Its like a big liberal wet dream. Thank god this article was posted in opinion. That does lower the requirement for facts.. right? For instance, the mockery of orange county in fictional TV programs created in... Hollywood? Wow. Hard evidence. Then the claim Hispanics are changing the outlook of Orange County? With all undue respect Mr. Darman, you are an idiot. I was raised in a coastal community in Orange County 40 years ago and half of my secondary and primary school classes were, you guessed it, Hispanic.
It seems that many liberals, like the author of this article, have gotten high on their own cool aide because of a landslide victory. I got news for you. Even those in America who are left of Fidel Castro re for widening the deficit by a trillion dollars so we can have socialized health care, If you really believe that conservative places like Orange County have suddenly socially shifted and are now in favor of such ideas, it might be a good time to but down the bong (or crack pipe) and get a grip on this thing most of us call reality.
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Confidently, they bulldozed through the contradictions inherent in modern conservatism. It didn't matter that a large part of the county's newfound prosperity came from federal defense spending—residents wanted the U.S. government out of their lives. It didn't matter that their idyllic suburban tracts were fed by superhighways, that they depended on modern conveniences in their homes—they wanted to return to a simpler way of life. This was their right as middle-class Americans, they believed, a right the conservative movement could help fulfill.
The county worked hard to help the movement do its job. In 1964 a grassroots army from the county spread across California on behalf of Barry Goldwater, delivering him the state's primary (and with it, the Republican nomination). Goldwater was crushed in the general election—he joked he'd won "five states and Orange County"—but the seed was planted. The suburban warriors played a crucial role in Ronald Reagan's 1966 gubernatorial campaign and helped elect Richard Nixon president in 1968. Reagan's election in 1980 was the national acceptance of the Orange County idea. "Orange County," the Gipper quipped, was "where the good Republicans go to die." In 2004 George W. Bush led John Kerry by more votes in the county than in any other nationwide.
By that point, however, Orange County's brand had lost some of its luster. In a slew of popular TV shows—"The O.C.," "Laguna Beach," "The Real Housewives of Orange County"—the county was depicted as a haven for America's empty overclass. "Arrested Development" followed the hapless Bluths, who drink and spend and party even as they squander their fortune. The idea of Orange County, then, was no longer one of smart conservatism, but the worst kinds of Bush-era excess.
Meanwhile, the real O.C. was changing. An influx of Hispanic residents—by 2006 they made up 38 percent of the population—left the county still middle-class and suburban, but less white. The newcomers—culturally conservative, increasingly middle-class—could be Orange County Republicans were it not for the immigration issue. It's likely that the proliferation of Hispanic voters will lead the GOP to moderate its stance, lest it become irrelevant in the West. This is a scenario that will no doubt frighten rock-ribbed Orange County Republicans. In reality, it's their best hope. If immigration is their only real problem, another 50 years of dominance is plausible. To attract young voters, they'll just have to figure out how to put the teachings of Milton Friedman onto Facebook and Twitter.
But there's a sneaking feeling beneath the sunshine that the very idea of Orange County has expired—that in the suburbs, Americans have resigned themselves to increased dependence on the government from here on out. The Republicans of Orange County are counting on that not being the case. In this troubled time, this may be the county's most attractive promise: that despite the evidence, we can always go back to the way things were.
© 2009
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