La respuesta:
Republicans dislike California because they are petty, childish and very sore losers. It’s important to remember that before the 1990s, California on the whole was a very Republican state. Back in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, California leaned heavily Republican. The San Francisco Bay Area was very liberal, but it was the exception to the rule back then. San Diego, Orange County, Bakersfield, Fresno, Merced, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Sacramento, Valencia and San Bernadino all leaned Republican. Ronald Reagan and George Deukmejian were GOP governors. In presidential races, California went for Nixon in 1968 and 1972, Ford in 1976, Reagan in 1980 and 1984, Bush Sr. in 1988.
But there was a big shift during the Bill Clinton years. The more the GOP allied itself with extreme Christian fundamentalists and ranted about gays, abortion and porn, the more ground it lost in California. Even in Orange County, once a Republican stronghold, B-1 Bob Dornan was voted out of office. Becoming the party of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family and Operation Rescue (the lunatic fringe of Christianity) was the kiss of death for the Republican Party in California.
The anti-Latino thing didn’t help either. California has a huge Hispanic population. So when, for example, a bunch of knuckle-draggers in AM talk radio went around calling Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain “Juan McCain” because they saw him as being too pro-Hispanic (and therefore, not a true Republican), their racist dog whistle didn’t exactly endear them to California’s Latino voters.
Republicans have no one but themselves to blame for their post-1980s losses out in California.
California didn’t leave the Republican Party. The Republican Party left California.
