> The point is that Nixon and Reagan types are history in a California that
> promises to be one of the solid Democratic states in the country. Remember,
> California is now one of the only states in the country with a Dem Gov and
> two Dem Senators (Maryland and Hawaii I think the only others). And that's
> no accident. It is becoming of the highest density union states along with
> being one of the most racially diverse.
Hey Nathan !!! Long time no see/hear/speak !!!
It seems to me that 2 of the Dem Party's main blocs in Cali are on some kind of collision course. In the Bay Area (which of course you know intimately) you have, on the one hand, you have the socially liberal dot.com types, and the national Dem Party has been actively courting this bloc's allegiance to Dems (the Dems want Silicon Valley soft money). On the other hand, you have the largely people of color working class, some hooked into the AFL-CIO/Dem Party machine (catapulting Gray Davis over the top against Lungren), some not. The dot.coms are getting rich from e-commerce/etc. boom (especially if they own their own house), the working class P of C are getting squeezed (especially if they're renters). This is just a sketch lacking all sorts of mediating details -- what do you make of it ?
I too am heartened by the Sweeney stand on amnesty -- even though it makes total sense from a bead-and-butter unionism perspective, it has leavened some of my kneejerk skepticism.
John Gulick