Here’s just how badly Donald Trump has blown it
If Gil Ciseros ends up winning the very close U.S. House race in the California 39th, which now seems likely (though not certain), the Democrats will have flipped every House seat in Orange County from red to blue. Most people around the nation think of California as being liberal, and may be surprised to learn that the state even has Republicans. But let me tell you a little bit about Orange County, and just how remarkable this blue wave has become.
Los Angeles County, home to Hollywood, is indeed as liberal as you’d expect. But Orange County, which borders it to the south, is essentially its polar opposite. Orange County is so staunchly conservative, right in the middle of otherwise liberal Southern California, locals often refer to the people living there as being “behind the Orange Curtain.” The West Wing once did a story arc about how difficult it would be for Democratic candidate Sam Seaborn to win in Orange County, and sure enough, he lost. Even the fiction writers wouldn’t have dared depict a Democrat winning there, because it would have been too unrealistic.
That term is often used derisively by the liberals in Los Angeles who can’t figure out how Orange County can be so cut off from the reality around them, but derision is not my intention here. My point is that if you know Orange County, this is nothing short of stunning. It means that a bunch of conservative Republicans in the county decided to go out and vote Democrat in Congressional races, because they’re just that sick of Donald Trump’s crap.
We don’t know what will happen from here. Now that a majority of people in Orange County have finally voted Democrat, if they like what the Democratic House does over the next two years, will they continue voting Democrat? Will they be tempted to revert back to their old Republican-leaning ways once Trump is safely off the stage? We’ll see. But if you’d told me a few years back that Orange County, California would end up going straight Democrat in 2018, I’d have asked what drug you were on.
