During liberalism's high tide in the 1960s, a small but growing opposition to progressive politics coalesced around Hollywood actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan, who lived in affluent Pacific Palisades "Where the Mountains Meet the Sea." He did not so much lead the conservative backlash that influenced California politics into the early twenty-first century as symbolize it and speak for it. The conservatism that he embodied had a singular quality about it: it was most formidable along southern California's so-called "Gold Coast," a stretch of Pacific shoreline stretching from Santa Barbara to San Diego and inhabited by many wealthy, powerful business leaders with close ties to government officials in Sacramento and Washington, D. C. Newport Beach, located in notably Republican Orange County, was and remains its vital center. During the presidency of Richard M. Nixon, however, seaside San Clemente, where the Republican head of state spent much time at his Western White House, Casa Pacifica, momentarily vied for that distinction. From the "Gold Coast," elite conservative Republicans would by the late 1960s dominate state politics, and thereby exert increasing influence throughout the nation.
Political conservatives believed that the past should have a strong hold on the present and future. Change, especially rapid change promoted by government, was viewed with skepticism. Similarly, they revered the free market economy, resisting tax increases and governmental interference with and regulation of business. They publicly avowed traditional Christian beliefs and values. In foreign policy matters, they tended to be hawkish. "Gold Coast" conservatives embraced these characteristics but did so in a mainstream style, largely devoid of the conspiratorial views and apocryphal evangelical pronouncements of many right-wing conservatives elsewhere, especially those living in rural America. In the words of Harvard historian Lisa McGirr, the Orange County conservative Republicans were "suburban warriors" - respectable, well organized, combative, and politically consequential.
Powered largely by "Gold Coast" Republicans, California's rightward shift in the 1960s can be attributed to such major factors as Cold War fears about communism, public anger about student protests at UC Berkeley and other UC campuses, taxpayers' frustration about the mounting costs of the liberal agenda, rising levels of urban crime and violence, and dissatisfaction with long-serving, center-left, secular-leaning politicians in the state capital. These factors gave rise to a conservatism that would structurally impede the financing of the public sector, shorten the tenure of liberal Democratic legislators in Sacramento, and usher in a politics of limits that embraced minimal government regulation of the economy and a rollback of programs aimed ostensibly at promoting environmentalism, social welfare, and racial justice.
Pacific Eldorado: A History of Greater California, First Edition. Thomas J. Osborne. © 2013 Thomas J. Osborne. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Timeline
1961 San Marino Republican and John Birch Society leader John H. Rousselot wins election to the 25th Congressional District
1962 The Lincoln Club, a power center of “Gold Coast” conservatism, is founded and headquartered in Newport Beach
1967 The California Air Resources Board is established to set air-quality standards and enforce laws
California establishes the State Water Resources Control Board, responsible for setting water-quality standards
1968 Southern California Edison operates the state’s first nuclear power plant at San Onofre, along the coast just south of San Clemente
1969 A major oil spill off Santa Barbara’s coast blackens beaches, kills thousands of seabirds, and causes millions of dollars in damage
California, Nevada, and the federal government establish the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to manage growth and protect the ecology of the lake
1970 The California Environmental Quality Act is passed, requiring the preparation of environmental impact reports for major construction projects having the potential of affecting the natural environment
1971-2 Governor Ronald Reagan increases salary withholding, sales, bank, and corporation taxes 1973 Tom Bradley is elected as Los Angeles’ first black mayor
1975 The state legislature passes the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, providing safeguards for the United Farm Workers Union
1976 The landmark California Coastal Act passes and is signed into law, empowering the Coastal Commission to “protect, conserve, restore, and enhance [the] . . . resources of the California coast and ocean”
1977 Governor Jerry Brown appoints Rose Elizabeth Bird as chief justice of the California supreme court; she is the first woman to serve on that tribunal
1978 Voters pass Proposition 13, which limits taxes on both residential and commercial properties to 1 percent of the assessed value, and restricts tax increases for both types of properties to 2 percent per year, based on 1975 valuations; any new taxes would require a two-thirds vote in the state legislature
In the U. S. Supreme Court decision, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, white plaintiff Allan Bakke sues and wins admission to UC Davis’s medical school in a case that strikes down racial quotas for admission
Former San Francisco Supervisor Daniel White shoots and kills Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk; White’s attorney employs the “Twinkie Defense”
1990 California passes a law mandating that automobile manufacturers produce and make available non-polluting vehicles by 1998
Voters pass Proposition 140, amending the constitution to set term limits for lawmakers.
1992 The Rodney King riots erupt in Los Angeles, resulting in the deaths of more than 50 people and property damage of $1 billion
Diane Feinstein is elected to the U. S. Senate, joining Barbara Boxer, and marking the first time in American history that a state has been represented by two female Senators at the same time
1993 California registers America’s highest rate of residential and commercial real-estate foreclosures
1994 The Northridge earthquake kills 60 people and injures more than 7,000; approximately $20 billion in damage results; the temblor is felt in Greater California’s surrounding areas of Nevada, Utah, and Baja
Voters pass Proposition 187 denying non-emergency medical treatment, public schooling, and other specified social services to undocumented immigrants
Voters pass Proposition 184, the “Three Strikes” initiative, providing that those convicted of a third felony will receive a mandatory prison sentence of 25 years to life
Orange County government is derailed by the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy
1995 In a criminal trial a predominantly black jury acquits O. J. Simpson of killing his wife Nichole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman
1996 Governor Wilson signs a bill removing the cap on consumers’ electricity rates
Voters pass Proposition 209, prohibiting state and local government agencies from using race, gender, color, or national background in the awarding of contracts, hiring, or admission of students
Twentieth Century Fox establishes Baja Studios, located on the Pacific Coast just south of Rosarito Beach; much of Titanic was filmed there
1997 In a civil trial the families of murder victims Nichole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman win a $33.5 million verdict against O. J. Simpson
30 dated levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta break, resulting in nine deaths and $2 billion in property damage
Fueled by Pacific-centered enterprises and the “dot com gold rush,” the state’s trillion-doUar economy ranks with that of leading nations
The Getty Center art museum opens near UCLA
1998 The Internet search company Google is co-founded in 1998 by two Stanford graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Early California’s nation-sized economy ranks 6th in the world; 40 percent of America’s waterborne imports 2000s pass through the linked Pacific ports of Los Angeles-Long Beach
2001 California experiences “rolling blackouts” due to Texas-based Enron’s gaming of the state’s energy market
2002 Los Angeles’ Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is completed
2003 Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert HaU opens
2004 California’s export trade with Pacific Rim countries is valued at $110 billion
World History
