Paul Krugman: Lessons From a Comeback

Modern movement conservatism, which transformed the G.O.P. from the moderate party of
Dwight Eisenhower into the radical right-wing organization we see today, was largely born in
California. The Golden State, even more than the South, created today’s religious conservatism; it
elected Ronald Reagan governor; it’s where the tax revolt of the 1970s began. But that was then. In
the decades since, the state has grown ever more liberal, thanks in large part to an ever-growing
nonwhite share of the electorate.

As a result, the reign of the Governator aside, California has been solidly Democratic since the late
1990s. And ever since the political balance shifted, conservatives have declared the state doomed.
Their specifics keep changing, but the moral is always the same: liberal do-gooders are bringing
California to its knees.