The fact is, California is really not as liberal as the politicians it continues to elect. According to a little reported March, 2015 poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California (“PPIC”), a respected bi-partisan organization, an eye-popping plurality of 35% of Californians consider themselves to be “conservative”, while 34% consider themselves to be “liberal”, and 30% identify themselves as “middle-of-the-road.”
Looked at another way, a huge majority of 65% of Californians identify themselves as center or right!
Respected public opinion polls conducted by organizations like PPIC, USC/Los Angeles Times, and The Field Organization reveal a markedly more politically diverse, moderate and even conservative outlook of the populace than reflected by the cast of characters California routinely now elects to office. Actual voter sentiment on many issues is in some cases startlingly different from the actions of its elected leaders. It is these opinions of Californians themselves that give hope for reforming the state. It is not such an extreme statement to make in saying that just as the personal views of the East German people themselves were not reflected by their own distant and abusive communist government before these citizens tore down the Berlin Wall, it is these voter sentiments in California that serve as the reason for me not giving up on the state, and in urging my conservative and Republican friends to stick around and join the fight! Voters are actually with us on many issues.
For example, other important findings in the PPIC poll conflict with the policies California’s elected leaders in control seek to impose. While Sacramento politicians still introduce new tax increase measures by the dozen, 62% of voters think the tax burden is already near the top or above average compared to other states; 57% think they are paying more taxes than they should be; 78% think that the state and local tax system should be changed and of that 47% favor major changes; 81% oppose raising the state gasoline tax; and 74% oppose increasing vehicle registration fees.
A Field poll confirms PPIC’s findings, and shows again that 76% of Californian’s think the gasoline tax is too high, while just 4% think the state’s gas taxes are lower than those in other states.
Though voters accepted Governor Jerry Brown’s arguments in November, 2012, to “temporarily” raise taxes to record levels, 56% of Californians today either oppose the taxes or are against making them permanent.
After years of liberals trying to lay the blame on the Proposition 13 tax cut, a recent poll showed 58% of Californians today still support Proposition 13.
The contrast today in voter attitudes and the philosophies of the people Californians elect could not be starker than in the case of voter sentiment in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline is favored by Congressional Republicans, but opposed by environmentalists and President Obama, and both of California’s liberal U.S. Senators, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, who voted against it. While the majority of Californians approve of the job Obama, Boxer and Feinstein are doing, 54% favor building the pipeline. And though Feinstein and Boxer are indeed popular, when voters were asked whether the state would be better off if California’s two U.S. Senators who have served for 22 years continued to run for re-election or if new candidates should become senators, nearly 60% voters said the state would be better off with new candidates, as opposed to 29% who said California would be better off if the long-serving senators continued to run. And 48% of voters said they felt “strongly” that the state would be better off with new candidates, according to the poll.
So take heart my conservative and Republican friends in California. You are not alone and we have plenty to work with to reform this state!
All that may be true, but these “center-right” voters have an abysmal record of electing Left-Wing trash that are squandering the wealth of this once great state.
Your article makes absolutely no sense at all. Irregardless of what polls show people claiming to be, the fact is that they overwhelming vote liberal and elect liberal demagogues to office in the State of California. If the numbers are true, then the Democrats do a much better job of convincing the 30% to vote their way. In fact it would suggest that the people of California are not true to themselves. Until and unless California starts to see the light on how Democratic policies destroy their own environment, California will be a lost state destined to oblivion.
I couldn’t agree more.
If the poll is a true reflection then the GOP needs to work on its branding. It looks like the voters are voting the lesser of two evils and they just see the GOP as more out of sync with California than the far left Democrats. It makes sense. I’d wager that if Californians had to choose they’d feel more in common with the Northeast than the Southeast of the country, being these two regions are the ideological cores of the parties.
Keep in mind this is the same state that voted against gay marriage, only to have it forced upon it by the courts. Between the liberal courts and the gerrymandered districts, the will of the people is over-ridden.
Leftists in the media, public schools, and universities have been so busy re-defining terms that many people who support frankly socialist policies think of themselves as centrist. The interior of the State does have a high proportion of true conservatives, but barking moonbattery reigns supreme on the densely populated coast.
Ahhhh… But what about the bought and paid for ‘Free Press’ that treats the electorate like a mushroom farm – kept in the dark and fed media?
Very interesting to say the least! Why do the electorate send such loony-tunes left-wing creatures to our legislature? Is the brain disconnected to the voting arm?
If any of that were true they would not have voted in THE SAME COMMUNIST FOR YEARS they dont’ read they jus t mark and A PERSON GETTTING PAID TO VOTE VOTES FOR WHO THEY PAID HIM OFR AND THERE IS A LOT OF THAT IN CALIF. JUST LIKE NY ILL. ETC
The question then, if CA is so all fired middle of the road or right, is how these same far left capons like De Leon, Huffman, et al. keep getting into office?
If you want to lead a decent life among others of a like mind..
Pack your stuff and get out..
Come to Arizona.
Your not leaving California ,, California has left you.
Lawyers, Professors, Public Skewel Teeeechers, State Employees…and Welfare Recipients need not apply.
Union Thugs, SEIU or otherwise.. you all are welcome to hop on the next bus together like last and come back with your intimidation tactics & protest signs for another political spanking anytime..lol
California Gang bangers welcome.. Sheriff Arpio has a tent and cot with your name on it.. Oh and our Peace Officers will be happy to add the additional charge of elder abuse while you recover in hospital (assuming you survive) from injuries sustained while trying to rob, murder or rape our any of our citizens should one be a Senior.
“Grannys with Glocks” meeting every third Monday at the local Waffle House.. 8:00am
Vic
I think the voters need to take more of an interest in what’s happening to their state, the beautiful and greatest state in America, California. You don’t really appreciate it until your 45 years old and have to move away, and are awakened to the reality that the rest of America is nothing like California, please Conservatives make California Rich Again, with no santuary cites that protect crimminals and endanger the lives of people living there. Don’t turn a blind eye, stop smoking so much pot and wake up and smell the roses before it’s too late ? Written for my beloved California, I’m now 70.
their very last governor was republican