On a The Irish Times column about California politics by Janan Ganesh
“It is some feat to persuade the young that a Republican ran Los Angeles in this century. Even if you can sell them on the fact of Richard Riordan there is the conservative pedigree of the wider state to explain.
Yes, Ronald Regan governed it (tax rise and all). Richard Nixon called the lemon groves of Yorba Linda home. The New Right, which nurtured both these presidents, first stirred in Orange County.
At the turn of the millennium, more than a third of Californian voters were still registered Republicans.
That share is below a quarter now. More than enough, of course, to subject governor Gavin Newsom to a recall election for, among other things, a selective approach to lockdown rules.”
California interests me, even though I don’t know it well and probably would not want to live there. I love movies, and it produces most of them in the U.S. I guess the political dichotomy comes down to the difference between entertainment-industry progressives and oil-industry or agricultural conservatives.
I had a close relative who lived in L.A. a long time and visited him there a few times. So I know a bit about the local vibe.