California was once the envy of everyone. But this promised land is now being controlled by a super-majority of leftists, and the liberal, pro-union Democrats have only one answer to California's woes: to raise taxes. With that in mind, American Thinker asked California representatives if, after the 2012 election, Republicans become an archaic party in this state.
There are many reasons why California Republicans took such a shellacking. Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA) emphasizes the key word: "communication. The Democrats had monopoly control over the message. Republicans need to pull up their socks and wipe their noses to get back into the game."
Congressman Brian Bilbray (R-CA) recently lost his re-election bid to what he calls "the political perfect storm." There was Proposition 30, which will raise income taxes on the wealthiest Californian citizens and temporarily increase the sales tax by a quarter of one percent to supposedly fund schools, colleges, and universities.
The congressman argues, "Governor Jerry Brown and the Democrats worked college campuses, getting students to turn out to vote so their tuition would be kept down.
Students were recruited and registered, unions turned out in numbers, and Obama, an incumbent president, was on the ballot. This was the largest turnout in history for this state."
There was also Proposition 32, which would have banned union contributions to state and local candidates.
Unions made sure they turned out the vote to kill this initiative, since they did not want to lose the ability to withhold money from worker paychecks for political spending. The unions in California engage in vote-harvesting, where they register people who would not normally have voted on their own and get them to vote, many times by absentee ballots.
What should Republicans do to restore the party to viability?
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
