{"id":13199,"date":"2023-08-06T23:12:55","date_gmt":"2023-08-06T23:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13199"},"modified":"2023-08-06T23:12:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T23:12:55","slug":"california-republicans-have-sunk-into-oblivion-their-anti-immigrant-stance-is-just-one-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13199","title":{"rendered":"California Republicans have sunk into oblivion. Their anti-immigrant stance is just one reason"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by George Skelton <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The lofty position held by California\nRepublicans 25 years ago when Proposition 187 passed seems unimaginable today.\nIt was a high-water mark for the party that wouldn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The California GOP has been sinking into\noblivion ever since \u2014 but not entirely because of the anti-illegal-immigration\nmeasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proposition 187 was the ballot initiative\npushed by Republican Gov. Pete Wilson that would have denied schooling,\nnonemergency healthcare and other public services to immigrants living here\nillegally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also would have turned teachers into\nfederal immigration snitches, requiring them to report to authorities any kids\nthey suspected of being in the country illegally. A heartless task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The measure passed in a near landslide 25\nyears ago last week, 59% to 41%. But the next day a federal judge issued a\ntemporary restraining order and the act never took effect. A year later,\nanother federal judge permanently tossed out Proposition 187. And in 1999, new\nDemocratic Gov. Gray Davis dropped the state\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The California GOP had a glorious night on\nNov. 8, 1994. Wilson defeated Democratic state Treasurer Kathleen Brown \u2014 the\ndaughter and sister of two governors \u2014 by a whopping 14.6% margin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans won five of seven statewide\noffices, including the two biggies: governor and attorney general. They haven\u2019t\nwon a single statewide office since 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans also won a slim majority of seats\nin the state Assembly for the first time in 26 years. That lasted just one\nterm. Today, Democrats hold a supermajority in each legislative house and\nRepublicans are essentially irrelevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the 52 U.S. House seats up for election in\n1994, Democrats and Republicans split them evenly, 26 to 26. In last year\u2019s\nelection, Republicans were tossed out of seven seats and wound up holding only\nseven against the Democrats\u2019 46.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty-five years ago, Republicans made up\n37% of registered voters, Democrats 49% and independents 10%. By last\nNovember\u2019s election, Republicans had declined to 24% and were embarrassingly\nexceeded by independents who were at nearly 28%. Democrats were about 44%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So since 187, the California GOP has been in\nfree fall, and it still is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no disputing that 187 was a big\nfactor in the state GOP\u2019s demise. The campaign for 187 frightened and angered\nmany Latinos just as their population was rising rapidly. And the harsh\nrhetoric put them hopelessly out of reach for the Republican Party in future\nelections. Wilson was later skillfully demonized by Democrats in Latino\ncommunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One campaign TV ad was especially ugly. As I\nwrote at the time, the spot tended to arouse the dark side of human nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t the text that was so nasty. It was\nthe pictures and tone. In grainy black-and-white accompanied by a rhythmic bass\nbeat suitable for a horror film, the spot showed Latinos racing across the\nborder at San Ysidro, dodging cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey keep coming,\u201d a narrator intoned in a\ndeep voice that sounded like Darth Vader\u2018s. Then Wilson said, in part: \u201cI\u2019m\nworking to deny state services\u2026. Enough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Times staff writer Gustavo Arellano\nrecently wrote, many Latinos, whether in the country legally or illegally, \u201csaw\nthe proposition as an existential threat. Wilson\u2019s \u2018they\u2019 looked an awful lot\nlike them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One young Latino the campaign stirred into\naction was future state Senate leader Kevin de Le\u00f3n of Los Angeles, the son of\nan immigrant housekeeper. He helped organize a downtown march of 70,000\nopponents of 187. The march backfired, however, because some participants\ncarried Mexican flags that were prominently featured on TV news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were in our 20s,\u201d De Le\u00f3n told me years\nlater, laughing. \u201cWe didn\u2019t anticipate people with Mexican flags. In hindsight,\nwe should have showed up with boxes of American flags.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, De Le\u00f3n wrote an op-ed for the\nSacramento Bee, declaring: \u201cProp. 187 was sold as the key to financial relief\nfor upstanding, tax-paying citizens\u2026. To Latino working families \u2026 it was a\nbetrayal of the highest order. For my peers and me, this was our political\nawakening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I called Wilson, 86, and asked whether he had\nany regrets about 187. Not really, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was the right thing to do,\u201d he asserted.\nThe feds were sticking California taxpayers with the cost of educating,\nincarcerating and providing healthcare for undocumented immigrants they failed\nto stop at the border. \u201cThe only way to get [the federal government\u2019s]\nattention was with a 2-by-4.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to tell you there weren\u2019t\nbigoted people who voted for 187,\u201d Wilson told me. \u201cBut that\u2019s not what people\nwho drafted it had in mind and it certainly wasn\u2019t my intention when I\nsupported it\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWere all those Democrats and independents\nwho voted for it in a landslide racists? No.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s too simplistic to just blame \u2014 or credit\n\u2014 187 for turning California from a purple state to deep blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Madrid, a Republican consultant who has\nbeen highly critical of the GOP for several years, notes that when the Cold War\nended, the aerospace industry collapsed in California. The manufacturing base\nalso deteriorated. That sent Republican middle-class engineers and blue-collar\nworkers fleeing to other states looking for jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, he says, the burgeoning tech\nindustry attracted many left-leaning \u201cprogressives\u201d into California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll three of them\u201d \u2014 187, loss of\nmiddle-class jobs and the tech explosion \u2014 \u201chappened at the same time,\u201d Madrid\nsays. \u201cAny one of them would have upset the Republican Party.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dan Schnur, who was Wilson\u2019s spokesman in\n1994 and is now a political communications professor at USC and UC Berkeley,\nsays: \u201cWhat killed the Republican Party in California wasn\u2019t Prop. 187. It was\ntheir refusal to adjust. California changed. And California Republicans refused\nto change with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with few exceptions, they still don\u2019t\nshow much sign of changing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political columnist George Skelton has\ncovered government and politics for more than 50 years and for The Times since\n1974. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Skelton is a Political columnist for the LA Times. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by George Skelton The lofty position held by California Republicans 25 years ago when Proposition 187 passed seems unimaginable today. It was a high-water mark for the party that wouldn’t last long. The California GOP […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[83,80,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-13199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-immigration","10":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13201,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13199\/revisions\/13201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}