Part of this new community organizing is an ability to work with as well as against political figures and agency administrators, a sort of inside-outside game not always associated with progressive change-makers. While all of that was important in a variety of arenas-economic, social, and immigrant policy-I argue in a forthcoming book, State of Resistance: What California’s Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Mean for America’s Future, that a key ingredient for California’s new reality was a set of sophisticated social movement organizations that learned to mobilize new constituents, marshal research and data to make their case, and propose new policies instead of just opposing clear injustices. Some of it was due to shifts in the political rules of the game, including term limits that led to new, often minority, leadership in high state-level offices, as well as the reworking of the redistricting process that reduced gerrymandering for political favor. Some of it was economic shifts, including the growth of a high-tech sector that is often libertarian in its economics but both liberal in its social attitudes and interested in getting a first-mover advantage on the green economy. What moved California from its own abyss to what seems to be an enviable acceptance of the need for diversity, inclusion, and environmental protection? Some of it was just the demographic evolution of the state, including an inevitable growth in voters of color who could put some brakes on racialized appeals. And, driven by the rising voice of environmental justice activists, it insists on addressing climate change and climate justice, with a frustrated Governor Jerry Brown declaring in December 2016 that “if Trump turns off the satellites, California will launch its own damn satellite.” Making change 2 Laura Hill and Iwunze Ugo, “ Implementing California’s School Funding Formula: Will High-Need Students Benefit?” (San Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California, March 2015).
Nudged forward by labor activists and advocates for the working poor, California has tried to address the growing inequality driving economic unease, becoming one of the first states to embrace a $15-an-hour minimum wage and adopting a funding formula designed to steer education dollars to the schools most in need.
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Contemporary California now recognizes that undocumented immigrants are deeply embedded in the state-well over 60 percent of undocumented immigrants have been in America for over a decade-and the state has sought to ease their lives by providing driver licenses, ensuring health care for undocumented youth, and diminishing cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The Golden State’s shift from despair to hope has many causal factors, but among them were social movements, often led by communities of color, that notched victories on a variety of civic issues. “Contemporary California now recognizes that undocumented immigrants are deeply embedded in the state.” The good news: we came out the other side a bit banged-up but ready to keep working together for a better future, including on the critical issue of climate change. 1 Data calculations by the author using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics at It is no surprise that civic leaders in California woke up the day after the 2016 vote with a sense of déjà vu-we had already struggled through our own stew of racial anxiety and economic stress.
At the time, California had experienced 40 percent of the national decline in manufacturing employment between 19, a staggering blow to working-class residents and one that fed into resentment of newcomers. Nearly a quarter century ago, California voters adopted a similarly anti-immigrant tone, passing Proposition 187, which sought to strip undocumented residents of access to nearly all social and educational services. Why did polls fail to predict the outcome, at least in the states that made a difference? Why did a large set of the public embrace an outsider candidate, particularly one who attacked immigrants, stoked anxieties about ongoing demographic shifts, and willfully ignored the realities of climate change? And what did the newly elected president mean for policy, particularly about climate, which has motivated environmentalists and environmental justice advocates alike?Ĭalifornia’s story offers one path through this turmoil, partly because the United States seems to be going through what the Golden State experienced decades before. The election of Donald Trump shocked and confused much of America.
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