Many Californians fear that democracy is in peril

SACRAMENTO — The most important problem facing America? It’s not the economy or immigration. For Californians, it’s political extremism coupled with threats to democracy.

That’s the finding of a new statewide survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. And it represents a shift from last fall’s presidential election, says PPIC polling director Mark Baldassare.

The two pivotal policy issues that elected President Trump were inflation and illegal immigration, a fact that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris either didn’t grasp or tried to hide from.

But it didn’t matter politically in blue California, where the native daughter trounced Trump in a landslide.

Even in California, however, a PPIC poll of residents in October showed that they considered the economy much more important than threats to democracy.

“People are still nervous about the economy,” Baldassare says. “But they’re now more concerned about the state of democracy because of the change in [national] leadership. It has changed from a divided government to a government run by one party.”

Republicans not only control the White House and both congressional houses, conservative jurists dominate the Supreme Court — right-wing power that makes left-leaning Californians shudder.

“Now, for the first time, more Americans are understanding what handing over complete control of government means,” says Democratic consultant Steve Maviglio. “There are no checks and balances — something most Americans have never seen.”

Well, not entirely. Californians have seen one-party control of state government for the last 15 years. But that’s for another column.

You’d think that phrases like “political extremism” and “threats to democracy” would be viewed by people as abstract with little relevance to their daily lives — compared with energy costs and grocery prices.

But “Elon Musk and Trump have made threats to democracy concrete,” says Bob Shrum, director of the Center for the Political Future at USC and a former longtime Democratic strategist.

“Trump ran and won on things like inflation and the price of eggs. He didn’t run on the other things that seem to be on top of his and Musk’s agenda.”

In the poll, California residents were given a list of 14 issues — such as the economy, immigration, crime, healthcare, inequality and the environment, including climate change. They were asked which was the most important dilemma for America. No topic came close to “political extremism or threats to democracy.”

It was selected by 31% of those surveyed, followed by 19% for the “economy, unemployment and jobs” and 15% for “immigration.” Everything else was in single digits.

It was even more one-sided among likely voters — the folks politicians care most about: 42% selected threats to democracy and extremism. The economy and immigration were each cited by only 14%.

There was a wide gap between the views of Democrats and Republicans, highlighting the political polarization gripping this state and the nation. California is a deep blue outlier to much of the country because Democratic votes outnumber Republicans here by nearly 2 to 1.

Among Democrats, 58% regarded threats to democracy as America’s most pressing problem. So did 42% of independents — but only 12% of Republicans. Within the GOP, the most important issue for 36% of those surveyed was immigration, followed by the economy, 17%, and crime, 16%.

The plight of democracy particularly worried two groups of Californians: college graduates and those over 55.

The same question was asked of people across America in a late January poll by Ipsos, a market research firm. That survey likewise found concern about the threat to democracy, although less intense nationally than in California. The economy was picked by 21%, democracy by 20% and immigration by 14%.

The PPIC poll also asked California voters how satisfied they were “with the way democracy is working” in the nation. Two-thirds answered “not too satisfied” or “not at all.”

So why all the increased fretting about democracy?

“It says to me that more people than I would have expected know what Trump’s doing — and faster than I would have expected,” observes Democratic strategist Gale Kaufman.

That’s because Trump’s presidency is historic in its boundary breaking and is being closely followed by the news media.

“Musk and Trump blot out everyone else,” Shrum says. “They take up the whole screen. They‘ve made democracy a more salient issue.

“You look at the front page of the New York Times — story after story is about that. Also, the late-night comedians are talking about it all the time.”

Veteran Democratic consultant Bill Carrick says: “The reality is that because of Trump’s addiction to media coverage, he’s getting overwhelming coverage.

“He’s doing a good job of scaring the hell out of people.”

People are scared for good reason.

Here’s a president who’s setting the ugly, un-American precedent of personally deciding which reporters are allowed to cover him in the Oval Office and on Air Force One. That has always been the prerogative of journalists themselves in a country that proudly guarantees press freedom.

Trump banned the Associated Press — probably the most unbiased news organization in the world — simply because it refused to bow to his demands that the Gulf of Mexico be called the “Gulf of America.”

And historians will never forget that this was the first president who tried to overthrow an election that he lost — refusing stubbornly to concede his 2020 defeat and badmouthing America by lying that the voting was rigged.

That’s clearly a threat to democracy — and the opposite of making America great.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: Trump, congressional Republicans seek to block California’s 2035 ban on gas-powered vehicles
The TK: Kern County immigration raid offers glimpse into new reality for California farmworkers
The L.A. Times Special: 100 years ago, Anaheim recalled its KKK city council. Why don’t we remember?

Until next week,
George Skelton

—
Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here to get it in your inbox.