Once Upon a Time in America

The Quentin Tarantino film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” hit theaters Friday. For the record, I do not plan on seeing it. I found myself disgusted at Tarantino’s anti-police rhetoric, the result of which has reared its ugly head this month in New York City.  I hardly ever go to movie theaters and I hardly watch movies in general anymore.  I have quite an impressive movie collection; a combination of tapes and DVDs.  Unfortunately, I find myself unable to enjoy my collections as much as I want to since my VCR does not work anymore and any replacement would likely have to come in the form of a combined DVD and VCR.  The DVD player works fine, therefore I don’t see the need for buying a new VCR/DVD player combo until the DVD player goes bad. I actually once wanted to become a movie director and screenwriter but I have since discovered that I could put my writing talents to better use by writing about politics. Plus, I eventually discovered that my politics and Hollywood’s politics mix like oil and water.

Enough about me. Going back to “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” the film takes place in 1969; towards the “golden age” of Hollywood. The “golden age” of Hollywood took place coextensively with the golden age of California.  During the 1960s, pop culture romanticized the Golden State in the form of songs such as “California Sun” by the Rivieras, “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas and the Papas, “San Francisco” by Scott McKenzie, and “California Girls” by The Beach Boys.  Many people might not believe this but prior to the 1950s, California did not have a single baseball team. Today, it has five.

The advent of “California baseball,” chronicled by Billy Joel in his song “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” resulted from a population explosion in America’s third largest state in terms of area. In addition to Hollywood, Disneyland made California a popular place to live and visit, and also to live.  The nice weather and beautiful beaches in Southern California also attracted many people from other states. For most of the nation’s history, the state of New York had the highest population.  Following the 1970 census, California overtook New York as the most populous state.  Today, California has a population of nearly 40 million people; far more than any other state. Since the 1970s, New York has continued to lose representation in Congress and the Electoral College as people continued to flee the colder states for warmer states such as California, Florida, and Texas.  Following the 2020 Census, it looks like New York will have slipped all the way down to the fourth-most populous state; it will likely have half the number of representatives in Congress as California.

During the “golden age,” California enjoyed a status as a political bellwether; voting for the winner in every Presidential Election but two from 1916 to 1988. Three United States Presidents called California home: Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. Believe it or not, during the “golden age” of Hollywood, many of the stars voted Republican; including Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Shirley Temple, and Bob Hope.  And then the long march through the institutions happened; where liberals took control of the commanding heights of culture, including Hollywood.  Today, the most vocal political activists in Hollywood include old radicals like Jane Fonda, Bette Midler, and young radicals like Martha Plimpton, Busy Philipps, and Lena Dunham; who romanticize abortion.

Fast forward to today. Katy Perry can try to romanticize California in her version of “California Girls” but no one wants to move to California the way they did during its golden age.  As a matter of fact, more people want to move out than move in. This explains why a U-Haul truck going from California to Texas costs four times as much as a U-Haul truck going from Texas to California. The economy, characterized by high taxes and regulations, has made California unliveable for the middle class and even some in Hollywood.  Actor Rob Schneider explained that the overregulation in California prompted him to switch his partisan affiliation from Democratic to Republican and ultimately caused him to move his vitamin business from California to Texas. In addition, the quality of life in California has deteriorated as a result of the state’s soft-on-crime policies. Model Fabio, a legal immigrant, appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to discuss the consequences of the crime wave that resulted from liberal leadership.

For more information on the status quo in California, take a look at this passage from one of my very first blog post explaining the dismal reality of America’s most populous state:

As Tucker Carlson often points out on his show, California effectively has the economy of Mexico, with a small group of very wealthy people, namely the tech oligarchs and Hollywood, and a very large underclass, consisting of the increasingly large number of low-skilled migrants.  Most of the middle class has fled California because of its high taxes and low quality of life.  The homeless population in California has exploded; leading to an epidemic of trash, human waste, and hypodermic needles infecting the streets of California’s major cities. Rather than deal with these problems, the elected officials in California prefer to spend their time banning straws, issuing travel bans on red states because of their “discriminatory” religious freedom laws and suing the Trump Administration.   

Add to that list rolling out the welcome mat for illegal immigrants by offering them free healthcare. Once a sanctuary state for hard-working Americans, California has become a sanctuary state for criminal illegal immigrants.  In addition, the overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature seems to see requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns as a top priority.  California hopes that the newly passed law, which Governor Gavin Newsom has yet to sign, will prevent President Trump from appearing on the state’s primary ballot next year. Meanwhile, the major problems plaguing the state continue to go unsolved.  

Due to its proximity to the United States’ southern border with Mexico, California has definitely felt the consequences of wide-open borders and the 1986 amnesty. Today, California has the highest percentage of foreign-born residents of any U.S. state.  Voters tried to express their dissatisfaction with illegal immigration in 1994 by voting in favor of Proposition 187, which would have barred illegal immigrants from accessing social services; thereby turning off the magnet that attracted them to California. As has become quite common in politics today, the political class said “up yours.” Liberals rushed to the Courts to get the proposition overturned and succeeded. While Republican Governor Pete Wilson had appealed the lower courts’ rulings, Democrat Gray Davis dropped the appeal the second he became governor in 1999.  As a result, immigrants, both legal and illegal, continued to flood the state.  The establishment of sanctuary cities only exacerbated the problem.

The failure of Proposition 187 to go into law has had political consequences that have turned the dreamy state of California into a nightmare. Following the Republican Revolution of 1994, Democrats and Republicans had an even split in California’s Congressional delegation.  Today, the Congressional delegation has become overwhelmingly lopsided in favor of Democrats, who control 46 of the state’s 53 Congressional districts. For decades, the Bay Area has always supported Democrats.  But the explosion of the foreign-born population has turned Southern California and most of Central California, which used to vote Republican, blue.  California is home to 38 of the 100 Congressional districts with the most foreign-born residents. 

Recently, California implemented a “top-two” primary system, where all candidates run together on the same ballot; regardless of party.  The two candidates with the highest number of votes, regardless of party, advance to the general election. The “top-two” primary system has basically led to the extinction of the Democratic Party in California’s federal elections.  In the past two Senate elections, California residents have had the option of choosing from a Silicon Valley Democrat or a So-Cal Democrat. Should inquiring minds want to know, the Silicon Valley Democrat emerged victorious in both of the most recent California Senate races. Californians hoping to send a pro-life, conservative Senator to Washington have found themselves out of luck in the past two election cycles.

While California had a Republican governor as recently as 2010, Arnold Schwarzenegger basically became “the Democrats’ plaything,” as Ann Coulter pointed out. Californians have shown some common sense, such as by voting to recall Governor Davis in favor of Schwarzenegger in 2003 and voting in favor of Proposition 8, which called for an amendment to the State Constitution banning same-sex marriage, in 2008.  Those days have come and gone.  Republicans have done nothing but lose elections in California since 2010 and California would not even vote to repeal the gas tax last year. Weighing in on California’s left turn, Ann Coulter challenged “any GOP candidate who wants to increase immigration – i.e. all of them except Trump” to “first pass this simple test: Be successfully elected governor of California on a platform of tax cuts and social conservatism.” Her point? They couldn’t win on that platform because of immigration. For more information on why immigrants vote Democratic, consult this study from the Eagle Forum.

While people have the option to leave California, Americans will not have very many options when the liberal ideology that destroyed California becomes the dominant philosophy in America.  As Ronald Reagan pointed out, “if we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.”

Maybe someday a Hollywood movie will come out with the title “Once Upon a Time in America” that will romanticize America’s “golden age” the same way “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” supposedly romanticizes Hollywood’s “golden age.” Producers might not have much luck at that point if the ruling leftist party of America has issued a crackdown on all speech that does not paint liberalism in a positive light. America has already gotten a sneak preview of what unchecked and unchallenged liberal rule will look like: California.

Contrast California with states run by Republicans.  These states, which include Florida and Texas, have no income taxes and have arguably stumbled upon their own “golden ages.” West Texas has an oil boom that would definitely disappear the second Democrats take power and institute their “Green New Deal.” Demographic data shows that the same factors that turned California deep blue may have developed in Florida and Texas.  Both states rank in the top ten when it comes to the share of the foreign-born population. Remember the ultimate conclusion of the data I presented in my most recent blog: “as the foreign-born share of the population goes up, the Republican share of the vote goes down.”

Hopefully, America has had its Ebenezer Scrooge moment; where the ghost of Christmas Future, California, inspires us to change the immigration status quo by building the wall, passing the RAISE Act, and closing the asylum loopholes. Otherwise, the nightmare of California will become the new American reality.