.
.
.
I recently heard an early description of the stunning defeat of the OC GOP in a radio interview conducted by an Irvine professor, interviewing one of the most well-known OC-born journalists:
“Orange County, California, was the political starting point for Nixon, for the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign, and for Reagan—as Republican as any place in America. But starting in January, not a single Republican will represent Orange County in the House. It’s solid blue. Gustavo Arellano will explain how it happened – he’s a weekly columnist for the LA Times, and wrote the legendary column “Ask a Mexican.”
In anticipation of the potential upset, several interesting articles on the history of the county were written in the weeks ahead of the elections (see here ). The NYT polls were an indication of this upset, and not even the OJB editors expected this outcome. One of those editors must have been very relieved, as the defeated Young Kim had used quotes from one of his posts against Cisneros (without context.)
Undoubtedly, the Trump phenomenon and his administration policies played an overriding impact on this election. Moreover, the willingness of the majority of the GOP to take advantage of the dynamics presented by controlling most of the branches of the federal government led to them embrace the most abhorrent aspects of Trumpism. Not only the Mitch McConnell, the Paul Ryan, the Shawn Steel, but also the Shawn Nelsons. They’ve gotten a Supreme Court that will perpetuate their values for decades, imposing them on a divided nation.
The OC GOP’s invitiation to the loathsome racist Steve Bannon, to be main speaker in their 2017 convention in Anaheim was a prelude of how extreme they were willing to go.
A year earlier, we had read warnings like this one: “It’s not true that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump only represents the extreme wing or “crazies” of the GOP. As a leader in numerous polls, Trump exemplifies the true colors of the GOP: xenophobic, mean-spirited and pro one-percent.”
The pendulum may eventually swing back again. The OC GOP got two significant victories, one in Santa Ana with Cecilia Iglesias elected to the city council, and with Tyler Diep in the Westminster area. Diep has been criticized for alleged corruption, and Vern calls him a “sleazy communist.” (Is he a modern Chinese type of communist, or a Vietnamese sleeper agent infiltrating the GOP?)
Let’s see how the Dems will perform. Will “Medicare for All” be adopted or continue to be a wedge issue, will Comprehensive Immigration be finally addressed, will the power of corporate money in politics be curtailed, will Climate Change be addressed with the urgency it needs?
In the meantime, let’s enjoy this message sent to Trump’s and Bannon’s followers by Bob Marley from beyond the grave:
Here comes the conman
Coming with his con plan
We won’t take no bribe
We’ve got to stay alive
We gonna chase those crazy
Chase them crazy baldheads
Chase those crazy baldheads out of the yown
P.S. Gustavo will be a keynote speaker at OCCORD’s annual Gala this Friday; Editor Vern will be reporting from that event.
Let’s see, yeah, Ricardo complained to me when I called Tyler Diep a Communist (for the record I called him a “patient Communist reptile,” not a “sleazy Communist” – calling Tyler sleazy veers too close to redundancy, or understatement.)
http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2018/11/something-anti-semitic-in-hbs-air-tyler-diep-jew-baits-josh-lowenthal/
It gave Ricardo a bad feeling since he came from 70’s-era Chile where too many liberals and reformists were branded “Communist” as an excuse to kidnap, torture, kill and disappear them.
Early 21st-century Little Saigon, totally different context. Almost all the politicians there, divided up into little cliques as they are, call all the politicians from the other cliques “communists” as the easiest most facile insult available, and to get the older generation of refugees to distrust them. The term’s been so overused there that some of us in the blogosphere (starting with the greatly missed Little Saigon commenter Jose S) started using it just to mean “cliquish, conformist, intolerant and corrupt.” As such, it fits Tyler well, and hopefully made him mad.
*Gustavo? Hmmm. It is nice that we have a Local Novelist Hero to do their impression of Rick Reif. Is Gustavo going to take over Rick’s program? Apologists…..so many, so little time! Sorry, but can’t wait to give our “Spoiler Moment” comment: The Republicants ran on the Trumpster Agenda. That will cost them until 2025….at least!
So how did Gustavo say it happened?
One way it happened — we can’t know if they was the key to victory or kept things closer than should have been — is that the DPOC choices for which Democrats should run got “overruled” by a suddenly and unexpectedly competent DCCC.
DPOC wanted Hans Keirstead in CA-48. DCCC, concerned about a report of problems in his past, endorsed Harley Rouda, also the choice of most of the pair’s opponents in the primary after they dropped out. Rouda won.
DPOC wanted Dave Min in CA-45. Whether or not it had to do with my raising a challenge to his endorsement at the CDP convention over alleged acts of violence, DCCC went with Katie Porter. She won.
DPOC professed to be unimpressed with any candidates in CA-39. DCCC stepped in and did the smart thing: promoting a Republican candidate, Phil Liberatore, who would suck up Republican votes while not being able to win if nominated, to ensure that at least one Democrat would make the runoff, and interceding to favor what it thought was the weakest plausible Republican candidate, Young Kim, in the primary. (Personally, I’d have suggested Steve Vargas.) On the downside, it also intervened to destroy Cisneros’s top rival, Andy Thorburn, with a vicious and misleading report coming out under Cisneros’s name. Most DPOC activists seemed to favor either Mai Khanh Tran or Sam Jammal. Cisneros made the runoff and then beat Kim.
Only in CA-49 did DPOC favor the winning Democrat in a “Congressional takeover” race: unfortunately, that turned out to be Mike Levin — for whom, don’t get me wrong, we have hopes.
Did Gustavo report all of that?
Jealousy is such an unattractive trait. Especially sad when hardly anybody is paying attention.
So is being an asshole, but I’m not about to make arch mention of it.
The point, ye who I’m not outright calling an asshole, is that I can be pretty sure without hearing the broadcast that Gustavo did not mention all that, because he’s in no good position to know, and too satisfied with being glib to care.
That’s not jealousy: it’s tweaking Gustavo. I have earned a lifetime pass when it comes to my right to tweak Gustavo.
I am not impressed with Gustavo’s Monday morning quarterbacking, mostly based on his impotent support of Democrats historically. That’s my opinion.
What is and has been missing from this whole “blue wave” grandstanding is how it really happened: $$$ BIG MONEY $$$.
Millions of special interest dollars were spent, much of it yet uncovered/unpublished.
I am of the school of “wait and see” because some of it is likely to be disappointing to those who worked hard to elect Gil, Harley, Mike, Katie and others. This mid-term was the BLACK FRIDAY of elections.
I am especially disturbed by the long term goings on in the 39th, which just seems to get seedier as the reports come in.
I suppose it’s all good, but as a 1970’s Democrat, who humped for McGovern, Humphries and Carter, I am a little (a lot) disgusted on how we got here.
Hopefully, our chamber will elect leaders that are cognizant and more independent come January. This was not a mandate by any definition.
I had no idea that you were a supporter of Herbert Humphries! Well, then! What a truly *OC* Dem you must be!
I don’t think that you’re the person who usually uses the name “OC DEM,” as is evident in your post still being here, but please choose a less inflammatory handle next time you want to tell us how seedy Democratic campaign funding is — or anything else. OC GOP?
All these whiny Dems about me lol. It’s all good — I become one of ustedes tomorrow, registered by Dems who actually matter!
Good for you. But the problem, lol, arises not from your previous lack of party registration, lol, but from the fact that hiring you to explain Democratic politics in OC is like hiring a squirrel to paint your car, lol. A squirrel can do many impressive things, but only those within its capabilities.
So did you even *know* that each DPOC Congressional challenger except Levin was essentially forced upon the DPOC — and that it was decisions made by the generally loathesome DCCC that led to our high-profile victories? Because that was the story to be told by a competent and informed reporter, “lol.”
Mr. Arellano, your continued success is a joy to behold. It is only made sweeter by Chris Epting’s presumed tears and jealousy. Remember when he predicted that “no one will hire you”? It was during the time period that he continually misstated that you had been fired from the OC Weekly instead of leaving on your own volition. Supposedly he had all sorts of “insider information” and CSI style was meticulously piecing together every second of your departure to prove these points.
It’s wonderful to see your continued upward trajectory and success. Here’s wishing you more of the same. Congratulations!
Jeez, Chris has had secret proof of so many things he wanted to believe, and we were supposed to be on the edge of our seats for so many blockbuster exposes he had in the works… that we all ended up forgetting about them.
Yes. “Stay tuned” indeed!
And speaking of actually being fired…The story of what really happened to end his column has steadily evolved. First it was OBVIOUSLY Gina’s fault. That goes without saying, right? But he still said it. A lot. Even though he was grilling plenty of other people at that same time to find out if there was yet another undiscovered culprit who was somehow responsible for his own actions. Then he sorta admitted he violated the papers’ social media guidelines (some of that may have been in the comments on this very blog) but in the end there was just no chance that he was going to hold himself accountable in any way. And the latest version remembered is that he “left” on his own.
So he offered Gina a heartfelt public apology for accusing her falsely all over the place.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!
Greg, It seems that even people following the primary process didn’t pay much attention or value the DPOC’s role endorsing candidates. See this article by Kevin O’Leary.
http://prospect.org/article/how-blue-wave-swelled-tsunami-orange-county
Yes, Greg’s insight on this is valuable and should be more widely heard. Especially as the DPOC is making a choice on new leadership.
Thanks for linking to that, Ricardo, not that I’m especially happy at having read it! Note the “(Full Disclosure: The author is married to Robinow and helped the PAC’s political research committee identify national races in the 2018 cycle.)” — that seems to be worth as much as the rest of the piece put together.