The liberal media playbook when a Democratic city or state fails is to blame the nearest Republican, no matter how uninvolved the Republican may be or how thin the connection. That is the case even when an entire state has a Republican-proof majority, as California does.
Steve Lopez at the Los Angeles Times wrote what may be the single worst opinion of this election cycle, blaming Republicans for the current state of California. The Golden State is racked by a variety of crises, from drug addiction and overdoses to homelessness to the worst poverty rate in the country. Californians are moving to red states for more affordable living conditions, which would have been unthinkable a decade ago in the most naturally gifted state in the country.
Lopez blames Republicans for this, specifically Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, who have been dead for 30 years and 20 years, respectively, and out of office for longer. He also throws in complaints that Republicans are bought and paid for by “the gun lobby,” which makes it hypocritical for Republicans to complain that California Democrats don’t want to put criminals in jail, even if it’s Republicans who want stiffer penalties for gun crimes while Democrats refuse .
If all of that isn’t good enough for you, and it shouldn’t be, he has one more kicker of an argument. Yes, California Democrats have had a supermajority in the legislature for a decade and a vise grip on the governance of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Yes, Republicans have almost no say in the state’s politics and couldn’t change anything if they wanted. But, according to Lopez, that is proof that this is Republicans’ fault.
Take it from Lopez: “In a state that proudly celebrates inclusion and leads the resistance to the politics of race-based scapegoating, climate change denial and the stripping of women’s reproductive rights, the out-of-touch GOP has been hell-bent on shrinking its tent.” According to him, Republicans have not “offered winning solutions to deep-seated problems, and it might be too late for a party resurgence because as the electorate has grown more diverse, GOP voter registration has dwindled to roughly 25%.”
Lopez boasts that “you can’t blame Democrats for that.”
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In other words, California’s failures are Republicans’ fault because Republicans don’t win elections in California. Lopez’s idea of a defense of California Democrats is that if Republicans had won more elections, then Democrats wouldn’t be able to ruin the state with impunity. According to Lopez, you have to blame Republicans because it is their responsibility to protect the state from damaging Democratic policies, not the Democratic Party’s responsibility to run the state with any semblance of competency.
This is how conservatives may think, but that is because we know the Democratic Party’s policies are destructive and its ideas are backward. Lopez’s argument ignores all that to put the blame squarely on Republicans because the Left thinks there is no way to look at California’s decline and defend the Democratic Party’s record without blaming the nearest Republicans, even if those Republicans don’t exist.
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