| [an error occurred while processing this directive] |  |  |
 |  | |
| ||
| |||||||
| |||||||
|
| ||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
 Recent commentary from National Journal: On Books: Gift Wrap It for a Bushie (May 31, 2001) A review of John R.E. Bliese's The Greening of Conservative America. By Margaret Kriz. Media: Insane Honesty (May 31, 2001) The other morning, a New York Times critic did what most critics try hard not to do—he let his guard down, fell for something he thought was terrific, and unashamedly praised it. It was great. By William Powers Legal Affairs: Does the Death Penalty Save Innocent Lives? (May 31, 2001) Abolishing capital punishment could lead to an unknown number of murders. By Stuart Taylor Jr. Social Studies: The Widening Marriage Gap: America's New Class Divide (May 23, 2001) What afflicts America is no longer mainly a poverty problem or a race problem, but a marriage problem. By Jonathan Rauch Media: This Year's Model (May 23, 2001) Maybe C-SPAN's approach suggests how the quality news media can avoid being left in the dust. By William Powers Legal Affairs: Medical Marijuana and the Folly of the Drug War (May 23, 2001) The most obvious proof that marijuana alleviates some patients' pain is that so many of them say so. By Stuart Taylor Jr. Political Pulse: Government by Gender Gap (May 23, 2001) The elements of competition and risk in Bush's policies appeal to men. By William Schneider More from National Journal. |
Political Pulse 
War of the Sun Belt GiantsWhite voters' social values send Texas, California in opposite directions. by William Schneider ..... T California consumers are hopping mad. Who's to blame for their state's energy crisis? The energy companies, that's who. They're price-gouging California utilities and driving them into bankruptcy. Or so say many Californians, including Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. Will the federal government take action? Don't hold your breath. Those are Texas energy companies fixing the prices, and guess who's in charge of the federal government? Two former Texas energy executives. The White House response to California is: It's your own damn fault. As Vice President Dick Cheney put it, "What's happened in California, I would argue, is they've taken the route of saying, 'Well, we can conserve our way out of the problem....' So they haven't built any electric-power plants in the last 10 years in California, and today they've got rolling blackouts." Gov. Davis's response? "Vice President Cheney is grossly misinformed about California's aggressive program to build new power plants." Davis contends that the federal government "has utterly failed to discharge its responsibility" in the current crisis. California wants the feds to impose caps on wholesale energy prices. The justification? Wholesale power prices have shot up 1,000 percent in the past year, while California's demand for energy grew by only 4 percent. Is that price-gouging? It surely looks suspicious. The profits of many Texas energy companies have risen by 500 percent or more. California leaders responded in unusually blunt language to President Bush's energy plan. Sen. Dianne Feinstein charged: "This lengthy document will not provide one more kilowatt to California this summer, prevent one more minute of blackouts, or keep one less dollar from being transferred from California into the hands of the Texas-based energy producers." The governor declared: "We are literally in a war with energy companies, many of which reside in Texas." Bush appears to have no great love for California. Since taking office, he's traveled to 26 states, but the largest state isn't among them. And why should he care about California? Look what that state did to him. Vice President Al Gore's campaign spent exactly zero dollars in California after the primary. The Bush campaign spent more than $10 million. And what did it get Bush? A 12-point defeat. During the Nixon and Reagan eras, California and Texas were the buckle and clasp of the GOP's Sun Belt coalition. California voted Republican in every presidential election from 1968-88, making it even more Republican than Texas. The Lone Star State was loyal to Texan Lyndon B. Johnson's vice president, Hubert H. Humphrey, in 1968 and to Jimmy Carter, a son of the South, in 1976. In the 1990s, the Sun Belt came unbuckled. California and Texas went in opposite directions politically. California voted for Clinton twice and then for Gore. Democrats, three for three in California. Texas voted for George H.W. Bush, then Dole, then George W. Bush. Republicans, three for three in Texas. California has two Democratic Senators and a Democratic governor. In fact, Democrats hold all but one statewide elected office in California. Texas has two Republican Senators and a Republican governor. Republicans hold every statewide elected office in Texas. What's driving the two great Sun Belt states apart? Not demographics. California and Texas have about the same percentage of minority voters. It's white voters in the two states who are really different. California and Texas are heavily suburban states where fiscal conservatism is the rule. The big difference is values. Polls show that Texans are more religious and more culturally conservative. Californians, in contrast, are more free-thinking and more liberal on social issues such as abortion. Those differences have existed for a long time. What suddenly drove the states apart in the 1990s? The answer is Clinton, the first President to come out of the "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll" culture of the 1960s. Californians saw Clinton as one of them, and he made sure they saw a lot of him. Texans saw Clinton as one of "them," too—meaning, "not one of us." By Election Day 2000, Clinton's job rating was almost 20 points higher in California than in Texas. Clinton's gone. Now it's Bush who's driving the two states apart. Bush's values—pro-gun, weak on the environment, and anti-abortion—are a tough sell in California. But weren't those Ronald Reagan's values, too? Californians did embrace Reagan, but that was in spite of his conservative social values. Reagan had a relaxed, libertarian streak that Californians found reassuring. Bush is not a Californian. He's not a libertarian. And his identification with the energy industry makes it that much harder for him in California. Ironically, it was California Republicans who first petitioned Bush to run for President. They thought Bush's appeal to Latino voters would save the GOP in California after the party's devastating 1998 setback. That particular rescue didn't happen, any more than Clinton-the-Southerner was able to save the Democratic Party in Texas. In the end, Clinton was culturally alien to Texas. And Bush is just as culturally alien to California.
What do you think? Discuss this article in the Politics & Society conference of Post & Riposte. More from National Journal. More on politics and society in Atlantic Unbound and The Atlantic Monthly. William Schneider is the Cable News Network's senior political analyst. He is also a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and a contributing editor for the Los Angeles Times, National Journal, and The Atlantic Monthly. His column appears every week in National Journal, a weekly magazine covering politics and government published in Washington, D.C. For information on National Journal Group publications, see NationalJournal.com. Copyright © 2001 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved. | [an error occurred while processing this directive] | ||
|
Home |
Current Issue |
Back Issues |
Forum |
Site Guide |
Feedback |
Subscribe |
Search
| ||||
