Sometimes I wonder if the GOP would be better off officially pulling out of CA and creating a right wing state party called "The California Conservative Party" or something and running candidates on that banner and just have them caucus with the GOP nationally. Part of me suspects that it's literally the word "Republican" that's so tarnished in CA and that sort of shell game could let them run candidates without that R next to their name.
Well that depends entirely, would this name change accompany a similar shift to more progressive social and environmental policies? Or would the GOP continue to promote the same racially tinged, supply-side economic propaganda they've been promoting recently?
A socially liberal / economically moderate - conservative California party might do well.
Yeah, something like California Progressive Conservative Party could work, especially if it insisted that its cooperation with the national GOP is not automatic, but should be subject to negotiation and acceptance of some coalition program. The problem is, it would have to fight off the rump Republican Party and Republican identity, which is still strong among the current CA Republicans. In other words, while Republicans are too weak in CA to matter for government, they are still big and strong enough to preclude emergence of effective opposition. Kind of like the Dems in much of the Deep South, of course.
