A recent Fox News opinion article (“Why Californicating the United States isn’t going well”) instantly sent up warning flares for me, while simultaneously bringing back fond memories of graduate school.  We lived in Corvallis, Oregon from 1970 to 1974, and the bumper sticker observed far more frequently than any other back then was, “Don’t Californicate Oregon.”

So, why the warning flares about it now?

Because, “Don’t Californicate Oregon” was winning when we were there, but it failed, big time, at some point after that… well, at least in the highly populated areas west of the Cascade Mountains.  Today, that region has been Californicated to the max (a wazoo-related metaphor, while relevant here, might be deemed excessive).  Either way, the remainder of the state wants to secede and merge with Idaho to escape the same fate.

Sure, I get the loss of population argument in the Fox story as the proposed basis for “why”  Californicating hasn’t been “going well.”  However, it didn’t seem to be going well in Oregon in the early ’70s either when Tom McCall was governor.  McCall was a Republican who got things done (perhaps the last governor there that did) and he came across like a lumberjack—a flannel shirt wearing, outdoor working guy—even though he had been a TV newsman prior to winning the governorship.

Importantly, though, during McCall’s terms as governor, Californication appeared to be an impossibility… but it happened.

Having resided in a few different states over my eight decades, Oregon had lots going for it… geography first and foremost.  Oregon has an overwhelmingly beautiful, volcanic coastline (reminiscent of Hawaii’s where I’d lived for a couple years), gorgeous mountains (more stunning than Colorado’s where we moved next, the Cascades can be viewed from sea level), along with striking desert landscape (if/when contrast to the splendor of the coast and mountains might be needed).  Except for the endless drizzle from a sunless sky half the year, it was idyllic.  Californication appeared to be an impossibility… but it happened.

Also, vitally important for me back then, there were no leftist anti-war riots ongoing in Corvallis at Oregon State University.  They may have been elsewhere in Oregon—almost certainly in Eugene’s Marxist haven, i.e., at the University of Oregon—but not where we were dwelling.  Corvallis was a patriotic sanctuary, much-needed after the last year of my undergraduate work in my hometown, Whitewater, Wisconsin, where anarchists torched the iconic “Old Main” on campus.  Having served in the infantry in Vietnam in early 1969, I returned home in August knowing I was lucky to be alive.  Three weeks later, I was back in school to finish my bachelor’s degree.  Shockingly, the 1969/70 academic year was worse than combat, and I nearly reenlisted.

Yes, the sanity in Corvallis was much needed.  And there, Californication appeared to be an impossibility… but it happened.

As noted in the Fox op-ed, the shrinking population in California will lead to the state having a smaller congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., which should be good news.  Maybe, “if that means its capacity to advance progressive, blue state policies beyond its borders has been diminished” as postulated in the article.  Unfortunately, that’s probably not the case.  Even looking back from afar, it’s pretty obvious that the Californication of Oregon was unrelated California’s influence in Congress.

Californication appears to be an insidious, local process that infects communities initially.  When enough of the local citizenry has been Californicated (best not visualized), city governance succumbs to it.  In Oregon, Eugene may have already been Californicated by the 1970s, but the beginning of the end occurred when it happened to Portland, the major population hub.

Remember Antifa and all those “mostly peaceful protests” while Portland was going up in flames a few years back?

Allowing all the destruction proved the state of Oregon had bowed to the Californication insanity.  Californication appeared to be an impossibility a few decades earlier… but it happened.

How? 

Actually, quite easily after Portland yielded.  Once a sufficient number of voters bend to being Californicated, the state legislature follows suit.  Consider Oregon’s actions that are destroying education in the state—proficiencies in reading, writing, and math aren’t required for high school graduation.  Tragic, but it illustrates the sort of outcomes Californication yields.

And while adjacency to California might explain Oregon, how about Seattle, Washington?  

Californication would have appeared to be an impossibility… it was probably never considered there… but it happened.  Immediate proximity isn’t required, and as a result, the west coast from Canada to Mexico has been dysfunctionally Californicated.

What about Denver, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, New York City, and any number of other big cities in the U.S.?

Californication appeared to be an impossibility… ditto never considered… but it happened.

Population centers across the country have been Californicated—exhibiting all the aberrant symptoms thereof (becoming San Francisco-like cesspools)—then, too often, the states they reside in follow suit.  The state turns blue—like a person unable to breathe—and undergoes terminal Californication as well.  Not a pretty sight to behold.

And, regrettably, a smaller California congressional delegation will likely have no effect whatsoever on the Californication of America.  The shrinking populations of multiple (unable to breathe) blue states means a state that stays blue, and relocation to red states brings a blue vote.

Duh!  How dumb is that?

Wake up folks!  Stop Californicating America, turning the U.S. blue.  End it now, before it’s too late!

R.W. Trewyn earned a PhD after surviving Vietnam combat, and more treacherously, survived 53-years postwar slogging academe’s once-hallowed halls.

Image generated by AI.