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Posted on 03/25/2026 7:10:46 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
California is a house on fire, and its political class is arguing over the color of the curtains. The state is hemorrhaging residents, drowning in homelessness, and staring down an affordability crisis that’s crushing working families. With Gavin Newsom finally on his way out, you’d think the crowded field vying to replace him would be focused on convincing voters they’re the one to fix things.
You’d think wrong.
The governor’s race features eight Democrats and two Republicans — a field so bloated that the state Democrat Party chair recently begged lower-polling candidates to drop out before they accidentally split the vote and hand the governorship to a Republican for the first time in twenty years. That alone tells you plenty about the state of affairs in deep blue California. But what happened last week in Los Angeles managed to make things even more embarrassing.
USC and Los Angeles television station KABC organized a gubernatorial debate for March 24. The qualifying criteria were straightforward and race-neutral: polling numbers and fundraising thresholds. Six candidates made the cut — including Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, Eric Swalwell, and two Republicans. The university said its formula was “based on extensive research” and enjoyed “broad academic support.”
One problem. All six qualifying candidates were white.
The excluded candidates — most notably former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra — held a press conference demanding every invited participant boycott the event.
From NBC News:
“We ask each and every candidate who is in this race to recognize that if we can’t have a fair process for a debate, then we should all not participate,” Becerra said. “We call on them to withdraw from this biased forum.”
Let me get this straight. Nobody alleged the metrics were rigged. Nobody claimed the polling data was cooked or the fundraising thresholds were designed to exclude anyone. The word “biased” here means one thing: the objective results produced a stage full of people with the wrong skin color. That’s it. That’s the whole argument.
And USC caved. Hours before airtime, the university pulled the plug, saying the controversy had “created a significant distraction from the issues that matter to voters.” I have to laugh at that one. They acknowledged voters care about issues — then canceled the only forum where those issues were supposed to be discussed.
This is what happens when DEI thinking metastasizes into everything. A process doesn’t have to be discriminatory to be condemned — it just has to produce the wrong outcome. Merit, objectivity, academic rigor — none of it matters if the results don’t match the approved demographic checklist. USC built the criteria, defended the criteria, then torched the criteria the moment someone noticed the lineup was too pale.
And that, to me, is California in a nutshell right now. A state with crumbling infrastructure and a government that has spent years choosing symbolism over substance — now canceling democracy itself because of skin color. The people who tell you they’re the most tolerant and inclusive just shut down a political debate over race, and somehow they don’t see the irony. California’s voters deserve a conversation about ideas. Apparently that’s asking too much from the state that lectures the rest of us about progress.
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It’s so pathetic it is laughable, but I’m not laughing.
Defund this institution - taking the money and dumping it the ocean is a less harmful use of funds than funding this kind of a place.
This is terrific. They should put in more gays, trannys, furrys, moonbats, martians...diversity is their strength!
I cant believe that Katie Porter is still in this thing, wait, I do believe it, this state is NUTS..and fang fang’s squeaky toy doesnt even live in this state yet he is allowed to run
Someone should look to using more tanning lotion than the manufacturer recommends.
Ridiculous.
Racist jackasses.
May they receive what they have sown.
“Six candidates made the cut — including Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, Eric Swalwell, and two Republicans” [a.k.a. the two polling leaders]
What if not DEI, but two GOP candidates caused USC to cancel?
Yeah, funny how they phrased that.
The phrase "there is no such thing as bad publicity" is a notion that all media mentions aid a person or brand's cause, even if they are negative. While often attributed to the 19th-century showman P.T. Barnum, there is no hard evidence linking the specific quote to him; it likely evolved from Oscar Wilde's 19th-century sentiment that "the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." [Brave AI result, plus a Monty Python flashback]
Reminiscent of the 1972 Dem National Convention. First to do virtue signaling of minorities.
Time Magazine article excerpt:
In 1968, 5.5% of the Democratic delegates were black. This year, blacks are expected to constitute 15% of the delegates. Four years ago, women constituted only 13% of the delegates; now they will probably be 36%—still below their percentage in the nation’s population (51%), but a 200% improvement nonetheless. Delegates under 30 were only 4% of the total in 1968; this year they will probably be 22%, even though only 20% of the population is 18 to 30 years old. Equally telling is the fact that 45% of the delegates in 1968 had had previous experience in that role. Next week in Miami Beach, 85% of the delegates will be attending their first convention.
Such radical change has been traumatic for many Democrats. The list of old party powers who will not be in Miami Beach as delegates reads like a page from the Democratic Who’s Who.
—July 10, 1972.
John Chancellor had to repress a laugh as he said some Southern old time party boss had just been told he is no longer the state delegation’s leader now but had become one 12th leader. “He was not pleased.”
Have they forgotten so quickly what happened the last time a "person of color" was a contender in the election?
Larry Elder was assaulted with eggs from a person wearing a gorilla costume.
That's your California "skin color" requirement for you.
-PJ
Racism is good when they do it.
Translated for the easily fooled:
If we’d allowed the debate to occur, you might have heard things that caused wrongthink - namely that there’s any hope of escaping the socialist one-party rule in CA. Therefore, we have moved to spare you the pain of false hope so you won’t be disappointed when we fraud in the selected person.
“Defund this institution - taking the money and dumping it the ocean is a less harmful use of funds than funding this kind of a place.” USC is a private university.
I almost Matriculated there. Very expensive.
Boeing offered me a Job so I went to Seattle.
I went to Seattle U. (Catholic)and graduated from Seattle Pacific U(Methodist).
with a STEM degree.
I prefer private schools that mostly match my values.
Most all public Universities do not have
the same value system as me.
I’m a Lutheran by training and confirmation.
All Public universities are run by Democrats
for Democrats.
Their God is the Democrat party.
“What if not DEI, but two GOP candidates caused USC to cancel?“
Boom you nailed it. This.
It all began with Affirmative Action? And here we are.
But if you’re white you gotta sthu racists.
Wonder what Larry Elder is thinking?
I would love to drive around USC and blast out my windows the song “Play that funky music, white boy!”
University of Spoiled Children (USC).
Where is Mariann Williamson when she is most needed?
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