thankfully) decided against it since I knew that once I left, I'd never be able to come back.
5
@RMS I left in 1975 because my husband got a job in Iowa. And because Iowa was green in the summer and I wouldn't have to water the lawn every day. But now he is long gone, and I miss the ocean and the mountains.
It’s not just people, but powerful ideas that are being exported. California is the birthplace of possibilities. I remember as a high schooler my history teacher telling me about his student Mario Savio who epitomized the “Free Speech Movement.”
Then I moved out and saw amazing social innovations come out of Berkeley that we take for granted now like handicap rights. I even read recently dog parks were started here.
It gets a little messy sometimes. Definitely not perfect. But that how good ideas come to fruition. It’s why it’s still a magnet for people with dreams. It’s a place where Americans can dream and make stuff happen.
11
I grew up in California and remember the 'hordes' of Washington residents moving into my home town in the late sixties. I remember my mom working with other local moms to ensure the children had lunches provided because many of them came to school without.
I am proud of the fact that Californians helped the displaced Washington folks who were in need accepting them as fellow americans.
7
We actually see this happening within California, as people move from the expensive coastal areas to the more affordable Central Valley with the improved economy. Flipped a few districts in 2018 from red to blue. Hoping that they can vote out that odious Devin Nunes in 2020, but that's a tall order - that area is pretty solid Republican.
14
Wow. It is clear Trump really has changed the rhetoric judging by all the comments comparing Californians to "viruses" and "invaders." It wouldn't be so comical if other states didn't siphon off of California's tax dollars. Fair warning to other states: when your state actually becomes desirable to live in, housing prices will also go up.
10
California has burdened us Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
But it has recently "canned" Darryl Issa and now if it could get rid of Devin Nunes there might cause for celebration.
Liberal diaspora from California? Maybe. But perhaps just wishful thinking?
7
@Fred Ha! Not so fast...Darryl Issa is currently running for Duncan Hunter's vacant seat in the 50th congressional district. He and Carl DiMaio are running ads constantly trying to out-Trump each other and proclaim they have more loyalty to trump than the other. That appears to be the sole basis of their campaigns judging by their ads.
One thing California-bashers seem to forget is that we have had decades of mass migration into our state, especially midwesterners who constantly complain about California, all the while informing us of their superiority because they are so "down to earth" and have "midwestern values", whatever that is. They never seem to be able to articulate it. I was recently told by a neighbor who is a transplant from rural Illinois that midwesterners have a superior work ethic. I asked him how is it that lazy, freeloading, liberal CA is the 5th largest economy in the world?
6
@Kat Vote blue in the 50th: https://www.campacampaign.com/
And, Kat, just getting through daily life in the Midwest is harder and requires more work. Surviving in -10 temperatures, like what I woke up to in Minnesota today, is challenging. Contrast my relatives in SoCal, who can walk out the door in shorts and flip-flops just about any day of the year. Hence that "work ethic" we Midwesterners have, of necessity.
1
The same can be said for ex New Yorkers who move to places like Virginia, Delaware or the Carolinas where a steady blue dye can be seen coloring those states.
11
On the subject of primaries, I think it's time to pull the plug on these first 4 states getting all the outsized attention from the candidates.
Every one of them must leave Iowa having promised to continue the ethanol stupidity.
It's time for Illinois or some other large, much more diverse Midwestern state to declare their primary day to be the same day as Iowa.
More candidates would be judged in the first cut by a much larger and diverse electorate.
It would actually be a meaningful contest.
4
Wouldn't that be nice. I am a transplanted former CA resident from the late 70's/early 80's, long before this trashy crew moved into 1600 PA Avenue NW. It would be ironic if the values of the Golden State that the "right wing" hates the most undid them.
3
Californians are from all over the country. The people who never leave their home state are the more conservative because they are less aware of different cultures, ideas and religions. They fear the “other”.
On the other hand, even without Progressive Californians, the world is a smaller place because of the internet.
Less religion, less isolation, more knowledge is a good thing.
11
One can only hope that this rosy outcome happens! I’m desperate enough to believe that Donald the Destroyer is an aberration, but still wary of the Rub machine. Unless we flip the Senate, the grim reaper is still the biggest threat to reform.
3
Came from SF where my vote did not count, now in Texas I may make a difference and turn a senator from red to blue.
15
California leading the future of the rest of America - sure, that has been going on for a while.
and as to old conservative argument that they want to 'build things' and not depend on the federal government, the California has built, in just the past ten years,
Tesla, SpaceX, Uber to add to those old businesses like Google, Apple, facebook .
- All while not vilifying immigrants, with more than 4 ethnic groups living without significant discord, AND sending more to the US Federal government than it receives.
Is the Golden State 'Red' state enough ?
713
@Ramesh G Your comment is very true. As a life- long Californian, I still consider FB "new". I remember Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, as well as Jobs and Wozniak poking around in their garages to create the unfathomable "home computer".
California is, and always will be, the home of innovation. And every tolerant person is welcome here, despite ethnicity.
116
@Ramesh G "California" did not build Tesla, SpaceX, Apple, Google, Facebook and Uber. Private entrepreneurs built them.
7
@peversma It is no coincidence they are all based in California
65
There’s a lot of wishful thinking in this piece. I share the hope that Trump and the GOP is trounced in November, but articles like this make it seem a forgone conclusion. My guess.... the DEMs field a rubbish candidate and many DEM voters stay home, with Trump winning again. In my lifetime (b. 1971), excluding the never-elected Johnson, only two presidents have not won a second term, Carter and GHW Bush. Trump has a seemingly booming economy and incumbency on his side. Demographics and migration statistics might give us false hope.
2
I am beyond happy to read Mr. Edsall's remarks about Donald Trump because they're refreshingly honest. No beating around the bush.
He calls Trump "the vile and corrupt man occupying the White House."
Trump governs "while trashing California with his gutter mouth," Edsall writes.
"Trump treats these fellow citizens," he says of Californians, "as aliens."
If Americans are not enraged by every action of our president, it's because they aren't paying attention--or they are watching Fox News. At least here in the New York Times, readers can occasionally find accurate descriptions of Donald J. Trump, the worst president in our entire history.
12
What the Senate, Electoral College, Cabinet and Supreme Court of the United States that America is not and never was meant to be ' our democracy' ?
America is and always has been a very peculiar kind of republic.
A divided limited different power constitutional republic of united states where the Founding Fathers only originally intended that white Anglo-Saxon Protestant men who owned property including their enslaved black African men, women and children and the lands and natural resources stolen from brown aboriginal Indigenous Native nation men, women and children were divinely naturally created equal persons with certain unalienable rights of life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton won 4 million more votes in California than Mr. Melania Knavs Trump in 2016. But those votes didn't count nor matter in allocating meaningful Electoral College majority votes in any other state.
5
Something I read years ago "as California goes, so goes America"
2
Even better would be Puerto Rico becomes a state.
1226
@Joseph M Puerto Ricans can vote. Many are now fellow Floridians, people who had to leave their homes behind because the current administration did nothing to help them rebuild.
50
@Gabriele Fiorentino
But are they voting and if so, for whom?
14
@Joseph M And Washington, DC.
10
I would like to add that Californians who moved to states like Oregon, Washington and Colorado years ago and who are now finding those states more expensive to live in are looking at other more affordable options such as Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and even parts of Texas.
Not only do these states offer lower costs of living, but warmer climates and a changing political scape. Case in point: Virginia.
I say this as someone who was born and raised in Southern California, moved to Colorado for 26 years, lived and worked in Texas, Virginia, and now in Oregon.
3
Not everyone leaves CA because they can't afford it; people leave for new jobs or for family, for love or even because they need the challenge to see the world differently. I love CA but I've always said tech should spread out throughout the country for the economic good of all incuding CA democratic values. We do believe the environment is sacred as is all life. I am certain everyone shares this belief but, unlike many states, CA does what we should be doing to make that belief a reality. And, we are all enriched.
4
California, and the whole west coast represent the future. The east coast represents the past. The south represents the 19th century.
5
California-ism does appear to be becoming a pan-virus of disturbing reach and morbidity.
California, and the whole west coast represent the future. The east coast represents the past. The south represents the 19th century.
2
Nice so long as they don't vote for Sanders.
1
I get that people don't want to move to West Virginia, Tennessee or Mississippi ( I almost laughed ); and that California is a victim of it's own success and climate. Because the south and parts of the Midwest that have lots of room are sad places not just in politics but in the most basic of civilized ways. I'm sorry, I lived in GA for a few years and once you leave Atlanta its a 3rd world country. It's really not throwing shade at these places when you look around at a these rural lands with decimated infrastructure, dirty hospitals, and miles of boarded up strip malls with a few churches sprinkled in between to think Oh Yes, I want to spend my life here?
12
If you are thinking of moving, just 80,000 people, move to Wyoming. It's beautiful there, Grand Tetons, entrance to Yellowstone,.,,,
Senator Barrasso was reelected with only 136,210 votes--- that's not the margin, that's his TOTAL vote (vs 61,227 for the Democrat)
Their other Senate seat is up in 2020.
7
As Californians move to Arizona, Arizona Republicans are moving to disenfranchise many state voters who reliably vote Democratic. This Party talks a fine game about voters but does its utmost in many states to limit them and to limit the actions of any Democrat governor as well. The Party lies and it’s chosen leader also lies. They are true “Elitists.”
5
But herein lies the problem. Californians ruined the state for themselves. So now they are leaving. But when they arrive in relatively successful red states, the first thing the do is set about ruining their new state. In this way, they will ruin the entire country, many just completely oblivious to what they are doing. Others are doing it with intent because they believe ruination is a valid goal and we need crisis everywhere to make the revolution successful. Maybe we need a wall around California. I am all for the secession of California from the Union. They've proven they cant run their own state, dont let their emigres take control of your state.
4
@bored critic This is comical, if California were to secede from the US, it would be those conservative states that would lose. There are over 40 Deep Water ports in California, how much do you think Walmart could be charged for their cheap Chinese goods getting to those red states? Let alone the tax revenue that California sends to the federal government. I always love how red states like to look a gift horse in the mouth when they speak of their disgust of California.
7
@bored critic
The tax money from California supports an awful lot of people in Red States. America couldn't survive without it.
6
Careful - if the Republican party catches on they will institute internal passports so you can't move between states without permission. Don't laugh.
2
MJ Hegar, a combat veteran and Mother of two young children with a purple heart is running against our Trump enabling Senator Cornyn, who is beholden to the fossil fuels industry and the Medical insurance industry. Let's hope Texans recognize a true Texan and vote Blue.
11
Hey, let's turn the state we moved to into the state we needed to move from. We're smart!
3
My daughter went to CU back in the day and I remember seeing signs saying “Don’t Californiate Colorado.”
If it turns the state blue, it will be a perfect example of every dark cloud having a silver lining.
3
Thank you for an enlightening column. Let me add these observations.
Presidents are elected by the states, not the voters. The great migration out of California has had a greater impact on presidential elections than most of us understand. That may be very bad for Trump in 2020, but perhaps not as good for progressive policy as many of us hope.
The population of California is about 40 million. The Tokyo metropolitan area has a population of about 38 million. What is happening when a president supported by a cadre of small state political interest holds New York and California hostage?
As a nation we ought to take a hard look at gerrymandering, wasted vote redistricting and the direct connection between population and the economy. We might find persuasive evidence that our nation and our people would be served better by direct election of the president.
The political barriers are great. I hope that they are not too great to be overcome.
5
A point of clarification: Californians have been invading Colorado for decades. In the early 70s, we had a saying: "Don't Californicate Colorado."
13
Brilliant, Tim Egan, your "reverse Grapes of Wrath" in California today! May the California Diaspora in many red states put paid to Donald Trump's presidency and re-election this year!
1
We can only hope that this is true. I also think that Trump and his meanspirited approach to life has had as much or more impact. Decent people everywhere know what the man in the WH is all about, and they will put him on the street in November.
1
I seem to recall a campaign several years ago urging those who could to move “home” from New York and California — reliably blue states currently — to vote their values in the states where they came from. It’s a tall order to tell someone to give up living in sunny California or active New York to go back to Oklahoma, Kansas or Nebraska and it would take a lot of folks to make that decision, but the impacts on Colorado, Arizona and Nevada are instructive.
And, no, Texas won’t be blue any time soon, but the “Beto effect” in ‘18 flipped our county government here in Houston (including our elected judiciary) from reliably R to suddenly D. So, it can happen with the right candidate at the top of the ticket.
554
@Mark H Yep, I'm never going back to Southwestern PA, ever.
12
@Mark H You're not entirely correct. Trump won 52% of the votes in Texas in 2016, compared to Hillary's 43%. A swing of 5% would have put the state in Hillary's favor.
Only 60% of eligible voters actually voted in that election in Texas, and only 46% of voting-aged people. That means only 31% of registered voters actually voted for Trump in reliably red Texas.
If eligible voters actually registered, and then voted, even Texas could swing in favor of the Democrats. Obviously not all non-voters would vote Democratic, but it illustrates that there is still a lot of wiggle room in future elections.
23
All the growth in Texas is in the urban centers. It’s slowly turning blue. Wouldn’t be surprised if Bloomie beats Trump there in the general.
21
Most wealthy Californians who whine the most about leaving are almost exclusively Republicans, and they’re actually staying here, donating more money to Trump than he’s getting in any other state. Those who are leaving are often looking for a more affordable housing and a lower cost of living, and it’s not clear what their party registration is.
Egan should know that some of these neighboring states are sending us their Republicans. In my area, Texans are escaping the increasingly severe weather in their state and moving to wealthy areas along the Californian coast. To the extent they claim this state as their main residence, they’re most definitely registering as Republicans.
We also get lots of immigrants from Asia and South Asia. Many are small businessmen and entrepreneurs, who tend to vote Republican. (Although that’s changing, ever since Trump began his ugly vendetta against immigrants, especially those with darker skin and different religions.)
Egan presents a cute storyline, but its a dubious one at best.
2
I am leaving California and will absolutely NOT be bringing California "values" with me. What are California values? Well, they are radical income disparity, decimation of the middle class, the coddling of billionaires, out of control homelessness, the granting of more rights for illegals than for citizens (the ability to break the law without punishment, free legal assistance, free health care, free housing and other economic assistance), out of control traffic and pollution, incompetent handling of public resources like water, exacerbating drought and fires. I could go on...
Thank god Garcetti and Newsom are FINALLY agreeing to Trump admin's federal policy plans to address homelessness and crime. And yes, doing so IS indeed an admission of California's failed political efforts. But we're desperate for a way out of the mess we've created and our own solutions have failed way too many times.
Anyone who brings failed California policies to other places is just going to destroy those places as well!
3
egan presents no empirical evidence whatsoever that it is the ex-californians who are influencing elections progressively, as opposed to other factors. in idaho, political scientists at boise state university showed several years ago that, in fact, more conservative californians are the ones leaving california - to move to whiter states like idaho. states like idaho and utah - which have had among the most immigrants from california over the last few decades, have become much redder.
2
Lived in the SF Bay area for 12 years and loved everything about it except the high taxes. In order to continue living the style we had become accustomed to after retirement, we knew we would need to retire to a state with a more relaxed tax system. I search for two years, studying the pros and cons for most every state other than cold winter states. I was mostly concerned with not settling down in a red state because I knew I would be unhappy regardless how beautiful the state was. I caught up with an old friend from many years back who had moved to Florida (red state at the time). She convinced me to check out Orlando. I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't at all about Disney. It is a beautiful BLUE jewel right in the middle of the state. It has one of the highest populated universities in the nation - UCF - and great job opportunities. It has a youthful population and not what one would expect of Florida with a high retirement population. I say all of this because one doesn't have to settle in a Republican environment when moving to a "red state." Your vote will count more and have a better impact in a red state without the sacrifice. Sure we've made a few Republican friends but I believe in time they will begin to lean a bit more left as we gradually open their minds and hearts. And for those who feel they truly need to be near the ocean, as we did, the beach is only one hour drive from the city.
6
I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Republicans figure out a way to at least try and pass some law that considers anyone moving from a blue state as an immigrant and has to qualify for state citizenship after a lengthy waiting period or other road block. However, I'm sure moving red to blue puts you on a no-wait fast track.
3
I hope Texas surprises everyone and returns to blue this year. There are a number of factors creating the blue wave. Thanks to California and Latinos younger voters and the suburbs.
17
Once the 2020 census results in electoral votes going from the aging rust belt to dynamic states like Colorado and Nevada, the Republicans will be in trouble. And Trump has alienated an entire new generation who will be voting for a long time and are now solidly Democrats. Republicans are committing political suicide to help their bully President. Let's hope that 2020 is the beginning of the end.
2436
@Chris This editorial is incredibly cynical. Isn't the bigger issue why are people fleeing California? Elected officials & even many experts in science have been cowed into silence when it comes to addressing the elephant in California’s living room: population growth. This state is on track to hit 60 million people by mid-century. The biggest casualty of the illegal immigration debate in the U.S. has been the ability to discuss openly the staggering effects of population growth on critical resources such as housing, water, hospitals & schools. Democrats control every important office here. They have obliterated the Republican Party. Affordable housing has always been one of the cornerstones of our party. This state should be a showcase of how well we can execute this policy. Instead, it's yet another example of our complete intellectual bankruptcy. It's also symptomatic of a much bigger problem. The growing divide between some Democrats who want to practice what they preach & fanatical progressives who want to strangle everything. Environmentalists will go to the barricades to stop any housing project from being built here. Mind you we are talking about affordable housing for working-class families. Thanks to their efforts the gateway to middle-class security, has been pushed way beyond their reach. The working class is getting crushed. Embarrassing & unacceptable. We all have a stake in solving this crisis. That's the story. Not whether Arizona will flip in 2020.
41
@Bill Brown Being a Californian, I take some exception to the disparage (not necessarily the argument) of California by Progressives who are in control of the state. It wasn't long ago that we had Conservative controls in the state (Wilson, Schwarzenegger), and at those times the state always mired in budget battles to the point of deficits ruining the state. Since Brown and now Newsome, the state is flush with budget surplus. None of this should ignore the problems in the state as far as housing is concerned, but something has to be said for how California is and will continue to be economically sound and robust going forward.
247
@Russell Smith I couldn't disagree more. NIMBYism is the highly coveted diamond standard in California. The process by which a piece of land is approved for new construction can be incredibly cumbersome, time-consuming & risky. The typical approval time for projects in San Francisco is over a year. That doesn’t include when land needs to be “rezoned” for residential development, which can take even longer. A housing project often must go through multiple government agencies, including the planning department, health department, fire department, building department and perhaps most importantly, a city council. The California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, requires that local agencies consider the environmental impact of a new housing development before approving it. That sounds like a worthy goal, but the law has often been abused to prevent new developments -- even environmentally friendly ones with high-density housing and bike lanes. According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, CEQA appeals delay a project by an average of two and a half years. This is unacceptable. By any rational standard, California has a severe housing crisis. You have teachers and other middle-class people sleeping in their cars. Emergency action is needed. But none will be forthcoming. Too many Democratic leaders have lucrative sweetheart deals with real estate investors who are the real beneficiaries of this crisis. At every level this is outrageous. I'm shocked we tolerate this.
21
Yeah, I understand. I live in Northern Illinois. I have wondered if I should move across the border to Wisconsin where my vote might actually count. (It won't in Illinois, a Democrat will win, wasted Democratic vote.) Too late now because of residency rules.
3
@esp The residency rule is you must have resided in Wisconsin for 28 consecutive days in order to register to vote. It's too late to vote now but not for the November election.
2
Meanwhile, Republicans in those states are rushing to suppress as many votes as they can.
8
@Katherine Kovach
Please share with us the evidence you have uncovered.
Keep on coming!! We need you here -- badly!! This is the best good news I have read in a long time. And I don't even care that supposedly this influx of Californians is the reason my rent has skyrocketed.
7
Then Californians are the proud antibodies created to eradicate a dire threat to our body politic. March on. Be strong. We'll soon purge the scourge.
11
More than half of Californians say they have considered leaving the state...a large majority of them are conservatives..."
That's ludicrous. If half the state's population was conservative, they would manage to elect more than Devin Nunes, even if it was for county dogcatcher.
5
@Ken Lawson I may have misread, but I thought that the author was suggesting that a majority of the 50% who have considered leaving are conservatives. That would tend to imply approximately 30% of the total population of the state. Maybe a bit more.
2
Although not strictly on topic, I do wonder, if Trump loses in November, what will be necessary to actually remove him from the White House in January. With his track record you could guarantee that he would call the election illegal, state that there has been massive voter fraud and would use every possible move in his repertoire to overturn or at least delay the result. Might be the perfect first mission for the Space Force.
7
@DavidF : Keep your eyes on Justice Roberts. Once he swears in the replacement, the military can remove Trump from the White House if necessary.
If Justice Roberts becomes unavailable for any reason, you'll know the coup is on.
2
@mlbex I don't think the military is allowed to act in domestic matters. Perhaps the FBI can enforce the Constitution if this happens. Or maybe the local DC police can remove Trump for trespassing. That would be a sight for sore eyes, huh? Trump dragged out of there in handcuffs.
1
@DavidF We're all worried about that - or at least the majority of us who who aren't part of this new, dreadful cult of hate and ignorance.
I’m still amazed but not surprised at the audacity of the unhinged left and their thinking.
Only they can see people fleeing a failing one party state as a political victory.
5
@Norville T. Johnston
You may recall a recent Democratic presidential candidate who used 'Hope!' as his primary calling card.
Sure hope you are right, that California's free- spirit folks show vulgar Trump the exit door...and help restore democracy in all it's richness, and diversity, by integrating people in solidarity. The current devious attacks by Trump and his republican minions are an outrage...and highly unlikely to help solve California's problems.
2
This is happening on a much smaller scale in the Northeast. Several friends have moved to NH, ME, and even Philadelphia or Pittsburgh since the last presidential election. A similar exodus is happening in Chicago with a lot of friends there moving to MI, WI, or even IN. My very liberal sister in law just bought a house in KY. I know I cannot be alone in having peers who grew up with me in progressive MA or lived with me in Democratic Chicago decamping for redder states. The irony is, their low cost of living attracts the progressives who then want the taxes and services their blue homestates provided. It's how NH turned blue.
5
Well, we 3 native Californians leave 2 weeks from today for the Blue Ridge Mtns of North Carolina. Moving smack dab into Meadows district (he is retiring to spend more time with his bigotry). I have already reached out to local offices and will be working to defeat his hand picked successor as well as Tillis. I have sent my introductory letters to the two. 3 solidly blue votes in Western North Carolina.
71
THANK YOU! This column made my day!
2
Timothy, I am among those who have remained in California, the state of my birth. More specifically, I am a San Franciscan. That being said I am among the many who will “faster than a Harvard grad” tell others from where I come!
You mention that there are a number of former residents who have left the Golden State for one reason or another. And it is indeed true that along with their exit they take with them an ideology of diversity and a fierce protection and respect of the environment. On the flip side, I know of too many, including some in-laws, who constantly criticize and insult our fair state. Yes, they are Trumpians. I bite my tongue, smile, and wear beige when I am with them. But in private I think, Just leave please! Finally, I have lost count of the suits we have brought against that crazy man and his administration in DC. But you know what? It is a badge of honor to be so rejected and disliked by DJT. California has chosen good rather than evil.
52
Let California and those who leave it create a wide blue wave, THAT would be beautiful!
7
Yes this is the ONLY reason I stay in FL. To shed some light here. Tallahassee does not listen to their constituents as we see on Prop 4 where voting rights were not restored to felons who served their time. Nor any gun legislation since the two mass shootings and the bomber. They are not active in climate change as shows by their "red tide" and unclean Everglades, such a shame. But we stay to change voting here.
5
We've had 3 California couples move to our community in the past 2 months. We haven't discussed politics other than that they're all happy to have left.
3
Hopeful piece and most likely correct. We are seeing a similar thing happening in Montana. Our Democratic Party used to be centered around the union mines in Butte and depression era counties bailed out by FDR. But now the mountain areas with a large influx of wealthy out-of-staters are looking and voting more like California.
Some of us welcome it. Go Jon Tester.
If only Steve Bullock would run against the disaster daines. This daines character voted himself a $400,000 a year tax break (the annual income of eight hard working Montana families) and hobnobs with the Yellowstone Club crowd. Bullock would make buffalo minced meat of the trump lackey.
7
Time for Democrats to start playing the kind of political hardball the GOP has enacted in terms of gerrymandered districts and undermining the VRA. Sounds like a good moment to start dividing California and other blue states and break the ongoing and anti-democratic minoritarian power grab.
3
It could be more Californian "conservatives" are moving out of the State but like my NY "republican" friends when they talk to Republicans outside of NY and CA, they quickly realize what they support and believe in is actually the Democratic position in the mid west.
14
This is certainly true in Colorado. A great migration of Californians that began in the 1980s and continued through the 1990s into the 2000s turned that red state purple. Say ciao to Cory Gardner.
8
California is a well-run paradise that shows just how well the Democrats can tackle homelessness, income inequality, delivering low taxes, the best public schools, and highest standard of living. That is why people are leaving in such large numbers...
6
Spreading the wealth of Democratic voters? I'm all in on whatever it takes to oust Trump.
4
Ugh, none of this would matter if we simply respected the principle of one person, one vote in this country. We're all Americans, we should all count equally, wherever we live.
29
But if a large number of people who value "fierce defense of the environment, tolerance of immigrants and a multiracial society, and insistence on universal health care" leave California, will that make the state more Red?
4
@julie very good question. Let’s hope not!
It is no longer necessary for liberal minded people to flee the conservative and close minded communities. We have achieved critical mass ; we can bring progress with us.
826
@Dani Weber Calling it "progress' does not mean that it is good. It may be good and it may not be good. Using the word "progress" means that we are not going to discuss it but will accept certain dogmas without thinking.
5
The attack on California isn't the only attack on Blue states. New York, the 2nd biggest Blue state and Trump's original state is openly being extorted: Trump has blocked New Yorkers from Global Entry status or renewal and has openly DEMANDED that New York drop the investigations and law suits against himself, his businesses, and his family members--as blatant an act of corruption as we have ever seen--An Illinois (former) governor is STILL in prison for a similar action!
But Trump's "tax cut" had a more insidious side. One of the reasons most Blue states are more prosperous than most Red states is they invest in education, infrastructure, and helping poorer people get a leg up. But they pay for this with higher state and local taxes--our NJ prop taxes are extremely high. The tax bill exempts any state and local taxes paid over $10,000 from being deducted from the Federal Income Tax. That means we're being taxed twice, and that's JUST the way the vampire Red states want it...we fund them!
26 of Trump's states are leeches and only 4 pay more than they get (and 2 may flip back!)
13 of Clinton's 21 pay more than they get, a 14th breaks even, and only 7 get more.
Hopefully, the author is right and enough states and senate seats will flip to have a CHANCE to restore real Democracy in the USA.
34
There may be hints of change in The Solid South, but it will not come quickly enough to affect this most critical time in our Republic's history. "The (Civil) War ain't over yet, Buddy, it's only Halftime" is the operative phrase natives repeat with equal parts pride and satisfaction. Currently, "Wow, look at the S&P, look at my 401K" is giving the older phrase some competition. No one will benefit from trump's policies in the long run, but the ones who are right now are trump voters. The many who are or will soon be hurt by his legacy are seduced by the racism, feigned patriotism, and bogus religious beliefs he markets so well; they too are trump voters. It's God, Country, and the Republican Party down heah, folks, though not necessarily in that order.
4
Is the idea of a one-party country really all that attractive. I should think California would be an object lesson in why we should avoid that fate.
5
@BayArea101
I'm not following you: what, exactly bothers you that is not also happening in the Midwest?
Yes, CA has very high housing costs, driven by the large number and power of tech companies and corporations and the enormous salaries.
Sure, housing is cheaper in the Midwest - but what about loss of decent manufacturing and blue collar jobs jobs? Corporations value profit over destroying Midwest communities and the GOP doesn't care.
What about pollution, which causes illness, contaminated water tables, and degradation.
The other problem with CA is climate change and deniers.
Climate change is already in the Midwest - failed crops, lowered water tables, droughts and floods.
Fire in CA is more dramatic, but it's only gonna get worse in the midwest as well.
Other issues: universal health care, protection of the environment and parks, increased education- hard to be against that.
2
@BayArea101
Oh, a lot of us want more than one party.
We just don't want one of them to believe fake information, ignore realities such as evolution and climate changes, encourage corruption, and reduce health care coverage instead of expanding it.
2
Just a point of clarification: this is not the first time California has had an earlier presidential primary. In 2008 it was February 5th.
I was a precinct captain for Obama in a hilly part of San Francisco then, so I remember it well. Remember the hope?
12
@LP And to the point of the author, now reside in Oregon!
@julie Yes, although when the time came to move, we opted for a politically similar place, with the added bonus of gardening.
I'd lived in Kansas and wasn't going back to that, Toto or no Toto.
Part of my heart will always be in SF, though. That song is true.
1
We are snowbirds, who spend eight months a year in Florida. We vote in Florida because our votes are more important here than in our home state of New Jersey.
Florida is a vast swampy state with lots of simple people except for the coasts. The coasts are filled with Liberal Americans from the North Eastern Coastal States. Slowly, Florida may become bluer but ignorance is ingrained and the Republicans have done a stellar job on messaging. That is why so many citizens vote against their best interests and are unable to recognize the truth .
90
@Carol well dems need to educate the middle of the state hopefully
1
@Carol
Smart observation. Thanks for voting in Florida.
5
I am a second generation native Californian who moved away for work in 1985. In our case we moved to Canada, where blue is Conservative and red is Liberal. Awhile back when there was talk of California secession, a friend here asked me whether I retain my US citizenship or take California citizenship. Is there any question? Even after 35 years and becoming a citizen of Canada, I am still a Californian to my bones and always will be. When flying home to visit family I still tear up as the plane crosses the Colorado River. My grandchildren make fun of me every New Year's because I watch the Rose Parade on KTLA, which for some weird reason is part of our cable TV package. So, obviously, I brought my "California values" with me when I moved. Wouldn't any real Californian?
18
The article and comments are informative, because demography shapes (though does not predetermine) politics.
The growth and and participation of second generation immigrants in urban areas shaped Franklin Roosevelt's winning coalition. A more extreme and self-conscious version of demographic destiny was the migration of slave holders and abolitionists to affect the constitution of the Kansas Territory -- what became "bloody Kansas."
4
That’s exactly what my husband and I did! I loved living in San Francisco, and only the need to take care of my mother and wanting to live in a decent home instead of my rent-controlled basement apartment got me to leave for Minnesota’s Second Congressional District in 2014. In October 2018, I canvassed for now Rep. Angie Craig, who flipped this district from a far right Jason Lewis. I’m volunteering again this year (I hear Pres. Trump and company are targeting this district). Campaigning for Angie Craig and Amy Klobuchar for President is invigorating!!
139
Too many generalizations in Mr. Egan's op-ed. I have lived all over the country - Chicago, Washington, D.C., Denver, and San Francisco. I have lived in Atlanta for the past twelve years, but my time here grows short as I plan on relocating to the Seattle area in the near future. Perhaps I am an exception given reduced rates of relocation in general.
I did not leave San Francisco due to housing costs, politics, or commute times. It was all about the Benjamins - a better job and a larger salary. I have no illusions about turning Georgia blue - the Confederacy and white male dominance runs deep in this state, and no amount of transplants from California, New York, Boston, or Philadelphia will change things in the foreseeable future.
Mr. Egan also fails to mention that conservative Californians have also left the state - some due in part to disgust with liberal politics. Some of these people have headed to red states such as Texas and Utah or perceived "red sanctuary cities" such as Colorado Springs.
Mr. Egan also fails to mention that the majority of California east of the Coastal Range trends conservative. I spent a fair amount of time working in the Central Valley. There is a world of difference between San Francisco and places such as Stockton.
17
@Lucien Dhooge I think you’re missing the point of Egan’s column. Everything you say I’m willing to agree is true, but it doesn’t contradict Evans main points that people leaving here are mostly liberals who are looking for a less expensive place—and probably most of them are taking their political values with them.
Egan didn’t mention turning Georgia blue because that’s not going to happen. Yes, eastern CA is conservative, but is a distinct minority. Egan is identifying a trend, but you’re citing specific instances that don’t fit that trend. You’re probably correct about those, but they don’t counter Egan’s main assumptions.
7
@John Vasi
I disagree with both of you about Georgia. Stacy Abrams was within two points of the combined total for Kemp and the Libertarian. The culture of rural Georgia may be the same as always, but the voter population growth is in Atlanta and that growth leans blue. Take a drive out Buford Highway sometime. Add to that that every four years additional youth, who are far more progressive than the old evangelical white men who have been running things, move into the voter base and you have a recipe for a blue flip. It is coming, sooner than you think.
"Wouldn't It Be Nice", the Beachboys said, not thinking for a minute that it would be unintended electoral consequences that would, indeed, be nice.
The startling thing is that Mr. Egan is actually citing verifiable numbers. And it would be nice to dilute Trump's support in enough places to impact the general election.
17
I would add Montana to your list. While we might not have as many Californians coming here as Nevada, AZ, or Colorado, our small beginning population certainly makes their impact felt. Though anecdotally, it seems like many Californians settling in Montana are the conservative ones (see our embarrassing body-slamming congressman and gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte). Californians in Montana seem to be wealthier and white. It would be interesting to think about how that fits in with the rest of your column.
17
@Rudy Molinek
Yes, I know conservative white Californians who’ve moved to Montana and Idaho, often establishing residency to avoid taxes. And in my coastal Californian community, we’re getting conservative Texans escaping the extreme heat, frequent flooding and hurricanes that plague their state.
Mr. Eagan’s premise needs a bit more fact checking— there are all sorts of reasons places change their politics. Migration is a relatively small one.
1
We moved from reliably blue Illinois to Colorado to be closer to family. But, the idea that we’ll help unseat a Trump enabler in the Senate and give Colorado’s electoral votes to whoever the Democrats nominate gives us solace in these dark days for American democracy.
136
I wonder if we could persuade enough Californians to migrate across the mid-west in a temporary exodus, just long enough to become eligible to vote. Then they could go back. It wouldn't take that many, just a few million to rescue our country from the death grip of the Republican Party.
Wishful thinking. But it is encouraging to watch as western states absorb transplants (I'm one myself) and transform themselves. Very good news.
15
Interesting idea. I hope you're right! There is also the Cal-Exit movement, which, last time I checked had about 33% support and was growing. It's a secession movement for California, I've read about the possibility of California joining with Canada (as it has done with emissions controls), new trade rules, healthcare, etc. All the issues that are important to so many of us. With Trump weaponizing the Justice Department, with his vicious assaults on the environment, the lack of health care, the falling life expectancy, realignments of countries that have the same values might not be a bad idea. California has a bigger economy than France. It might just be able to stand on its own.
32
@Joanna Stelling The chance of this happening is 0%.
4
Long before we had blue and red, I never would have dreamed Nevada and Colorado would be voting blue. I lived in Arizona for 37 years, and I didn't think I would ever see another Democratic senator. Now, there is a good chance there will be 2, like Nevada.
But it may be the demographics of the country as a whole that is doing this. Virginia used to be solid red. Missouri changed to solid red last time around. Minnesota came closer to red than many realize. And I'm not so sure Florida is going to be much of a swing state any more.
Texas doesn't have to turn blue, just be in play. Then the Republicans will have to campaign there.
I'd tell the Democrats not to assume their blue states will always stay blue, but trying to tell that party anything after 2016 seems to be a waste of time.
15
Life long Texan here. It’s true that outside influence is bending political attitudes here, but I think a fatigue factor is starting to exert itself also. People in progressive areas like Houston, Austin, San Antonio, most of Dallas and other urban areas are tired of repressive conservative minority rule by mostly gerrymandered, rural interests running the state and backing the circus in Washington.
404
@HKS And Fort Worth. Tarrant County was BLUE in 2016
12
@HKS I wonder if texas is actually blue if gerrymandering was out of the picture. I wish texas was analyzed more at the National level. I think there are just a handful of counties keeping us in the red.
20
@HKS I'm a Californian in Texas -- came because a native Texan convinced me. She told me that her Republican parents used to be more liberal -- Republican women used to run local Planned Parenthood boards, etc. Somehow the ultra-wacko theocrats grabbed power and ruined the party, according to her version of Texas's descent into hysterical, one-party fascism. Gerrymandering the cities will not help the Republican cause in the long run, because it has created huge resentments among the urban populations, which are utterly deprived of representation. The state is now trying to rob us of the right to self-determination on a local level. Every time we voters approve local laws that the Republican state gods on high dislike, the legislature goes into action and passes a law forbidding us from enacting them. It is one-party tyranny, and everyone I know is furious about it. But waiting for it to change is increasingly discouraging. My son left for a blue state, and I don't think he's coming back. Some of his friends are also planning on leaving. I don't know myself how much longer I can hold out, feeling my rights being eroded out from under me every day. We talk a lot about where we can go these days.
33
Good ideas have a way of persisting, even when subjected to the avalanche of lies and distortions that is the current GOP/Trump complex. Recognizing that climate change is real and addressing it, maintaining clean air and water, expanding medical care options and improving educational opportunity, a compassionate safety net for those need- all these things and more were made possible when California voters sent the GOP packing. We went from basket case to showcase- Jerry Brown, our superb governor, set an example for the whole nation on how to get the job done. Now we need to take it national- the whole barking mad GOP/Trump complex needs to be relegated to the trash heap while we roll up our sleeves and start the repairs on what the vandals have destroyed.
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I'm wondering about the impact on Utah too. We're generally assumed to be more conservative than we actually are. Gerrymandering gives the impression the state is 80 percent Republican. The split is actually more like 60-40 and shrinking. We've seen mass immigration over the last decade too. Many of the migrants are from California although by no means all. Like all economic migrants though, newcomers tend to skew heavily young and heavily progressive. It's changing the political dynamic within the state.
I don't expect Utah to turn reliably blue like Colorado. In addition to migration, we have a higher than average birth rate. When adjusted for population, Utah has the highest birth rate in the nation. 17.6 births per 1,000 people. The national average is 12.5 per 1,000 people. Utahns have a lot of babies. There tends to be an equilibrium between imported progressives and homegrown conservatives.
That said, this year might be an exception. Mormons really don't like Trump. See Senator Romney. I could see anti-Trump Mormons crossing the aisle to form a coalition with urban liberals and progressives. Together, they easily form a majority that could defeat Trump. Provided a spoiler like Evan McMullin doesn't split the NeverTrumpers again, the right Democratic candidate could turn Utah Blue. See Ben McAdams.
Surprisingly, Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders are the only candidates to poll a majority against Trump in the general election. Even Bloomberg loses. We'll wait and see.
11
From my home in California, I'm helping flip elections in other states this year, as I did in 2018, by targeting Democratic candidates who can help turn red states blue--and sending them donations.
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@Amelia Thank you to a true blue patriot and generous neighbor in another state. You show we must be united -- coast to coast and in between. Thank you.
5
@Amelia Join Indivisibles. That is exactly their goal.
It's a grass roots organization in which local groups (formed by anyone) target specific elections with national coordination.
Get on the Indivisible website, which will show all the groups in your area. There is very likely a chapter near you.
6
@Amelia
Other engaged Californians managed to flip important districts right here in our state. Orange County is now blue! Pulling together to affect our own state and others, we've accomplished a lot in 2018 and we deserve to be optimistic about 2020!
After a lifetime working in California, and loving it with all my heart, retirement said "Move." And so, in 2015, my wife and I moved to Western North Carolina. We paid cash for our home, and our Social Security fully covers monthly expenses. This is a land of great beauty, full of artists and musicians, with four real seasons, but easy winters. Yes, the politics are far right (this is the land of Mark Meadows), but we who move here are pushing the bar to the left. I will ever miss California, but NC was a wise choice.
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I am passing this on for consideration. In the 2016 election if Clinton would have been on the Liberal/Libertarian Party and Green Party line, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin would have been in the Democrat column.
5
The basic premise is that if the popular vote was distributed proportionally among the electoral college vote, the winner would be the same in each. You are showing how it could be happening from a practical standpoint to at least some extent.
But from a theoretical standpoint, clearly if Secretary Clinton's 3 million surplus voters had been living in the right proportions in the states she barely lost, she would have won not only the popular vote but the electoral college vote also.
The moral is that sufficient Democrats from heavily majority and more populous blue states should emigrate to red states to turn them blue.... Of course, red states then might institute travel bans....
It might be feared that Republicans would move to blue states to turn them red, but that normally would require them to move to cold climates or to California, and they most likely wouldn't want to do either.
12
Not sure you got this correct. I would think many who leave are Pro Trump or maybe Independents and thus will have the opposite effect. California may end up having a larger percent of Democrats and other states get more Trump voters?
3
California, for all its problems, is still a great place to live for most of its residents - beautiful, diverse, and economically dynamic.
However, we’re considering moving to a swing state for the sole purpose of adding two votes to the effort to remove the cancer of Trump from the body politic of America.
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Yes, interesting article, but misses the point. Just like the failure of Hollywood actors/actresses promise to leave the country upon Trump's triumph, no one actually leaves the country, or in this case state (California) simply because of surrounding politics ...at least not as a direct result. Sure there are extremists who did but numbers are too few to matter. However, politically motivated actions and changes in laws, regulations, and cultural environment does affect job formations, types of jobs and ease/cost of doing business in California and therefore has direct implications for those doing business in California . That, in turn, makes moving out more likely. So diversity is lessened with possibly more moderates leaving (as extremists will bear the burden for political satisfaction). The extremists will pay more for insurance, energy, transportation, housing, etc...(sound familiar?). Many benefits associated with the political situation...much emotional in nature... of the remaining extremists will be negated by the pecuniary ills here and to come. Meanwhile, the moderate Democrats moving will add to the character of debate and solutions elsewhere. So keep your extremists, its a win win for me.
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Texas is a prime example. It is now turning blue. While rural Texas may be solid red, its urban areas are turning blue with an influx of moderate voters, both republican and democratic. Just look at the voting trends in Texas. This same effect is happening all over the south. This is 1 thing the republicans can not influence, where you live. And where you live gives you the right to vote. When Iowa gets all busy and interested in moderate to liberal democratic candidates, you have got to pay attention.
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@Per Axel
" This is 1 thing the republicans can not influence, where you live."
Well, at least for now. A Republican victory this November could pave the way to internal passports. I know this sounds outlandish, but this country's status as a democracy is really not assured. I can't imagine I would have stated such as this until recently.
Donald Trump is not one whit better than Benito Mussolini.
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@Per Axel Eighty percent of the population in Texas is in the Golden Triangle cities of Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin and Houston, with San Antonio thrown into the bargain too. However, the state has been grotesquely gerrymandered by the State Legislature, which meets only ONCE EVERY TWO YEARS, for no more than 120 days max. It's all back room deals in Texas, and the good ol' boys club still rules the majority from the rural areas.
2
I live in Arizona. I have since 1973. When the Southern California aerospace industry downsized, they moved operations and people to Arizona. Tech operations, like Samsung, expanded to Arizona, bringing more. The list goes on.
Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey has crowed for years about California companies finding a tax friendly, housing friendly home in Arizona. "We're open for business," he tells them. They've come by the thousands, churning the economy. Phoenix is referred to as "mini-LA,".
They've changed Arizona from red to purple and this year for the first time ever, there's a good chance we will have two Democratic senators and a blue legislature. Congressional seats now number five Democrats and four Republicans.
The change has accelerated.
Fair warning Governor.
Be careful what you wish for.
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@Bill I Iived in Tucson for 37 years, and you are right. I hope the state legislature changes, too. It's long past time.
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@Bill, in Texas too. The Republicans say "We're Open for Business" and help with tax incentives. So, yes welcome and let's turn Texas Blue!
9
We have quite a few ex-pat Californians here in Missouri, too, and we also brought our Californian values with us. I don't know that there are enough of us to make a difference, but hopefully, there are enough of us to turn this bright red state into more of a delicate fuchsia.
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Mr. Egan, I've been reading your fine writing in the Times for what seems like decades now, but I think you are missing an underlying sentiment that exists here in CA. While the thought of sending out blue voters to flip red states is tantalizing,what ultimately might happen may be Trump's revenge, not ours: flipping California from blue to red. People are not happy here. Governor Newsom has taken over from a centrist governor (Brown) and is putting in place a populist agenda that seems to be catering to the State's 6 to 7 million illegal residents. (Run that number through your head--6 to 7...million.). Taxes are increasing, and he wants to cram in high-rises and housing developments for 20 million more people. The traffic jams are already legion with 40 million, and there is not enough water and too many fires. The people in my community think it's time for a change. Will we vote for Trump? No. But the seeds are being planted for eventual political change in what has been a reliably blue state.
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The same can be said about the people who have been leaving New York, Long Island in particular, in vast numbers. That’s partly why North Carolina is now a swing state, with most metropolis areas mostly blue.
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@Debbe Geiger; The california statistics on population influx continue to show that the majority of new Californians are coming from the poor red states. Why,? Higher wages, better jobs and working conditions, better schools, and better healthcare to nae a few. As Ben Rumson in "Paint your Wagon" said: "There are two kings of people in the world. Those going somewhere and those going nowhere. We attract those going somewhere. he majority of Californians moving the the red states are people with high retirement incomes, who can live like royalty in the red states, particularly in the South.
Taking this to the next level, I've often wondered if a progressive billionaire could help create magnet communities in red states, drawing younger and more liberal voters into those electoral districts.
For example, instead of spending untold millions on advertising, each and every election, move a regional headquarters to Madison or Grand Rapids. Instead of taking the wealth created by a business to try and convince people to support progressive causes, use the business to attempt to change the demographics of a state.
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@ImagineMoments
I've often thought the same thing. Why doesn't Mike Bloomberg, Tom Steyer or any of the many wealthy Democrats band together and create jobs and move enough people to the more progressive cities in the battle ground states and make them reliable voters.
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@JK
Only semi-tongue in cheek do I then point out that it would have to be done quickly, before the GOP legislatures pass laws that one needs to be a 20 year resident before voting!
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@ImagineMoments I thought something similar when thousands of Puerto Ricans moved to Florida following Hurricane Maria. Given the shameful lack of emergency response from the Trump administration, there is little doubt how they'd vote. If we could only convince them to cluster in red districts...
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The article repeats a common misunderstanding that ought to be corrected because it has policy implications.
High cost real estate is not what's driving people out. High real estate prices don't just appear in a vacuum. They are symptoms of the actual underlying problem, the state's severe and artificial shortage of housing which in turn results from the local-level refusal to allow more housing, particularly dense housing, to be built where it's needed. It is not a result of top-down policy making. It's the result of an organic, bottom-up preference that is deeply embedded in the state's DNA, and it's time for a gene transplant. California as a GMO if you will.
The article a few days ago about Lafayette CA illustrated the issue perfectly:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/business/economy/housing-crisis-conor-dougherty-golden-gates.html
The state's housing sector is dying the death of a thousand cuts. There simply aren't enough places for people to live at any price; they are leaving because they are being physically squeezed out, and that can be and ought to be fixed.
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@John Binkley and this is happening across the country. Austin is one of many cities where locals are forced out due to insane property taxes and lack of homes. Big battle going on right now on development code which as it stands will only lead to smaller but pricier homes. Nothing in the city for mid income folks
@John Binkley Let's be honest -- developers do not want to build in California out of the goodness of their hearts, nor are they concerned about the homeless. They know they can make a killing in real estate by forcing communities to develop the wildlife habitat, open spaces, fresh air and natural beauty that they love. And then when the community becomes polluted and congested to the point that it takes 3x as long to drive anywhere as it did before, where are the developers? They are long gone, living happily in their mansions far away, surrounded by natural beauty, wildlife habitat, and fresh air for miles around. California simply does not have the infrastructure and natural resources to support to support all of this building.
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@LB
Of course developers do it for the money. In a capitalist economy EVERYBODY does it for the money. That's how things happen. It's not a criticism. And to claim that poor California might have to put up with long commutes?! Where have you been? California has huge commutes, and pollution, specifically because of low density housing policies and reliance on cars. The building policies it needs would get people closer to jobs and result in reduced demands on infrastructure and natural resources, and less pollution; that's the whole point.
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Ah, California, home. born in Glendale California, my mother the same. Two sons in Southern California, a daughter heading for Houston TX for Medical school, ours is the story of California; mixed some staying some going. A liberal family, but diverse in political outlook some moderate and some more progressive, a broad spectrum. Raised in rural sawmill towns in Northern California, working in those mills. Education a product of California, a career in IT. Yes, a very typical Californian of the boomer generation. Many of my childhood friends conservative to the core cry about taxes and long for an Eden that never really existed. They seem eager to leave but are rooted here in the same California, in love with mountains and raw beauty that is Northern California, just as I am. But my daughter will go to Houston, to Texas and become a doctor there and a little bit of California attitude will infiltrate into the body politic of Texas.
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@Richard Kinne My daughter is an RN and now lives/works in Houston. Most people forget that one reason Houston (and by extension, Texas) has such a large medical/tech sector, is because it started with Lyndon Johnson strong arming NASA to move its Mission Control there. All those high tech engineers and scientists working for years on the Gemini and Apollo missions were not about to settle for inferior, low tech healthcare.
Cue the building frenzy that is now the Memorial Herman Medical Complex.
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@Richard Kinne
Like the other urban centers, Houston is quite blue, a blue island in the red of Texas.
I know I'm quibbling but pundits should get the math right. Trump beat Hillary by a combined vote differential of 77,000 in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan which means the Democratic nominee needs to flip only half that total or about 39,000 votes to win those 3 states.
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@beenthere: The fact is tht Hillary won the election but the republicans installed Donald Trump. They will try to do the same thing this year.
Tim, I believe you have it backwards. In my experience, overwhelmingly people who leave California arrive in their new location with the attitude, "I don't want that to happen here." It may be that liberals who settle in cosmopolitan centers outside of CA are fans of progressive goals since now they don't have to bear their burden (high taxes, poor services, skyrocketing housing costs, rampant homelessness), but those who have moved to escape those social ills are definitely don't want them to arise in their new home state.
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@Dr B, I believe you have assumed people willingly change their affiliation. What you speak of makes sense logically but the evidence is clear, most certainly from Trump supporters. Very few people vote from their frontal cortex, but rather from their amygdala.
1
Obviously the migration out of California has absolutely nothing to do with Trump. If it has to do with politics in any way it relates to lack of opportunity or to high taxation and other costs of living that will be less onerous elsewhere. Now that subject might be worth putting a few words together about.
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@Frunobulax
So the head line is dubious because in the article it does not blame trump. I think to blame taxes is a misnomer. It is definitely because of a higher living cost. I live half hour from Boston and had lived in Mass for 35 years. There are now more than four cranes in the skyline of Boston. It may be called taxachusets but people love the benefits that comes with higher taxes. I would like to point out that the home I grew up in has a tax of $4200 were as my home in Sandown NH is $8032 this past year. I plan on retiring to Mass because the benefits for elderly are better and property taxes will be half. I will have sewer/water and trash pickup none of those are provided in Sandowm NH.
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@oscar jr
Many readers won't realize that New Hampshire has no state income tax and no state sales tax, whereas Massachusetts has both (as do most other states).
I retired to New England from San Francisco, and taxes had everything to do with my choosing New Hampshire. My income tax savings alone were well into six figures.
Yes, property tax rates are relatively high in NH, but property values are relatively modest, and overall the state retains its very low-tax status.
2
I need to defend the Californians who moved north to Oregon and especially Washington. When I graduated from the University of Washington in 1982, the national unemployment rate was 10.7% and even higher in Seattle. I choose to return to CA and moved to San Francisco, where it seemed like one in three cars had Washington license plates. They moved to CA for economic reasons, just like Californians did in the late 80’s. Washingtonians were angry about it. Interestingly, I don’t remember any hostility when they came to CA.
40
The grandfather, who lived all his life in California, once said that we were lucky the pilgrims landed on the east coast. Otherwise, the rest of the country would never had been settled.
In spite of there being far too many people, it is still a nice place and I would definitely want to live there if it were affordable.
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I so hope you are right. And swapping Arizona for Wisconsin in the win column (should Wisconsin not see the light) would be a pleasant plus plus with future ramifications for the American Southwest.
12
As a sun baked barbarian I need to add to this correct premise that Californians are changing the politics of the states that they are moving to.
Many Californians are from somewhere else. My longtime friends were born and raised in: Philadelphia, Michigan, upstate New York, western Pennsylvania and Indiana. I am from New England. I actually cannot think of any native-born Californians that I know as friends. It may be that the native California children of the people who relocated here are the ones who are moving out because of housing costs. In any case, they are bringing their California perspectives (by the way there is a Big difference in the politics of the eastern versus western sides of the states; it is not monolithic here).
It is true that the people who are leaving California are changing the politics of their new home states. We lived in Arizona in the 90’s, when it was dismal Joe Arpaio land, and I have long watched that state as a bellwether.
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@Almost Can’t Take It Anymore
I don't know why you think it's monolithic here in the eastern states. For instance, upstate New York is almost solidly Republican except for pockets around cities which do go blue. New York City is almost solidly Democratic.
I know the same to be true in California as I have relatives in Kevin McCarthy's district and I don't think I need to say any more about that.
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@Almost Can’t Take It Anymore
Good point. Both my parents came here via the military from New York and North Carolina and decided to make it their home. Most people I’ve known here are originally from elsewhere in America, or more recently, talented immigrants, many from Asia and South Asia.
Egan should know as well that migration cuts both ways. In my community we are getting wealthy residents moving here from Texas, who are undoubtedly registering as Republicans. Immigrants become citizens who vote, and many of those from Asia used to register as Republicans. (They’re switching parties, though, in light of Trump’s bigoted, ugly attacks on immigrants with darker skin color or different religions).
Frankly, I found his story line a great idea, but one not backed up (yet) by facts— his notion that states are turning blue because of Californian migrants is just way too simplistic.
I am not sun baked either— as someone who lives in a fog bank, I wish I were.
2
Fuel standards that Trump is promoting in the EPA is an effort to attack environmental policies that CA has implemented. The ICE war on immigrants is being fought in CA. The blue state tax increase the GOP put into their recent corporate tax cut to punish their flagrant anti GOP politics. CA being the blue state behemoth. These are not idle political debates they have real consequences. Trump was trounced in CA in 2016, which was the main reason that Clinton won the national popular vote. CA is very expensive and gentrification is clearly a major issue in the glamorous big cities there. People are moving into areas that are vulnerable to wild fires. A reverse migration is enevitable. CA is the exemplar of the American Dream in may ways. But the American Dream is unsustainable.
13
The author failed to mention the Boise/Meridian area which is booming, and has been for over a decade, in most part because of the arrival of Californians. Still not enough to alter the political demographics yet, but if this keeps up, and there's no sign of it slowing, Idaho will turn purple in just a few years.
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@Xavier Onasis
But aren't the people moving from California largely conservatives who feel disaffected here? That's been my impression.
We raised our 3 children in SoCal, then moved to Seattle--sorry! We've since moved to Montana, where our youngest is also living. One daughter is moving here from San Luis Obispo, CA in March and the other from Seattle in July. Probably not enough to make a difference in 2020, but we're 5 solidly blue voters among many more who are moving here. With just over 1 million people in the whole state, that's got to matter.
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@Maura Burke We must find what unifies us not dwell on what divides us.
We must find our common ground. California is blessed with fabulous weather, a variety of climates from mountains covered with snow to warm sandy beaches with cold water, and a history of good public education, world class ports on the Pacific Rim, and relitavely survivable earthquake faults...also part of being on the Pacific Rim...
Montana thrives on big open spaces, beautiful national parks, and salt of the earth values - salt of the earth people.
We must celebrate our common strengths and minimize our transitory differences. After all, California has sent both Ronald Reagan and Nancy Pelosi to govern in Washington, DC. We currently have two wonderful female senators - Dianne Feinstein from San Francisco, and Kamala Harris, who identifies as African American and is also a San Francisco (she was our DA).
Much as I love California, I am willing to move to another state with less resources and more challenging weather - to make common ground with my fellow Americans. I grew up in Arkansas and Texas, two now confirmed red states, and was educated in Pennsylvania, New York, and Texas as well as at UC Berkeley.
The most terrifying thing to me today is the deep division between Democrats and Republicans, who seem to have lost our ability to talk to each other. I want to understand why other people have different opinions and how we can find common ground.
4
@Maura Burke
We need about 2 California companies to relocate to Cheyanne to flip WY
16
Timothy, I hope you're right that the exodus of Californians seeking lower living costs puts more states in play.
But something you said about Trump's draconian EPA rollbacks also hit me hard. I've always thought his environmental regulation rollbacks were caused by his Obama hatred.
In the context of punishing specific states, wow, that's a whole new thought to ponder. If he can selectively punish individuals, why not entire states?
He's already being sued by New York state for his capricious retaliation against his sanctuary city executive order.
I've been joking sarcastically to friends that soon we'll have one set of laws for Democrats, and one for Republicans--of course those loyal to the president.
It isn't a joke any more.
464
Wait till you have a natural disaster that only the military can solve. Our democratic governor gets along well with Trump because he knows he is a governor of a poor state with a lot of the population that lives below sea level and is prone to hurricanes.
2
@ChristineMcM
If taxation without representation was cause for a revolution, what happens when not just taxation but the entire federal code and federal register are enacted without our representation?
How long to the blue states and their populations submit to this tyranny?
36
@ChristineMcM I think Trump will punish anything he can and Susan Collins is about the only Republican saying anything and her nonsense lacks sincerity.
8
Viva California!
I lived there for years, and there's no question in my mind that it's our greatest state. To the extent that it has a lot of problems, that's because California has become a victim of its own success. So many people want to live there for a reason. In addition to having some of America's natural treasures, it's also home to a few of our greatest industries (think Hollywood and Silicon Valley) and one of the world's biggest standalone economies.
I have long wondered why California and other blue states allow themselves to pay a disproportionate amount to Washington, only to governed by the likes of Kentucky and West Virginia. With its enormous size and location, California is particularly disadvantaged. The presidential election is usually decided before its residents are finished voting.
I don't want California to secede, but it has long occurred to me that a credible secession movement there may be necessary to bring some equity to our system. A state with 40 million people shouldn't have one-fifth the representation in the U.S. Senate as Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and the Dakotas combined. The Electoral College is another artifact of our founding that does our nation, and California in particular, a great disservice.
My hope is that the Golden State, the world's leading innovator in numerous ways, finds a way to lead us back toward democracy.
1140
@GV
I spent several months there. Totally understand why so many want to live there (even with all its problems)
34
@GV If there is a secession (I know, not really possible), it would not just be California. It would be the entire west coast, and probably include New York and a few northern states. I'm all in, I'm tired of sending my blue states' taxes to support red states.
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@GV divide California into 4 states of 10 million people each. Add 6 new Democratic senators to the US Senate. Problem solved.
48
California native here (2nd generation). Let's get some facts straight: CA is being 'over-loved.' One-eighth of ALL the people in the USA now live in California. 12%. The state is the economic engine that drives the US economy with industries like shipping (5 deep-water ports), THE wine industry, Silicone valley and hi-tech, the entertainment industry (TV, movies), a huge tourist industry, 'agribusiness' that produces about 35% of all the fruits, veggies, nuts of the whole country, a number of military bases and weapons producers. CA taxpayers also pay 12% of the federal budget, propping up less successful states. Why so many homeless--how about the weather vs. winters in Nebraska, say? And of course it is expensive--anyone who understands "supply and demand" can explain it to you. I am frankly glad to hear that others are moving away as it is crazy to think that just one state, as great as it is, can take care of such a large number of Americans without crumbling under the weight.
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@Voyageur I lived in LA and San Francisco years ago, and California is a wonderful state, but I agree that it over-loved. I recall a Don Henley lyric: “call it paradise, kiss it goodbye.” This also applies to planet earth.
9
Well, hooray, it is about time that California had some say in national politics. Hopefully this will be the year. It will be all the more helpful if, as Timothy Egan describes, California's ex-pats help spread the word also. I hope something works because each day seems to add to the horror show in the White House.
170
While some Californians flee high prices and are less than welcome by some states, Texas has been aggressively recruiting California companies to relocate there or open satellite offices by offering huge tax incentives. Many Californians have relocated as a result - so, if the state is now somewhat bluer, they brought it on themselves.
270
@RAR I am happier knowing that texas May return to blue.
3
@RAR Agree. Texas Repubs like the $$ this brings but will do virtually anything to keep Repubs in control of the Texas Leg and Governor. Hope the blue turnover happens so quickly the current crop of Repubs in State government never see it coming.
9
In theory - the Governor of California should be best Democratic candidate of President.
That the rest of the country thinks that it is a modern day incarnation of Fritz Lang's Metropolis is indicative of how out of touch the Democratic Leadership is.
Californians pay taxes at similar levels Canada and Western European countries - where is the universal health care? Welfare programs? Affordable housing? Public Transit?
Until the Democratic Party can run California, they will keep pushing out crypto-republicans like Bloomberg.
8
@Tom California started doing rail in the 70's and has public transit, even in small communities. It was one of the first states to require paid sick leave, does have a robust family support program for low-income people, and of course was one of the states which expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. But what I reallty appreciate is the environmental leadership, such as the lower auto emissions standards they fought for and which 13 other states adopted, including Washington. Governor Brown's rapid expansion of electric charging stations and adoption of the use of natural energy, like solar, have made it a leader in environmental stewardship. Is it perfect, no, but its people are friendly and forward thinking and you can't beat the climate. As a cyclist I love the friendly attitude of the drivers toward bikers, having twice ridden 101 from Washington to Napa.
7
@Tom You are 1500 miles removed from California. What the heck do you know? The rest of the country thinks what? Which country are you referring to? You're from Canada, mate.
3
I have often wondered how much money and how many people it would take to move people temporarily during election cycles to small red states to flip them to blue. If Bloomberg and Steyer for example spent the money they are spending to run on moving 100,000 CA voters to the Dakotas, Wyoming and Maine long enough to qualify to vote would that be enough to flip the Senate for example?
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@TandraE If we're moving voters to other states, they should go to states with more electoral votes than Wyoming or the Dakotas.
7
@TandraE That’s a draconian solution, but it’s at least a solution. The Constitution can’t be changed because the small population states won’t give up power. Someone else suggested CA becoming four states, but what is to prevent North Dakota doing the same? Trump, and the Republicans, really since Nixon, (Johnson, signing the Equal Rights Amendment), has capitalized on the simple mathematics of electorial votes putting the thumb on the scale from red states. Trump, (And the Republicans) have divided the country to their advantage, and it won’t stop. In fact, it will get worse, because it’s to their advantage to do so. Think, Hillary, who called the red states, “despicable,” which was exactly what the Republicans wanted. Obama, at least tried to unite the country and, at least for him, it worked. I’m from New York, and I have visceral antipathy of the red states, but I don’t like it. And, I think the people from red states, don’t like it either. It’s Fox, it’s people like Trump and McConnell who divide us.
14
@TandraE
Ha! I just clicked "send" on my post suggesting the same thing!
5
Isn't it logical to assume that at least a substantial number of those moving away from California (I think "fleeing" is a bit hyperbolic) are more conservative voters, who don't like the hard-left drift of the state, the high taxes, homelessness, restrictive laws? or resent the fact they have literally no representation in a "one party" state?
I think it is MORE likely these newcomers will embrace the conservatism of Texas and Nevada, then push those areas hard left.
Also, this is based on no science at all -- but a biased reading of the 2018 midterm elections. Did 2010 and 2014 portend a massive drift rightward? or was it just the usual corrective, as voters "rebalance" Congress, so no party has an absolute lock on the government?
Lastly: there is no "law" that made California have its primary in June vs. March, nor is an early primary some kind of "power". The state parties choose the primary dates, and they can be any time they want. Early has influence, but late often means the decisive last "push" for a candidate.
Even more so: if it IS influential for California to go in March...and they go hard left and give you Bernie....it may seal in certain defeat. Are you sure that is what you want?
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@Concerned Citizen
You really think people will change their politics because they moved to a new area? People who have know the advantages of a liberal system are unlikely to want to give up the benefits.
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@Concerned Citizen
Older, retired people would like to minimize their living expenses which include, of course, taxes. They also no longer have children in school so they don't care if the state ranks at the bottom of the heap in education, and they don't get out much anymore so lack of services doesn't really bother them. All they need is decent hospitals, and they're all set.
Younger people have different priorities. So, it really depends on who is doing the moving.
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Property taxes are higher in Texas.
People move because of housing costs. Usually younger people. Or older people cashing in their homes to unlock the money for retirement. As much as people complain about politics, if they have an affordable house then they do not leave. Absolutely no one leaves “because of the politics”.
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I'm certain the GOP's think tanks are already working to address this problem. The minute it appears Democrats are moving in sufficient numbers to states important to the Electoral College, the GOP will draft legislation to help their party. The Dems will, as always, be caught flat-footed. The GOP strategizes decades ahead which is how they took over the state legislatures and federal judiciary.
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@June No legislation alone can change the electoral college system. The only way to change would be a constitutional amendment ratified by 2/3 of the states.
Besides, the only party talking about changing the electoral college system are Democrats, not Republicans.
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@John Voter suppression is the biggest tactic of Republican legislators, as well as gerrymandering.
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California was having problems with homelessness, fires, and skyrocketing housing costs long before Trump showed up.
Suppose whatever "values" led to some of the problems in San Francisco and LA were being transferred with the transplants?
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@Talbot : obviously yes. I left California in the early 1980s and many of the factors that made it miserable were already there -- sky high real estate prices and rents, very high taxes, bad schools, gridlocked freeways, pollution, etc.
I think we all know as Californians migrated to Oregon and Washington State, they brought not liberal politics but overcrowding, high prices and real estate speculation.
As you say, they bring problems with them, not simply "liberalism". It is also entirely possible that the California diaspora consist substantially of CONSERVATIVES driven out of the state because they have no representation anymore -- it is a one party state.
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Have you considered that, at least in part, some residents may be moving to escape CA politics, or that they will adopt the politics of their new home? I am a CA expat (25 years) and travel for business to LA and SF quite often (8x per year), and vacation there as well, and serve on two philanthropic boards in the state, and still fully committed to its economy. However, I live in North Carolina with other CA transplants, and many have adopted our “purple state” not because we are from CA, but because it’s the natural trajectory of our state politics. It is quite refreshing to live in a place that has two party politics, and not single party rule like CA or, conversely, AL.
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@Mark Arizmendi In recent years the red in the purple of N C has dominated the blue. I’m glad you are there to push back. Your swipe about my home state is accurate, however. Our endangered (and accidental) Senator Doug Jones is the only Democrat in a statewide office.
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@Mark Arizmendi South Carolina north would be my label. From my perspective NC represents the worst in both politics and economics of a civilized world. It has never shed its' former slave state status. It denies people the right to vote and those who can vote are sequestered into zones where the outcome is inevitable. It is anti union, anti worker. The only thing going for it in my opinion, cheap real estate. Why anyone who didn't have to would move there is a really good question.
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@Paul
Over the past few years I have known people from CT who have moved to N/C Carolina when they retired. I also know a fair number who are sorry they made the move. They forgot a basic rule: good services = higher taxes: lower taxes = bad services. When your house burns down because the town doesn't have a professional fire department (only a volunteer group), you start to rethink your choices.
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The prospect of a second term of a Trump presidency is almost unthinkable. Voters who cannot see the damage this man has wrought to our Nation are not paying attention. Many elderly and working class Americans are lying in the path of more of this destruction, as the Safety Net withers away, making the vulnerable even worse off. With his current confrontation with the US Attorney's office, Trump's quest to turn this country into a dictatorship, masquerading as a democracy, becomes more apparent. The November election offers our greatest hope of getting the nation back on a safe path to meet the challenges confronting us.
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@Eric S We should also take note, as Trump no doubt already has, that Putin has convened a meeting at his home with the idea to rewrite Russia's Constitution.
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And if those Californians, many of which come to my state for the exact reasons in the article- high taxes, housing costs, traffic, bad schools, etc etc- this is good news and a cause for hope! It may be another thing that helps get this Pestilence out of the White House!
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@Eric S
Republicans have convinced their base that anything negative that happens to them is a result of Obama or Clinton. That's why they don't put two and two together. And it tends to make them even more staunchly Republican. Too few even know who Mitch McConnell is.
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California is beautiful, well a lot of it is. My wife inherited property in one of California's small central coast beach towns. It's a small lot sandwiched between other homes in a somewhat cramped sub-division. Looking to build on the lot, she has come up against environmental study costs. the soil must be examined 4 times in case there are snails in this small lot. And if there are, she will need to pay to have them moved. This isn't a vast open space that deserves to be preserved. It's a small lot in a crowded sub-division. As a liberal some times my eyes get opened to the silliness and expense we create for ourselves. We need to save the planet, but come on. California migrants might want to leave these kind of measures behind them when they move to Arizona.
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@Bill P. I have seen a deck that's on the Pacific, just built and final inspection, and it didn't even have any railing for the ten foot drop to the rocky terrain below. It was way more beautiful that way, but come on man. Double standard.
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Interesting premise. Unfortunate that we couldn't suddenly re-deploy before November about 1/2 of the Dem surplus, or about 2 million votes, to PA, TX, MI and WI ... and GA + FL for good measure.
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@Navigator We "only" need about 100,000 people to move from California to carefully targeted swing states where their votes can potentially make a difference in November 2020 elections.
I'm game. There are many wonderful places to live in swing states and I would be glad to join the vagabonds, bringing my money, open attitudes, hard work, education, and spending power to local economies. I grew up in red states and always find great qualities in folks wherever I live.
I'm worried about the great divide between our citizens and I would like to reach out and find common ground. We often seem to be living in different realities. Which is the real reality?
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I hope that no candidates except Sanders and Bloomberg cross the 15% threshold. We need the delegate race to help narrow the field to just two people after Super Tuesday. Biden should throw his support to Mike Bloomberg. We need to see exactly what the differences are between "progressive" and "moderate." My money is on Bloomberg. Thank goodness, Bloomberg's money is on Bloomberg too. "Only he can fix it."
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Bloomberg comes with a ton of baggage from his time in New York City. Sanders still would be my first choice, but if it comes down to Bloomberg or Trump there really is one choice - and it ain’t Trump!
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@USNA73
Bloomberg's big advantages are his $60 billion and his willingness to spend some of it.
He's underwhelming as a speaker and is 77 years old. His positions are to the right of the rest of the candidates and he supported some GOP Senate candidates in 2016.
The only thing he's likely to fix are the worst of Trump's executive orders. Our endless wars overseas will continue and more Americans will be priced out of medical care.
I'll vote for him without hesitation if he's the nominee, but he's not going to "fix" much.
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@The Poet McTeagle Yes. Simply raising taxes on the wealthy (as some Bloomberg adherents are eager to point out he will do) isn't going to change anything as long as the bulk of tax revenue continues to be spent on the wrong things, such as the military-industrial complex, and not the things that citizens actually need, like healthcare, schools, public transportation, higher education, and other infrastructure. We have to stop funding endless war and endless weapons production. Stop investing in death and start investing in life!
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For better or for worse California gave us Nixon and Regan. The conservative wave started here. I hope, and pray, that California is once again going to have an outsized impact on American Politics. In CA the Republicans are the third party, they lag not only the Dems in votes and registration but also the, Independents, or decline to state. I have lived here for 20 years, and yes we have problems. But we embrace immigrants, care about clean air and water, and are willing to pay higher taxes to fund schools and to provide health care.
We have a horrible homeless problem. The fact that there are not enough places to live here is a sign that people still do fall in love with CA.
Our economy is strong and getting stronger. This after we voted to raise taxes. I will be spending my weekends in AZ this fall. Vote as if your life depended on it , because it does.
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@Liza I lived in CA and ran a Demmocratic organization. I agree with much of your comment, but CA is definitely not willing to pay higher taxes to fund schools. If that were the case, Prop 13 from 1978 would have been repealed years ago.
Statewide school bonds. like this year's Prop 13 (ironically numbered, huh?) are both regressive and don't provide nearly enough money to fix CA's weak public school system.
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@Liza Not so sure about us being willing to pay taxes. Witness the decline of theUC system ($20, 000 per year tuition and fees vs almost free prior to Reagan). But our homeless problem is due to two aspects, one of which is never mentioned. That is the cost of living and the fact that it is nicer to live outdoors in the winter in our climate than in any northern states!
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@Liza California also gave us Nunes and Kevin McCarthy and that is only for the worse.
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