Wanna bet?
Look, the days of liberal state “demographics” and all that is long gone. We are looking at California turning into another Greece and facing financial collapse. You'd be surprised how people's minds are sharpened and their survival instincts take over when they are facing disaster.
” That's just the practical political reality.”
The most practical reality is that California could soon go bankrupt. Where are they going to get money from, to finance their profligate spending habits then?
“Scott Brown (who's a conventional Republican, but not an orthodox conservative) got elected in MA (and McDonnell in VA) by not talking about any social issues and focusing entirely on jobs, reducing the deficit by reducing spending, and not treating international terrorists like common shoplifters.”
He also campaigned on being the 41st vote to stop 0bamacare, and against the economy killing cap and trade. Even in super liberal Massachusetts, that message resonated with voters. If Massachusetts is against 0bamacare and cap and trade, I don't see why the same thing couldn't happen in California. Barbara Boxer is currently only 4 points ahead of the top Republican in her run for the US Senate. That's a bad sign for her if ever I saw one.
I don't either. My point was that if someone could replicate the "Scott Brown" model, then they'd have a fighting chance in California. But, it's also true that there are plenty of people who think Scott Brown is a RINO. I don't. I actually think Brown is a fairly conventional Republican, if not a conventional Conservative, at least on some social issues.
My only point about Reagan and demographics is with respect to racial demographics. MA is a much "whiter" state than California, and Reagan's California was much "whiter" than today's California. There was a disturbing PPP poll out this week that said, while whites are leaving Obama en mass, minority support hasn't wavered much at all. That's troubling. Unless minorities begin to have the same fears as whites do about budget deficits and profligate government spending, it's going to hard for a fiscally conservative Republican to win in Cali, assuming of course that minority turn out in Cali is the same that it's been the last several elections.