California has long been a blue state. But these days many Californians are feeling an entirely different kind of blue spurred by the election of Donald Trump. Some Californians have been seeing red (so to speak), taking their anger to the streets. Protests in Los Angeles, the Bay Area and Sacramento show residents are loathe to embrace a president who ran one of the most divisive campaigns in memory.
California lawmakers are echoing that concern. Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León and California Assembly Speaker released a joint statement Wednesday saying after the election, they woke up “feeling like strangers in a foreign land” and were never more proud to be Californians because residents here “overwhelmingly rejected politics fueled by resentment, bigotry and misogyny.”
Senator de León, talked to Warren Olney about state lawmakers’ concerns. He says California’s progressive policies could be at risk under Trump’s presidency and pointed to the Republican’s promise to ax Obamacare noting, “millions of people will be dropped off the healthcare roles overnight. What happens with their access to quality healthcare?” De León says it would cause budgetary deficits in California, because the state will have to back fill.
Building walls not bridges
California’s rich history of diversity and its large Latino population make the president-elect’s anti-immigration platform of particular concern to many Golden State residents. The Senate leader doesn’t see an actual wall being built between California and Mexico, saying the costs are astronomical. But, he says, for many in the state, there’s already a wall:a metaphysical one built by the president-elect’s misogynistic, bigoted and offensive campaign.
Listen to Warren’s Olney’s conversation with Senator Kevin de León in this week’s edition of “Olney in LA.”