After Vice President Kamala Harris secured the Democratic nomination for president, many news outlets featured news stories with headlines such as this one: "Harris Put California at Center of Politics." Or "Bay Area Relishing in National Spotlight." There's little doubt that Harris' ascent—and Gov. Gavin Newsom's long-running effort to tout California's so-called "freedoms" in benighted Red States—has elevated California's national profile.
Harris was, of course, San Francisco prosecutor, state attorney general, and U.S. senator. She only had a marginal—if any—effect on the state's yearslong descent into progressive fantasyland, even if she is a product of the Bay Area Democratic machine. My focus isn't on the vice president, but on the state's one-party politics. Here are a few pillars of modern California's politics:
