Tag Archive for: CAGOP

California GOP Denies Itself an Opportunity to be Relevant

/by

On April 24 the California State Republican Party endorsed Brian Dahle as their candidate for governor. Dahle currently represents California’s 1st Senate District. His wife, Megan Dahle, currently represents California’s 1st Assembly District, and on April 22, Megan Dahle’s Assembly committee transferred $40,500 to the state party.

The timing of this transfer gave rise to allegations that Megan Dahle purchased the party’s endorsement for her husband, but this is just one of many controversies in a state party that has never been more divided or more impotent. As of April 8, 2022, the electorate’s share of Republicans voters in California, at 23.9 percent of registered voters, has never been lower.  The decline has been unrelenting; from 34.9 percent in 2002 to 34.6 percent in 2006, to 30.1 percent in 2010, to 28.6 percent in 2014, to 25.3 percent in 2018.

The evidence for the impotence of California’s Republican party is reflected in every metric that matters. Their representation in California’s congressional delegation is 10 out of 53, which at 19 percent does not even reflect their voter registration. Similar underachievement plagues their showing in the state legislature: 19 out of 80 seats in the assembly, 9 out of 40 seats in the state senate. Of the eight higher state offices – Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Controller, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Insurance Commissioner – not one is held by a Republican. Every one of these office holders are Democrats.

The endorsement of Brian Dahle by the California Republican party might therefore be considered irrelevant. His chances of winning are zero. The machine that powers California’s Democratic party is so powerful, that for Newsom to lose, to quote from the irascible long-time governor of Louisiana, Edwin Edwards, “the only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.” And nowadays in California, even that probably wouldn’t be enough to get Dahle across the finish line.

The decision by California’s state GOP to endorse Dahle does have consequences, however. And the opportunity they passed up on, which would have been to endorse independent candidate Michael Shellenberger, exposes structural conflicts that afflict the GOP electorate across the nation. Within the diminished GOP electorate in California, these conflicts are fatal. In the rest of America, they will rob countless state and national GOP candidates of what would otherwise have been easy victories.

Shellenberger is pro-choice. He’s also supportive of gay marriage. As a former progressive, Shellenberger has retained positions that doom his candidacy among social conservatives. These voters will support Dahle, a politician that lacks the charisma or vision to attract anyone outside of reliable GOP voters. The state GOP may have found a $40,500 donation a helpful incentive to endorse Dahle, but their bigger fear was selecting someone that would alienate an already alienated base. This fear, however, was unfounded.

First of all, until the entire leadership of the state organization is replaced, the California state GOP will never get their base back. Since 2016, they have appeased their never-Trump donor base while antagonizing their grassroots which is overwhelmingly pro-Trump. So much so, in fact, that Trump’s vote count in California in 2020, at over six million, exceeded the entire number of registered GOP voters in California by nearly a million votes. By endorsing tepid candidates that don’t scare off their inadequate pool of donors, the state party officials keep themselves and a handful of consultants employed, but they do nothing to advance the interests of conservative politics in California.

Shellenberger, on the other hand, is one of the most interesting political aspirants to emerge in many years. His positions on the homeless are well documented in his recently published book “San Fransicko.” In his book, and in his campaign, Shellenberger not only exposes the almost criminal negligence and corrupt hidden agenda informing the Homeless Industrial Complex – whereby bureaucrats, developers, and “nonprofits” collect billions while homelessness just gets worse – but offers solutions. He promises to construct inexpensive shelters, unlike the “supportive housing” scams where the average cost is now over a half-million per unit. He promises to get addicts off the street into mandatory treatment, and place behavior conditions on homeless people in exchange for assistance.

Many people unfamiliar with Shellenberger point to his environmental credentials as a negative thing, until they realize how his position on environmental issues has evolved. In 2020 Shellenberger published “Apocalypse Never,” where he makes a compelling moral case for fossil fuel and exposes the catastrophic harm caused to low income communities all over the world that are denied access to affordable energy. In his campaign, Shellenberger explicitly calls for more development of California’s natural gas resources and expansion of nuclear power plants.

Can Michael Shellenberger beat Gavin Newsom? He faces a hostile press and one of the most powerful political machines in the history of democracy. But the summer of 2022 promises to be hot, parched, and expensive. Californians will be ready to listen to a candidate whose passion is matched by intellect, a command of the policy issues, and the courage to suggest controversial but necessary solutions to California’s economic and social challenges.

Will pro-life voters support someone like Shellenberger? They may not, but they should. If Shellenberger takes office, he will still operate within the context of a state legislature that is over 75 percent Democrat, as well as a progressive judiciary. With reasoned appeals to these politicians and judges, with the power of ballot initiatives, and via emergency orders, Shellenberger can begin to unravel the mess that progressive politics has wrought on California’s housing, transportation, energy, water, education, and homeless policies. That should be enough.

Unfortunately, he may not get that chance, thanks to the California state GOP, which has decided to throw what weight they have in favor of Brian Dahle. It isn’t as if California’s state GOP would break precedent by endorsing an independent candidate for higher office. They did it in 2018 when they endorsed a former Republican turned Independent, Steve Poizner for Insurance Commissioner. Poizner lost anyway.

If Brian Dahle edges Michael Shellenberger in the upcoming primary to face Newsom in the top-two runoff in November, conservatives in California will have lost an historic opportunity. In a general election campaign Shellenberger would be able to reach millions of moderate Democrats and independent California voters with a message that – at least most of the issues that matter – is militantly conservative. He would do it with intelligence and eloquence. A Shellenberger candidacy has the potential to realign millions of voters to realize that Democrats have become the party of established wealth, committed to chaos and scarcity because that serves their economic interests. He has the potential to redirect the passions of voters of all ideologies to issues where a new center can form, instead of pandering to the polarized extremes with focus group tested bromides.

The leadership of California’s state Republican party are smart enough to know all of this. But unfortunately, they are merely a miniscule copy of the Democratic machine they oppose.

An edited version of this article appeared in The American Mind.

Recall Gavin Effort Booms Despite Media Blackout

/by

When the history of the 2020 election in California is written, the prevailing question will be why didn’t the California Republican Party take advantage of one of the biggest populist movements in modern history, the ongoing campaign to recall Governor Gavin Newsom. The period this recall effort has been allocated for signature gathering overlaps neatly with the peak political season, hence there is a tremendous opportunity for CAGOP to capitalize on its momentum.

It’s easy enough to understand why, despite gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures, and being on track to gather more signed petitions than any volunteer effort, ever, there is virtually zero media coverage. California’s establishment radio, press, and television networks are determined to ignore the Recall Gavin 2020 campaign for the same reasons the CAGOP ought to embrace – it is a rebellion that has attracted millions of disillusioned Californian voters and it has the potential to fundamentally transform the political landscape of the state.

For California’s media, this blackout is merely malpractice. Their partisan bias – expressed in how they frame issues, what issues they choose to cover, what facts they choose to emphasize over others, and their many sins of omission – is well established and comes as no surprise. In the case of CAGOP, their lack of support is, to be charitable, due to an excess of caution.

To appreciate the weight of the populist uprising sweeping California, the media, and CAGOP, might choose to attend the next large event organized by the Recall Gavin 2020 campaign, a rally to be held on the north steps of the State Capitol on Saturday 9/19 from 10 a.m. till 2 p.m. They will witness not hundreds, but thousands of supporters, showing up in a “Rolling Thunder” vehicle caravan as well as congregating on the north lawn. Smaller crowds at the Capitol, often comprised mostly of people who were paid to attend, consistently manage to attract television cameras and reporters. But to be newsworthy, you have to further the Democrat narrative.

The ingenuity displayed by the Recall Gavin 2020 campaign could teach a lot to the CAGOP consultants and their donors, a tight-knit network that has displayed remarkable continuity while presiding over an unrelenting decline that has lasted for three decades. It comes down to this: If you support the people, the people will support you.

To support the people, CAGOP three choices: First, they can aggressively promote a visionary platform with a few revolutionary but very concrete objectives. Things have gotten so bad, this ought to be easy. Thin the forests. Round up the homeless and put them in supervised tent cities (saving billions). Permit expansion of suburbs on the perimeter of cities which is the only way home prices will ever come down. Keep Diablo Canyon open, along with clean natural gas power plants (saving billions). Widen the freeways. Fix the aqueducts. Build more reservoirs and underground water storage. Enact school choice, preferably by issuing vouchers (saving billions). Start prosecuting criminals and get drug addicts off the streets. Quit harassing businesses (adding billions).

To the naysayers: Stop relying on polling, which is merely a good way for legacy consulting firms to collect, say, $900,000 to compile increasingly unreliable data on voter sentiment. Voter sentiment changes. Leadership and vision change the minds of voters. Get out there, and listen to people. You will be astonished at how close California’s entire population is to embracing a completely new agenda. But not one powerful CAGOP politician or donor has the guts to not just promote a revolutionary agenda, but demand it.

Choice two for CAGOP is even easier. Fire a shot that will be heard around the world by supporting the Recall Gavin 2020 campaign, unequivocally and without reservations. This will serve notice to voters that the party means business, and it’s gone onto offense. Have every CAGOP candidate express their support for the recall, and make it the centerpiece of a statewide slate declaring the CAGOP position on the many ballot initiatives facing voters in November.

Opposing Gavin Newsom gives much needed coherence and excitement to everything else  CAGOP is fighting for in this state. For example, there is not one significant state ballot initiative Newsom is for, that CAGOP is not against, nor is there one that he is against, that CAGOP is not supporting. The votes on many of these initiatives will be close. Enlisting the support of the recall volunteers could make the difference.

Choice three is the strategy that CAGOP is currently pursuing. Their strategy is thus: “Vote for us because we are not Democrats, and therefore you should support us.” That strategy is adequate – not good, but adequate – with the 24 percent of voters who are still registered Republican in California. For the rest, not so much.

Reluctance on the part of CAGOP to support the Recall Gavin 2020 campaign is understandable only if you view grassroots activism as a zero sum game. There are literally tens of thousands of Californians currently circulating petitions to recall the governor. These are people who could be, to mention perhaps the most important variable, walking precincts to recapture battleground seats in the U.S. Congress. But it is not a zero sum game.

The field directors for those candidates in tight races should be delivering their campaign material to the volunteers who are coordinating the recall efforts in their counties. Supporters of the recall are not exclusively Republicans, in fact, in many counties they may not even be majority Republican. But Newsom personifies Democrats, and they’re already fighting Newsom. If CAGOP endorses the recall, these recall volunteers become ripe prospects for conversion.

This bears reflection. Consider this revealing map, prepared by the Public Policy Institute of California (below), that depicts the political geography of the state as if the number of voters in each county drove the size of the space in which they resided. See that tiny, tiny little red patch up in the great white north? That’s your base. Get real. Take a chance. Swing for the fences.

CAGOP strategists and donors have to ask themselves some tough questions: “Are the recall volunteers people who would have otherwise volunteered to help us?” Some of them would have, but the vast majority of them would not. With that in mind, the question then becomes “will these recall volunteers support our candidates?” And to that, one can only say why wouldn’t they? If they’ve had it with Newsom, they’ve had it with his party.

The final question to pose to CAGOP strategists and donors at this critical time is simply this: Why are you blasting out millions of emails deriding the governor, if we’re unwilling to support the recall effort? Emails with subject lines such as “King Newsom will stop at nothing” (9/17), “King Newsom’s Reign Must End” (9/16), or “King Newsom Has Gone Too Far,” (9/06)? Are you kidding? Or do you mean it?

When you stand up for what you believe in, people are attracted. When you say one thing, and do another, you don’t matter. This recall campaign was inevitable. It was unstoppable. From the beginning the opportunity for CAGOP was either to embrace the recall effort, which would unify the base and attract new followers, or ignore it, confirming their status as the residual irrelevancy exemplified by the PPIC political map.

The Recall Gavin 2020 campaign’s lead proponent, Orrin Heatlie, is a capable and determined campaigner who has, from scratch, mobilized an army. There is a path forward for this campaign to beat the odds and put this recall onto the ballot. As will be seen, they are likely to surpass any similar sort of volunteer signature gathering effort in the history of California. Should they come tantalizingly close to success, yet fail, CAGOP will have a lot of explaining to do. Or they can have the courage of their declared convictions, and join the fight.

This article originally appeared on the website California Globe.

 *   *   *

A Bold Idea for California’s GOP

/by

After attempting to energize the grassroots back in January with mass emails declaring “President Trump Needs Your Help!,” and “President Donald Trump vs. 45 CA Democrats,” and “Trump wants to fix California’s homeless problem,” and “Will the Impeachment Sham Ever End?,” this month the California State Republican Party’s emails have a new focus. Instead of defending President Trump, they are attacking Governor Newsom.

Unfortunately, in both cases, this appeal to the grassroots rings hollow. Despite 4.7 million Californians voting for Trump in 2016, and despite the president retaining overwhelming popularity among California’s registered Republicans, the CAGOP establishment knows better than to spread a pro-Trump message to California’s wider electorate. They launched a targeted endorsement of Trump to their base that was designed more to raise money than to convey any sort of sincere appreciation for Trump. It was a hollow gesture, and the base knew it was a hollow gesture.

What the CAGOP leadership did, acting like they support Trump while being terrified of saying so to a broader audience of Californians, might be forgiven as simply an acknowledgement of political reality. That’s debatable, of course, if you believe, as the GOP base obviously does, that Trump’s policies matter more than his personality, and that on policy, Trump has been right again and again. Why not proclaim that, if that’s true? Why not own it? But in any case, Newsom is a completely different story. The CAGOP attacks on Newsom don’t have to ring hollow.

What Gavin Newsom increasingly represents to not just GOP stalwarts, but to independents and even moderate Democrats, is a Governor who has lost touch with his constituency and is driving the state to ruin. And the CAGOP agrees. Their new email blitz has been unrelenting. “Newsom wants his unconstitutional power back” (6/24), “Governor Newsom’s Dimmer Switch” [shutting down the economy] (7/02), “King Newsom?” (7/18), “King Newsom Has Gone Too Far,” (7/20).

The California Republican Party Should Endorse the Newsom Recall Campaign

So the question one may put to the CAGOP leadership is simple: If they truly believe this governor is this bad, why aren’t they supporting the current recall effort? That would put instant substance into their attacks on Newsom.

It seems this would make practical sense for the CAGOP. Unlike the CAGOP’s pro-Trump messages, which were launched in the dark of night and designed to only be seen by their microtargeted cadre of known Trump supporters (i.e., nearly the entire base of registered Republicans in the state), the CAGOP’s anti-Newsom messages ought to be seen and heard everywhere, by everyone. This is CAGOP’s chance to be taken seriously for the first time in years, if not decades. But to accomplish that, they have to endorse the current recall campaign.

There’s no disputing the urgency of the other battles the CAGOP is fighting. They want to recover swing districts in the State Assembly, the State Senate, and the U.S. Congress. These are important fights, as are the defensive fights looming against some absolutely horrible initiatives that Democrats have put onto the state ballot for this November. But it is possible to walk and chew gum at the same time. Imagine the upside.

The mere act of proclaiming support for the Newsom recall would instantly earn the gratitude and loyalty of tens of thousands of volunteer activists who are circulating recall petitions up and down the state. It would earn the gratitude and loyalty of additional hundreds of thousands of registered voters who have already signed the recall petition. Candidates who are running for office in battleground districts could endorse the recall, show up at the many recall events which have attracted tens of thousands of activists, and they could very likely recruit these volunteers to help them with their election campaigns at the same time as they circulated recall petitions.

Why, exactly, would the CAGOP endorsing a Newsom recall fail to galvanize voters, fill them with hope and enthusiasm for their party for the first time in years, drive them to the polls on November 3, and unify them with the seasoned operatives who are fighting to preserve what remains of GOP power in California? Why not do this?

The reason why is twofold, and both are as profoundly depressing as they are curable. First, CAGOP lacks a viable gubernatorial candidate to step up, the way Schwarzenegger did back in 2003. Second, they lack a clear alternative agenda, in order to differentiate themselves from the Democrats. The first problem is harder, because it depends on somebody, somewhere, deciding to run for governor. If the right individual came along and declared their candidacy, right now, the recall campaign’s chances of forcing an election would suddenly go overnight from possible to probable. This person could be a celebrity, or they could be a lesser known elected official with extraordinary charisma and a clear message, or maybe, a known politician who suddenly takes their game to a higher level. Why isn’t CAGOP searching for this person?

The question of a political agenda is actually easier, because it doesn’t depend on anybody to step up and run for governor, it just depends on courage, vision, and maybe a bit of a gambler’s heart. Here, CAGOP may pick any half-dozen from this list, or make up their own list, but think big:

  • Implement school vouchers so that parents can send their children to any school they want, public, public charter, private, parochial, or home school.
  • Dismantle and repeal legislation such as CEQA that has made housing unaffordable to virtually all Californians, especially the disadvantaged.
  • Keep Diablo Canyon open and commission the construction of additional nuclear power plants.
  • Finance through revenue and general obligation bonds new water infrastructure, including aqueduct upgrades, desalination plants, and surface and aquifer water storage.
  • Streamline permitting to allow natural gas extraction from onshore reserves as well as offshore using slant drilling from onshore wells.
  • Build an LNG terminal on the Ventura County coast.
  • Permit mining in the Mohave Desert to extract lithium and other rare earth resources that are essential for batteries.
  • Expedite expanded sustainable logging whereby timber companies remove flammable understorage in return for the ability to harvest timber.
  • Add lanes to all major freeways; pioneer development of smart lanes and hyper lanes where autonomous cars can travel at high speeds.
  • Reform public employee pensions so California’s government agencies don’t have to continuously raise taxes.
  • Repeal Prop. 47 and Prop. 57 and restore law and order to California’s streets.
  • Relocate homeless people to shelters that are built cost-effectively in less expensive areas; break the Homeless Industrial Complex.
  • Require California’s pension funds to invest at least 10 percent of their assets as equity stakes in infrastructure projects located in California.
  • Permit utilities such as PG&E to clear cut firebreaks around rural powerlines – which other states allow – instead of the hyper-regulated current state mandate to prune around them.
  • Oppose discrimination in all forms, including affirmative action, preferential hiring, mandatory race & gender quotas, etc.

There’s much more, but details can sometimes obscure the message, and the message earns the votes. What is necessary are candidates that are committed to these principles and are willing and able to communicate them persuasively and without equivocation: Competitive abundance is preferable to politically contrived scarcity. Equality of opportunity is preferable to equality of outcome. Practical environmentalism is preferable to environmentalist extremism.

These are positions with moral worth. They justify new ideas and new policies that will transform California. And if they are presented without apology or compromise, but instead represented unequivocally as solutions that will deliver prosperity and freedom, they will appeal to all Californians.

Here’s an idea. Why doesn’t Jessica Patterson announce her candidacy for Governor? Right now? Patterson is, after all, the leader of the California State Republican Party. Grab a handful of bold ideas, endorse the recall campaign, and run.

By taking a chance, the CAGOP leadership have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Endorsing the recall and finding a candidate would attract national and international attention to the CAGOP.

It would let people know, from Sacramento to Washington DC, that the CAGOP means business, that they have some fight in them, that they aren’t just dutiful, diligent, tactical and tepid, going through the motions, fighting for scraps.

And it would let Democratic politicians know, from Gavin Newsom to Joe Biden, that every state, everywhere, is back in play. Even Deep Blue California.

This article originally appeared in the California Globe.

 *   *   *

A Vision for California’s Visionless Republican Party

/by

About a month ago, the California Republican Party apparently harvested my email address, because since then I’ve been the lucky recipient of an email avalanche from “CAGOP.” Now, almost daily, their messages turn up in my in-box with subject lines such as “Are you as tired of Gavin Newsom as we are?,” “Are YOU watching this impeachment sham, Edward?,” “Nancy Pelosi continues to drag on the impeachment SHAM,” “Will the impeachment sham ever end?,” and “Nancy Pelosi is Obstructing the Senate.”

A few weeks ago they sent a “Sustaining Membership Statement” in the mail, complete with a “Member ID” and “Member Code,” and a “2020 Election Year Sustaining Membership Renewal, Requested Contribution” of, get this, either $290, $435, $580, or “other.” Check a box. Enclose a check. Huh? I’ve never been a “sustaining member” of the CAGOP. And what’s with the odd amounts of money? Did a focus group indicate that putting weird amounts into a letter would get our attention?

The letter, like the emails, was filled with short, single sentence paragraphs, liberally sprinkled with words written in all capital letters, or underlined, or in bold fonts. Written in a style that would not challenge the average third grader, all of them were designed to throw red meat at knee jerk paleo conservatives, but offered nothing in the way of a policy agenda. We push buttons. You give money. Me Tarzan.

This is condescending, hypocritical garbage, coming from party leadership that is ran by consulting firms whose mission is not to save California, but rather to stay in business. For starters, the leadership in California’s Republican Party don’t like Trump. Because if they did, they wouldn’t confine their endorsements of Trump to fundraising letters and emails to “sustaining members,” they’d proclaim their support publicly, loud, proud, often, and everywhere. They don’t.

This is not just a failure of courage and vision, it is a strategic blunder. California’s Republican party has declined from 31 percent of registered voters in 2009 to 26 percent in 2017 to only 24 percent today. Yet an astonishing 35 percent of all Californians approve of Trump’s job performance. That’s over seven million registered voters. A November 2018 Public Policy Institute poll put Trump’s support at 39 percent among likely voters.

The last time California’s GOP had a share of California’s voters in excess of 35 percent was over 30 years ago. Until and unless CAGOP registration comes anywhere near to Trump’s approval rating in California, they cannot point to his presidency as the cause of their ongoing decline. CAGOP has nothing to lose by publicly supporting President Trump. Sending private emails gushing over Trump while avoiding any public mention of him is pathetic behavior.

A Policy Agenda and Political Strategy for CAGOP

To be fair, it isn’t easy for the CAGOP in California, where leftist oligarchs and public sector unions are willing and able to spend hundreds of millions every election cycle to support Democratic candidates and causes. But courage and vision are free. You don’t have to spend $900,000 on focus groups and polling if you have a good idea. You just go out and sell it.

It should go without saying, that you can support Trump’s policies without having to agree with every one of his often incendiary tweets, sometimes numbering over 100 per day. You don’t have to defend every action he’s taken, and you don’t have to agree with all his policies. But what you can do is visualize and articulate how Trump’s overall policy agenda is rooted in common sense centrism, and you can identify specific examples of how it is relevant to California’s challenges.

State funded infrastructure projects, for example, can make libertarian heads explode. But Trump, along with most California politicians, support infrastructure projects. And Trump, unlike most of California’s politicians and bureaucrats, actually understands the construction business. Why not invite him to lead a symposium in Los Angeles on tunneling to solve transportation gridlock? Bring in Elon Musk’s Boring Company and turn him loose on 3-D traffic solutions the same way he was turned loose on rocketry.

Energy and the environment are another area where Trump’s gut calls on what is practical policy are echoed by many common sense politicians and experts. There is no reason why California isn’t building desalination plants on the Southern California coast. As relatively late adopters, California’s utilities can install pre-manufactured modular plants that are becoming the norm worldwide, and cost far less to engineer.

Similarly, there is no reason California should be importing gas and oil from Venezuela; surely there are some in-state reserves that could be tapped without creating the environmental havoc that the plaintiff’s bar (oops, the environmentalist lobby) constantly allege.

On the topic of the environment, why hasn’t the California Environmental Quality Act been repealed? It is one of the biggest reasons housing costs so much in California. Why aren’t Californians widening and upgrading every highway and freeway in the state, and getting them smart vehicle enabled, instead of blowing through billions on a bullet train? Why aren’t Californians allowed to build entire new cities along the I-5 or Highway 101 corridors? Why aren’t the connecting east-west roads, such as Highways 198, 41, and 58 being widened and improved? Why aren’t we building beautiful new suburbs that could bring to life what is now arid and underutilized cattle range?

No discussion of the environment in California can ignore the catastrophic mismanagement of forest and wildland, where for decades, environmentalist regulations ended or greatly reduced the ability for landowners to do selective logging, salvage logging, controlled burns, cut and maintain firebreaks and access roads, and create defensible space. Imagine how much could be done, fast, if Trump’s Dept. of the Interior got involved. Imagine the benefit if federal regulations were rewritten to permit commercial timber companies to harvest viable lumber in exchange for performing thinning operations?

Exposing Progressive Lies, Offering Centrist Alternatives

If the CAGOP had vision, they would embody these projects in candidates willing to unapologetically push for their implementation. They would resolutely proclaim, accurately, that energy development, suburban expansion, public spending on infrastructure, and sensible reforms to environmental regulations are moderate centrist positions.

At the same time, these candidates can expose the stunning, corrupt hypocrisy of Democrats in California, who for years have deliberately enacted policies that have made California unaffordable, and the only beneficiaries have been the wealthy elites. You want affordable homes? Build suburbs again on open land. You want affordable energy? Keep the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant open, and drill again for oil and gas. You want, for that matter, affordable tuition? Then fire 75 percent of college administrators, who suddenly, and for no good reason, nearly outnumber classroom instructors.

CAGOP candidates can explain that the people most harmed by these Democratic policies are the low income communities who are the strongest constituency of the Democrats. They’ve been conned. For example, the public schools have been ruined by the teachers union. Don’t pussyfoot around, fighting over how many charter schools the legislature will “compromise” on. Call for school vouchers so parents can send their kids anywhere they want!

An effective message from the CAGOP wouldn’t just spew carefully curated sound bites, pretending to dislike Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff. It would offer a specific policy agenda, and propose not only candidates, but citizen initiatives sponsored directly by the party, that would fulfill that agenda. That’s a message that would not be deleted. That would be a message from an organization with a genuine mission, instead of yet another rote ejaculation from a diminishing fiefdom of supposedly conservative consultants, past their prime, hanging on to dwindling donor dollars.

A CAGOP with courage and vision would emulate President Trump, fiercely defending his policy agenda, fearlessly calling for policies in California that are consistent with what he is trying to do nationally, and stating, over and over, that they are the moderate ones, and the Democrats are the dangerous extremists.

This article originally appeared on the website American Greatness.

*   *   *