Trump’s triumph: California awakes to shocking new political landscape

UPDATED: November 9, 2016 at 4:23 pm


Madeline Lopes, left, and Cassidy Irwin, both of Oakland, march with other peaceful protesters onTelegraph Avenue in
downtown Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the presidential race.
(Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)


Protesters march past burned garbage along Broadway in downtown Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016.
Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

California awoke Wednesday to a stunning new reality: Republican Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States, with congressional majorities that will empower him to pursue an agenda most of the state finds objectionable and some consider dangerous.

Having delivered 61 percent of its popular vote and 55 electoral votes to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Californians watched with surprise — and, in many cases, horror — as Trump pulled off arguably the greatest upset in modern political history, smashing through Clinton’s supposedly formidable get-out-the-vote operation in crucial swing states like Florida and Ohio.

The result is that the Democrat Party in the Golden State soon will be under siege by Republicans in Washington, D.C., said Democratic strategist Steve Maviglio.


An Oakland police officer checks out damage after a window was broken by protesters at a car dealership on Broadway
in downtown Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the presidential race.
(Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)


“This is a major blow to the progress we’ve made, whether it’s on health care or immigration or the environment,” he said. “We are very much going to be at odds with what a Trump administration and a Republican Congress and a Republican Supreme Court are going to lay out over the next four years.”

Talk of secession — #calexit — was trending on Twitter early Wednesday. The Canadian immigration website crashed, possibly as a result of people across the United States seeing just what it would take to join America’s northern neighbor.

Demonstrations filled streets in Oakland, San Jose and elsewhere overnight. Students at three East Bay high schools walked out of classes in protest Wednesday morning. More protests are likely in the Bay Area in coming days.

But initial panic in U.S. and world financial markets calmed after Trump gave what was considered a gracious acceptance speech early Wednesday morning in New York.

Clinton and President Barack Obama both delivered remarks Wednesday morning calling on Democrats to accept the results of the election and move forward with purpose and unity.

For some in California, the real estate tycoon’s victory was sweet validation and a needed rebuke of the political establishment, which they believe has failed to generate prosperity and hope for the future to millions of working-class Americans left behind amid a global economy.

“The American people have had enough,” said 54-year-old Saratoga resident and out-of-work auto mechanic John Cagliostro, who celebrated Tuesday night at
Trump’s Santa Clara County headquarters in Sunnyvale. “All the illegal aliens are coming in and taking my job from me and they’re voting Democratic because they’re getting free government cheese.”


Multiple fires are lit in dumpsters and trash cans on Broadway and 20th Street in downtown Oakland, Calif., on
Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

But for most of the state, particularly the deep blue Bay Area, Trump’s victory was a sickening body blow. During his incendiary campaign, the businessman and reality television star stoked white resentment of immigrants and minorities, particularly Latinos and Muslims; pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act and environmental protections; derided climate change as a hoax invented by the Chinese; demeaned women; and vowed to nominate the sort of deeply conservative Supreme Court justices who would reverse Roe v. Wade.

“If California voters had known what was coming on the national stage, they would have legalized heroin,” tweeted Sacramento polling and campaign data guru Paul Mitchell, referring to the passage of Proposition 64, which legalizes recreational marijuana in California.

Like most political experts, Mitchell was caught off-guard by Trump’s triumph. Clinton maintained a slim but durable lead in polls of voters, both nationally and in many battleground states, leading up to the election.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris — who defeated a fellow Democrat, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Orange, in the campaign to replace outgoing Sen. Barbara Boxer — urged her supporters not to despair over Clinton’s loss.

“We must not be overwhelmed or throw up our hands,” she tweeted late Tuesday. “It is time to roll up our sleeves and fight for who we are!”

San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, who was leading fellow Supervisor Jane Kim early Wednesday in the race for state Senate District 11, which includes San Francisco and part of northern San Mateo County, called Trump’s victory “a complete train wreck for the country” and said the progressive movement will need to fight for its political vision.

“It’s unfathomable what people were thinking in doing this,” Wiener said, “but it also points to a lot of frustration and anger in many parts of the country and people who are suffering economically and falling behind.”

Wiener predicted Trump will go after sanctuary city laws in places like San Francisco and San Jose that protect illegal immigrants from deportation, and said the president-elect could seek to undermine state and local minimum wage laws as well. He said white working-class voters who propelled Trump into office have shot themselves in the foot, because the Republican won’t enact policies to help them.

“This was for many of them almost a primal scream at wanting to do something to make change,” Wiener said, “but, tragically, the change that they have empowered will be destructive to the country and destructive to them.”

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, was much more sanguine Wednesday about Trump’s epic win.

“This is an interesting time that we’ll learn from,” she said, “and it won’t bring down the republic, which has withstood much stronger quakes.”

The congresswoman said she doubts Trump will deport large numbers of illegal immigrants. She said the new president and Democrats share some common ground on the issue of trade. And she said she looks forward to working with Republicans on a replacement for the Affordable Care Act and pressing for Medicare for all, presuming Obama’s signature legislative achievement is repealed.

“The American people have really had it with the do-nothing Congress,” she said. “Now they’ll be able to have a Congress that actually does something, and we’ll see if they like it.”

Trump struck a conciliatory tone in his victory speech early Wednesday, calling for unity among Republicans, Democrats and independents.

“I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all of Americans,” he said. “For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people, I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country.”

But millions of Californians remain deeply uneasy after being blindsided by what Jack Pitney, professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College, called the “biggest surprise in American political history.”

San Mateo County Supervisor Dave Pine said it’s impossible to predict what Trump will do once in office.

“If we elected a convention Republican, we could look at the future with more certainty,” said Pine. “But none of us know.”

Pine, who toured flood-control projects in the Netherlands last month to learn more about mitigating the effects of sea-level rise, called Trump’s election an “unthinkable setback” for the political battle to slow down climate change.

The supervisor said he’s hopeful, however, that the renewable energy movement has gained enough economic momentum to push through the political shock.

“The economic forces are still moving in the direction that will support a renewable, cleaner future, and hopefully any political change will not unwind that,” he said.

Maviglio said Republicans now have a free hand to intervene in California’s battles over water, which often pit agribusiness against environmentalists and fisherman. Water allocations for imperiled species like Chinook salmon could be tightened. It’s one of many conflicts he foresees.

“There’s going to be a lot of court battles over the years and a lot of struggles,” he said. “But Washington has the power of the purse and that’s a mighty powerful weapon in dictating policy.”

While the rest of the country was electing Trump, Californians approved a slew of liberal ballot measures. Proposition 63, strengthening California’s gun laws, passed easily. Measures making more felons eligible for parole and extending a tax on high-income earners also passed, while an initiative upholding the state’s plastic-bag ban was ahead.

Some celebrities registered their shock at Trump’s victory. Seth McFarlane, creator of the TV show “Family Guy,” tweeting his disappointment before 6 a.m. Wednesday: “A climate-denying, anti-equality, anti-reproductive rights establishment has been installed, so yes, we’re allowed our online meltdowns.”

http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/0...cal-landscape/