California has been in freefall for decades – could President Trump be the one to turn it around?

2F0W8YJ President Donald Trump disembarks Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles Tuesday Feb. 18 2020 and is greeted by Mayor of Anaheim California Harry Sidhu Mayor of Lancaster California R. Rex. Parris and supporters.

Photo: Alamy | Op-ed by Summer Lane

California is truly a beautiful place. The biodiversity and geography are breathtaking, the agricultural output is astonishing, and the state itself is so large that its economy ranks fifth in the world.

Yet California has suffered tremendously under the weight of radical leftist policies and the strain of illegal immigration. From bans on small engines and gas-powered vehicles to a blanket ban on requiring voter ID to cast a ballot, the bureaucracy in Sacramento has embraced policies that have proven to yield poisonous results.

California’s decline into pseudo-communism is multi-faceted. Once, California was a comfortably conservative state. Now, the state hasn’t voted for a Republican president since 1988. What happened?

Political shifts don’t usually happen overnight, and yet California’s pivot toward leftist policies seemed to occur quickly.

The possible effects of amnesty

When President Ronald Reagan signed a sweeping immigration bill in 1986, he allowed millions of illegal aliens in America to apply for amnesty.

Roughly three million illegals secured legal status within the U.S. following his decision to sign this bill. It’s very likely that this bill had a direct effect on the demographics of California and, perhaps, the political geography.

In the 1980s, California attracted a whopping six million new residents – and up to 31 percent of them were illegal aliens, according to data from the Public Policy Institute.

It’s impossible to know how many illegals granted amnesty have impacted California elections, but it may be one explanation for how the voting patterns suddenly shifted left. Case in point, former Republican Rep. Steve King (Iowa) argued in 2013 that Reagan’s 1986 immigration legislation was directly linked to the nationwide presidential victory of President Obama, per PolitiFact.

He argued, “If … we take 15 million people out of the rolls and say they wouldn’t have been here without the 1986 amnesty act, or at least they wouldn’t be voting, and if 71 percent of them voted for Barack Obama, then it’s clear to anybody that can do any kind of statistical analysis that Barack Obama wouldn’t be President of the United States without Ronald Reagan’s 1986 amnesty act.”

In addition to the possible ripple effect of amnesty, in 1994, Californians became concerned about the effects of illegal immigration and shifting political ideologies. This concern was reflected in their vote to pass the “Save Our State” initiative (Prop 187). What did the bill do? It proposed denying public services to illegal aliens and required state employees to report known illegals for deportation.

And yet in 1999, the initiative was effectively dismantled after years of legal battle, legalizing and encouraging healthcare and public education for anyone, regardless of their immigration status. The court system terminated the initiative, despite residents’ support for the law.

Truly, it seems as if California has been blocked from implementing common sense policies and laws, especially when the people support it. Today, illegal aliens have become increasingly comfortable in the Golden State, and their presence may also contribute to why things have changed as far as voting is concerned. In 2013, the state became a “sanctuary state” for aliens when AB 4 and SB 54 were passed, which effectively prohibited law enforcement from asking state residents about their immigration status.

Today, it’s estimated that over 2.6 million illegals live in California – and that’s just the official number, according to the Pacific Research Institute. Under the Biden regime, millions of aliens have poured into the United States, flooding into border states like California and rapidly changing the demographics of cities and small towns.

Despite mainstream denial, is it possible that such a massive demographic shift from illegal entrants and a growing population of Reagan’s amnesty-linked families could have altered the voting system in such a way to permanently ensure California never flips red again? There’s no way to know, because there is no way to adequately check identification or citizenship in the state.

Voter ID

While questions remain about the integrity of America’s voting processes, California has cast serious doubt on its own system by banning the use of voter ID. In 2024, Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law, which prohibits polling places from asking voters to present identification to cast a ballot.

In 2024, President Trump suggested plainly that such a law could only be implemented for one purpose: “That’s because they want to cheat on elections.”

It seems unfathomable to prohibit such a thing, since secure voting is the very cornerstone of the democratic process, and yet, California has removed that security. Additionally, Newsom also signed a bill into law in 2021 making vote-by-mail ballots permanent, despite the multitude of doubts surrounding the process.

Holding California politicians accountable

Republicans in California are often unfairly forgotten by the rest of the nation. The millions of registered Republicans and conservatives in the Golden State suffer just as acutely under the thumb of leftist tyranny as the nation suffered wholly under the Biden regime.

In 2024, the GOP added several hundred thousand more registrations to their party in California, per the PPIC, and it’s easy to see why. The state is literally on fire and voters are increasingly frustrated by Sacramento.

Unfortunately, it seems as if the ironclad power of cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles largely hold a monopoly over election outcomes, much to the detriment of the state. Because of this, leftist insanity has raged out of control.

For example, who can ignore the carnage and horror unleashed by years of California wildfires? Over the past few weeks, fires have increased in Southern California, eating through mismanaged dry foothills, destroying Pacific Palisades and Malibu, and this week, destroying Castaic and Santa Clarita.

Thankfully, with President Trump in the White House, perhaps some pressure can be applied to California that will force Newsom and his leftist legislature to clean up their acts.

On Friday, President Trump told the press that he would provide federal aid to California on two meaningful conditions: implement voter ID requirements and release any and all stored water to fight fires and replenish the parched state.

“I want to see voter ID, so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want the water to be released…after that I will be the greatest president that California has ever seen,” he said.

He further pressed for the water to be released onto agricultural land. “They artificially stop the water from going onto the land,” he noted.

Later, while traveling in North Carolina during a visit to a disaster area in Asheville still affected by last year’s devastating Hurricane Helene, Trump expanded on his conditions for California.

“In California, we want them to have voter ID,” he said. “…The people don’t have a voice.”

He described the system as “very corrupt.”

Indeed, California has been corrupted by an insidious political class who welcomed millions of illegals into the state, took away any chance of proving citizenship as a prerequisite for voting, and turned off the water spigot for hurting residents and farmers.

Can California be rescued from this calamity? If fair and free elections could return to the Golden State, perhaps there is a chance to restore California to its former glory – and if anybody can kick start the process of a California comeback, it’s President Trump.

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