CALIFORNIA, THERE IT GOES….

The title of this blog is a play on Al Jolson’s iconic song,  “California, Here I Come”.  But if Mr. Jolson were alive today, it might well be the lyrics he’d be singing.

What happens when the largest state in the country becomes a one-party, hard-left Democrat entity?

Here’s your likely answer, via the following excerpts from Scott Wilson’s commentary for the Washington Post.   Please pay special attention to the paragraph I’ve put in bold print:

 For those who think California politics is on the far-left fringe of the national spectrum, stand by. The next election season, already well underway here, will showcase a younger generation of Democrats that is more liberal and personally invested in standing up to President Trump’s Washington than those leaving office.

Here in the self-labeled “state of resistance,” the political debate is being pushed further left without any sign of a Republican renaissance to serve as a check on spending and social policy ambitions. Even some Republicans are concerned about the departure of Gov. Jerry Brown (D), who proved to be fiscally cautious after inheriting a state seven years ago in deep recession.

The race to succeed him, as well as contests for U.S. Senate and statewide offices, probably will feature a November ballot exclusively filled with Democrats. The top two primary finishers compete in the state’s general election regardless of party, setting up several races between the Democrats’ left and even-more-left wings in the nation’s most-populous state, races that could signal the direction of the party’s future.

In an off-presidential election year, California will serve as a campaign lab for many national issues, including taxes, immigration, health care, climate change, rural-urban income disparities and sexual harassment. The campaigns will test for national Democrats the most useful positions on issues important to the party’s base and will provide a preview for national Republicans of the popularity of those stands.

The prescription here for Democrats in a state where few — if any — will need to moderate their positions for the general election is simple. “You go left,” said Karen Skelton, a Democratic consultant here.

That means staking out the most liberal stance on issues such as single-payer health care in California, a highly expensive initiative that failed in the legislature last year. The push is in response to the uncertainty surrounding health-care revisions in Washington, but it is estimated to cost twice the state’s annual budget.

Candidates will be forced to defend California’s “sanctuary state” status on immigration and push investment in the solar power and electric car industries to reach strict environmental goals. They also will have to address a sexual harassment scandal that, in Democratic consultant Bill Carrick’s description, “hangs like a black cloud” over a State Capitol where two Democratic lawmakers have resigned and another has been suspended.

Millions of illegals.  Overt, proud disregard for federal law.  And, quite possibly, passage of health care legislation that is pretty much guaranteed to be fiscally unsustainable.

California, there it goes.

In the last few years there has been talk of California seceding from the United States.  To this point, it has just been moronic blah-blah-blah.  But if the hard left really takes over this bunch could get serious about it…which leads to an interesting, possibly dangerous, reality.

A lot of people don’t know this, but a very large part of California – outside the large cities – leans Republican/conservative.

I wonder how those folks are reacting to the state’s far-left-and-getting-further-left “progress”.  I wonder how they feel about doing a little seceding of their own.

Does that read as fear-mongering?  I don’t mean it to be.  But the factors in place are real, and we are heading into uncharted territory.

Keep your eye on California.