California is its own beast.

Peoples lives have not really been getting better because of federal politics, but moreso Newsom shutting the door on progressive legislation.

Blue voters haven’t had a strong urgency to show up since the state is already blue, so people feel that showing up to vote has less impact. Big tech companies are spending millions on ads to confuse voters. Many of the measures also were seemingly written in a confusing way.

What doesn’t get mentioned more is culturally it feels like people have been fending more for themselves with all these cost of living increases. People drive and act selfishly constantly. There’s a noticeable difference in the way people from SoCal or NorCal are living compared to say Oregon or Washington. I would say people I’ve interacted with living in the later two seem much happier on average compared to the slog of the freeway ‘go, go, go’ atmosphere plaguing California.

I think the national wave of blue will do a lot of good for reminding Californians that there is hope out there. Plus, the new governor may be a bit more likely than Newsom to let some progressive legislation pass.

So many people feel hopeless in California right now. The prospects of owning a home, starting a family, and/or retiring becomes less possible by the day even if you have a good job as a young person. People still are voting, but without the progressive policies that are desperately needed it’s becoming tough. Hopefully we see progressive federal policies make it through since that could do a lot of good at making life better for Californians.

Also, California desperately needs a Mamdani style person to come to light. Someone that can motivate sweeping progressive changes through passion and care.