{"id":9459,"date":"2016-09-28T09:51:34","date_gmt":"2016-09-28T16:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=9459"},"modified":"2016-10-01T15:09:12","modified_gmt":"2016-10-01T22:09:12","slug":"its-not-hard-to-find-california-trump-voters-if-you-know-where-to-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/its-not-hard-to-find-california-trump-voters-if-you-know-where-to-look\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not hard to find California Trump voters, if you know where to look"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"trb_ar_h\">\n<div class=\"trb_ar_hl\"><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"trb_ar_main\">\n<div class=\"trb_ar_la\">\n<aside class=\"trb_embed\" data-content-id=\"91561138\" data-content-size=\"leadart\" data-content-type=\"image\" data-content-slug=\"la-1474589549-snap-photo\" data-content-subtype=\"photo\" data-role=\"socialshare_item imgsize_ratiosizecontainer\" data-state=\"\">\n<div class=\"trb_embed_media\">\n<figure class=\"trb_embed_imageContainer_figure\" data-role=\"imgsize_item\"><img class=\"trb_embed_imageContainer_img alignnone\" title=\"Some of Trump's Latino supporters\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1260px) 450px, (min-width: 1060px) calc(100vw - 559px), (min-width: 840px) calc(100vw - 419px), (min-width: 800px) 800px, 100.1vw\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/350\/350x197 350w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/400\/400x225 400w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/450\/450x253 450w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/500\/500x281 500w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/550\/550x309 550w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/600\/600x338 600w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/650\/650x366 650w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/700\/700x394 700w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/750\/750x422 750w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/800\/800x450 800w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/850\/850x478 850w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/900\/900x506 900w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/950\/950x534 950w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/1000\/1000x563 1000w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/1050\/1050x591 1050w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/1100\/1100x619 1100w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/1150\/1150x647 1150w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/1200\/1200x675 1200w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/1400\/1400x788 1400w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/1600\/1600x900 1600w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/1800\/1800x1013 1800w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/2000\/2000x1125 2000w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\/2048\/2048x1152 2048w\" alt=\"Some of Trump's Latino supporters\" data-baseurl=\"http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-57e472d9\/turbine\/la-1474589549-snap-photo\" data-c-nd=\"2048x1152\" data-role=\"imgsize_srcsetdisplayitem\" \/><\/figure>\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related\" data-role=\"lightbox_metadata\">\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related_credit_and_caption\">A man hoists a sign during a rally of about 100 of presidential candidate Donald Trump&#8217;s Latino supporters outside Anaheim City Hall on Aug. 28. (Los Angeles Times)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"trb_ar_by\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_ar_by\"><span class=\"trb_ar_by_nm_pm\"><span class=\"trb_ar_by_nm_au\" data-byline-withoutby=\"\">By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Los Angeles Times<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_ar_dateline\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"trb_ar_page\" data-role=\"pagination_page\" data-content-page=\"1\">\n<p>About 18 million of California\u2019s 40 million residents are registered to vote. Most polls show Hillary Clinton leading <a id=\"PEBSL000163\" title=\"Donald Trump\" href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/projects\/la-na-all-things-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a> by between 20 and 25 percentage points. Trump will be lucky if he can do better in California than John McCain (36%) and Mitt Romney (37%) fared in the last two presidential elections.<\/p>\n<p>Still, if polls represent the general \u2014 voting and nonvoting\u2014population, then some 14 million Californians of all ages want Trump to win \u2014 a far greater number than found in most die-hard red states. They resemble Trump supporters elsewhere, but they seem even angrier, in part because they are an emasculated political minority.<\/p>\n<p>As a man in a Prather foothills supermarket recently told me when I asked about his Make America Great Again cap, \u201cThey need to see that lots of us aren\u2019t like them and don\u2019t like what they\u2019re doing.\u201d \u201cThey\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d he could define in a lot of ways: state bureaucrats, California elites who never experience the consequences of their advocacies, or the open-border activists who damn the very culture they insist on joining.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not hard to find Californians who feel this way \u2014 if you know the regions where to look.<\/p>\n<p>Twentieth-first century\u00a0\u201cCalifornia\u201d has become a misnomer. In truth, there are not one, but two quite different Californias, defined by both geography and mindset.<!--more--><\/p>\n<aside class=\"trb_embed\" data-content-id=\"91558427\" data-content-size=\"large\" data-content-type=\"pullquote\" data-content-slug=\"la-1474588521-snap-embed-quote\" data-content-subtype=\"pullquote\" data-role=\"socialshare_item\" data-state=\"\">\n<div class=\"trb_embed_media\">\n<p><span class=\"trb_pullquote_text\">California\u2019s Trump belt is the antithesis of Stanford or UCLA, Apple or Google, Malibu or DreamWorks, Wells Fargo or Uber.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related\" data-role=\"lightbox_metadata\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related\" data-role=\"lightbox_metadata\">There\u2019s the affluent coastal corridor between San Diego and Berkeley, where major universities, corporations, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, the financial industry and the largest government bureaucracies are located. And then there\u2019s everything else \u2014 the northern third of the state, the mountainous eastern border, the interior Central Valley and portions of inland and eastern Southern California. These counties are poorer, with fewer college-educated residents.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>During the week, I work in the coastal corridor \u2014 at Stanford University in Palo Alto. Almost everyone I meet there will vote for Clinton. On the weekends, I live in the other California, on a small farm in the poorest part of an indigent rural Fresno County, where a third of the population lives below the poverty line. Many of my neighbors have embraced Trump\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n<p>California\u2019s Trump belt is the antithesis of Stanford or UCLA, Apple or Google, Malibu or DreamWorks, Wells Fargo or Uber. It is an outland where practical people still depend on 19th century muscular jobs in grazing, farming, timber, mining and construction that both supply the state with its elemental needs, but from a distance and often without much credit or even recognition.<\/p>\n<p>I see Trump signs in unincorporated areas throughout the state\u2019s eastern counties. They belong to working-class folks, both white and from other ethnic groups, who service the agricultural pump and do spot welding on the farms in my vicinity. They believe that the state has left them behind, lacking the culture and money of the coastal elite, but without the victim status of the poor Californians who are entitled to race-based subsidies and advantages in hiring or admissions.<\/p>\n<p>In my hometown of Selma I also know many Mexican Americans of the second and third generations who express support for Trump, at least if no one is listening in. Many do not speak Spanish well if at all, have never been to Mexico, may have married non-Latinos, do not work for the government and are not on public assistance. They often seethe about illegal immigration \u2014 because of crime in their neighborhoods and the danger to their children from gangs, as well as the connection between lax immigration enforcement and the California paradox: We have the highest basket of income, sales and gas taxes in the nation while providing schools and infrastructure among the worst.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, first-generation Mexican immigrants and those in the country illegally detest Trump. They often speak poor English, are poorly paid for hard physical labor or are out of work entirely. They fear deportation and rely on social services, sanctuary cities and non-enforcement of immigration and zoning laws. Government is not seen as too big, too costly or too incompetent, but a force for good that offers subsidies and employment as the first steps to entering the middle class. They nod to the Democratic coastal establishment in an unspoken bargain. In exchange for promotion of liberal immigration and social policies, they will support candidates whose politics, from abortion to costly environmentalism, are otherwise probably anathemas.<\/p>\n<p>(It is an unspoken truth that yesterday\u2019s California Republican party of the rich is today\u2019s party of the populist middle classes, while the Democratic Party has become an odd alliance of the 1%, public employees and the very poor.)<\/p>\n<p>Trump supporters in rural California are quite different from the stereotyped Republican Party of the last two elections. The welder who recently worked on my gate had no empathy for \u201cwealthy white people\u201d \u2014 I suppose like Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney. Yet he was tired of hearing of \u201cwhite privilege,\u201d an insult leveled by those who enjoy quite a lot against those who have none.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"trb_embed\" data-content-size=\"small\" data-content-type=\"blurb\">\n<div id=\"trb_em_b_85278850\" class=\"trb_embed_blurb\" data-load-type=\"commentFrame\" data-frame-width=\"100%\" data-frame-height=\"100%\" data-frame-class=\"trb_em_b_if\" data-frame-scroll=\"no\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>California\u2019s Trump voters do not believe Clinton can answer why existing federal immigration law is not enforced, or why officials cannot utter the phrase Islamic terrorism after serial terrorist attacks, or why multimillionaires like Beyonc and Colin Kaepernick feign victimhood during prime-time sporting events.<\/p>\n<p>Policy is set on the coast; its consequences are keenly felt everywhere else. High electricity costs affect scorched Fresno more than wealthy and temperate Santa Cruz. High-speed rail is first tried out on choice farmlands in Hanford, not Palo Alto. Water is diverted for fish from agricultural contracted supplies, not the Hetch Hetchy canals that deliver distant Sierra Nevada water to the gardens of the Bay Area. The elite who denounce charter schools send their children to coastal prep schools by the Pacific, not to underperforming public schools in Stockton.<\/p>\n<p>Trump is a valve through which to vent frustration at elites who believe that high energy and gas prices, steep taxes and lots of regulation are good for all Californians \u2014 including those without the money and influence to navigate around them. As one rural friend put it, \u201cOf course, who up in San Francisco cares if gas costs too much \u2014 do any of them drive a 100 miles a day to cut lawns?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump supporters are not as ill-informed as so often caricatured. A Fresno Rotary Club member just reminded me that California\u2019s billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities, unsustainable entitlements, terrible schools, rising crime, astronomically priced coastal real estate, high taxes and schizophrenic laws will eventually hit even the rich in Santa Barbara and San Francisco.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_ar_page\" data-role=\"pagination_page\" data-content-page=\"2\" data-state=\"pagination_viewed\">\n<p>If true, the multimillion-person Trump minority in California might not be a minority for much longer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A man hoists a sign during a rally of about 100 of presidential candidate Donald Trump&#8217;s Latino supporters outside Anaheim City Hall on Aug. 28. (Los Angeles Times) By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Los Angeles Times About 18 million of California\u2019s 40 million residents are registered to vote. Most polls show Hillary Clinton leading Donald [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1092,1091,1090,111,16,893,31,546,185],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2sz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11534,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-costs-of-presidential-candor\/","url_meta":{"origin":9459,"position":0},"title":"The Costs of Presidential Candor","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Predictably, Donald Trump was attacked both by the establishment and the media as \u201ccrude,\u201d \u201cunpresidential,\u201d and \u201cgratuitous\u201d for a recent series of blunt and graphic statements on a variety of current policies. Oddly, the implied charge this time around was not that Trump makes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Donald Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11638,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-and-the-latino-vote\/","url_meta":{"origin":9459,"position":1},"title":"Trump and the Latino Vote","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Trump would not have to change his policies to capture 40 to 50 percent of the Latino vote (which is quite different from \u201cLatino\u201d spokespeople on television and the Jorge Ramos crowd), as opposed to simply articulating them: 1) The \u201cnew\u201d Democratic party not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Donald Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10876,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/from-resistance-to-nullification-to-what-next\/","url_meta":{"origin":9459,"position":2},"title":"From Resistance to Nullification to What Next?","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson \u2014 National Review Trump\u2019s critics ratchet up to insurrection, but Trump\u2019s tax reforms and our growing economy could derail their dreams. George H. W. Bush gave up power quietly and turned to charity work and occasional ceremonial speaking after his reelection defeat in 1992. George W.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Democrats&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Democrats","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/democrats\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12117,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-trump-will-win-again-in-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":9459,"position":3},"title":"Why Trump will win again in 2020","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Spectator USA My reasons for thinking Trump was going to be elected in 2016 were entirely unscientific. One of my Hoover Institution colleagues recently reminded me of my data-free, amateurish and bothersome predictions. I teach for three weeks at Hillsdale College every September during my vacation\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12693,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/interview-with-victor-davis-hanson-democrats-want-to-recalibrate-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":9459,"position":4},"title":"Interview with Victor Davis Hanson: \u201cDemocrats want to recalibrate America\u201d","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Four years ago, then-candidate Donald Trump promised an end to neo-con adventurism in the Middle East and to shift greater global responsibility to America\u2019s NATO allies. Supporters and critics alike agree that, as president, Trump has followed through. Arguably, his \u201cAmerica first\u201d strategy has brought greater stability even as it\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10022,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10022-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9459,"position":5},"title":"03\/27\/17 From an Angry Reader:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"03\/27\/17 From an Angry Reader: Victor, As a fine historian (but poor political scientist) you know quite well that Andrew Jackson was a national hero with a distinguished military career. The Donald is a former casino owner and reality TV show star. It is a long stretch to compare them.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Angry Reader&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9459"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9468,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9459\/revisions\/9468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}