July 22, 2020 California – From avoidable wildfires as a consequence of not observing decades-old practices of controlled burns or fire breaks, to missing bullet train and bullet train money, to Paradise and Camp Fire mismanagement;  from cities decriminalizing public defecation (yes, it’s a thing) and crimes under $1,000, to those same cities considering de-funding police; from providing sanctuary to migrant farm workers and MS-13 alike – California, at a state, county and city level – is has duly-borne gripes about its governance.

Many Californians are exiting. San Francisco and several coastal cities began to see spikes in home listings, corresponding with the beginning of COVID-19 ‘shelter in place’ orders. The recent ‘protests’, which quickly became the ongoing riots in many West Coast cities, have compelled still more to quietly exit their Coastal California city, or even the state. But in each case, it wasn’t the crisis; it was how it was handled. These exodi correspond with being locked at home, and watching police stand-down as cities burned.

Many California taxpayers feel as though they come last, as the Democrat party has taken a hard turn to the left, appeasing ‘social justice’ groups ahead of commonsense governance and ‘kitchen table’ issues that impact tax-paying citizens.

But like the rest of America, exiting the state isn’t their only recourse. Some are exiting the Democrat party. According to Brandon Straka, founder of the WalkAway movement – a kind of former Democrat, non-party – their numbers have swelled perfectly coinciding with George Floyd protests, riots, arson, and looting – and the concomitant police stand-down under liberal urban Mayors and City Councils. Said one Walk Away member, “It started with a clear crime against a citizen that, really, should have united both parties – nobody on the center or the right was defending the Minnesota officer. Then it was ‘Charge the officer with a crime.’ – and he was charged. Then it was ‘more serious charges’. And those followed. Finally, it became about de-funding the police, and Seattle City Council members and Ilhan Omar saying Western civilization was somehow defective and we need socialism. It’s insane. We can’t have ‘the pursuit of happiness’ without ‘law and order’. We saw this division under Obama – Sanctuary, DACA, bad basic economic indicators. America-hating. Race-obsession. The Democrat party left me: I am a ‘Walk Away’”.

The term ‘Walk Away’, coined by Straka, is used to describe former democrats, JFK Democrats. Democrats concerned with jobs and unions.”

And Californians from both parties are trying to remove the far-Left, Social Justice, element of the Democat party, which has ostensibly merged with the former, ‘JFK’ Democrat party. An official effort to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom, begun by Orrin Heatlie on the 28th of June, 2020, has seen a similar swell in support – corresponding with what is seen as bad governance. Not protecting taxpayers either from a bad economy, or violent rioting. The recall procedure would require just a little less than a million and a half signatures, along with some other procedural ‘boxes’ checked, And Heatlie is confident they’ll prevail.

"California has a storied and racially diverse history, which thrived under Republican governance. Incredibly, people of every race and political party now have a problem with the direction the state is going. The state is in need of a course correction and taxpayers are the de facto steering committee. It’s not a stretch to say the entire state is in-play for the 2020 Presidential election. Some people are so dissatisfied they are leaving. We’re trying to salvage California.” says Orrin Heatlie.

Heatlie’s observations represent a gradual dissatisfaction from many, as the state went from Republican, to Democrat, to – effectively – Democratic Socialism. ‘Safety nets’ have replaced ‘ladders’; when it comes to non-citizens, the belief is that these give-aways undocumented immigrants, who draw on a system they don’t equally pay into, and many of whom have criminal records. Critics of the ‘New Left’ majority in the state say there are now more people 'in the wagon' than 'pulling the wagon', and that the states’ tax policy is downright abusive toward citizens; this includes offering healthcare to undocumented workers, and ‘sanctuary’ itself.

California is the state with the highest state income tax and one of the highest state sales tax rates, yet is frequently insolvent. The budget surplus it briefly had was wiped out during the last few months. And no – this is not true of other large states, like Texas. In addition to missing bullet trains, the roads and infrastructure are notoriously under-managed. The Oroville Dam and Spillway nearly collapsed in 2017, threatening to flood Yuba City and the state’s Capital, Sacramento. There are frequent water shortages.

Elon Musk, head of Telsa – the state’s last auto manufacturer – recently had public conflicts with a San Diego City Councilwoman and AlamedaCounty health officials, over arbitrarily remaining closed due to COVID-19, and has discussed moving Tesla.

In the case of these safety nets, or light sentencing for criminals, many taxpayers are drawn to Trump’s focus on a strong economy and ‘law and order’, as was meant as an act of charity, or clemency – in the case of decriminalizing things like camping in certain areas, or panhandling – becomes subsidy, or a removal of disincentives, and grows unwanted phenomenon. California has the highest homelessness and poverty rate in the nation. And places with comparably appealing climates, but not as many ‘hand-outs’, don’t have these issues.

Both Straka and Heatlie are varying manifestations of an increasingly disillusioned California citizenry, with one trying to exit the party, and one trying to rein-in the far-Left. There isn’t an organization of people who have left far-Left cities, or the state, generally.

50% of Los AngelesCounty is Mexican-born, and half of them – or 25% of the total LA County population – is there illegally. Because we don’t have data on the behaviors of undocumented persons – in their countries of origin, or when they are underground, in the United States, criminals are over-represented, even if Trump opened the door for claims of ‘racism’ when he pointed this out, 30 years after receiving the Ellis Island award for diversity hiring. The New Left

While California continues to appeal to wealthy tech elites, it’s increasingly become a two-tier social system where middle-income jobs and housing are vanishing – due to high taxes that accompany those same safety nets. Many complain that only rich tech companies can afford to operate in the state.

For the more cynical, the creeping move Left-ward by the Democratic Party, could be an effort at capturing a new voting demographic, as the party’s mainstay demographics, including minorities in inner cities they exclusively control, appears to be shrinking – again, over bad outcomes from Democrats, decade-over-decade.

Either way, millions feel Newsom must be held accountable to the people who elected him, which California is obviously mismanaged, and that change is necessary.