I don’t agree with this author’s crude stereotyping of blacks or his opposition to criminal justice reform, but he makes an interesting point. The “liberal-left” scored major victories involving referendums in the election, with everything from minimum wage increases to drug legalization to criminal justice reform passing in many states, even deep-red states. However, a  pro-affirmative action initiative failed in California. The pro-affirmative action vote came from blacks and liberal whites in the LA and Bay Area districts, while the anti vote represented a cross-section of whites, Latinos, and Asians. Years ago, a black libertarian named Elizabeth Wright predicted that as the non-white/non-black ethnic groups grew larger in size they would have zero interest in black issues because they would lack whites’ sense of racial guilt. I am skeptical of whether affirmative action actually helps genuinely disadvantaged blacks, as opposed to being a benefit given to the black middle class. In fact, Thomas Sowell and others have made compelling arguments that affirmative action is actually harmful to black self-advancement.  But it is interesting that affirmative action was voted down in a deep blue state with a majority-minority demographic.

By David Cole, Taki’s Mag

I have several close friends who moved from California to Arizona to live in “redder” territory. This has not been a good month for them. AZ’s turning bluer than the balls on an Elder Scrolls neckbeard. And even if you want to scream “voter fraud” regarding the Biden win, the fact is that Arizonans haven’t had two Democrat senators since the days when The Democrats Were the Real Racists™, and now that they do, the entire country has to pretend for the next six weeks that Georgia matters.

Thanks, “pardners.”

The irony is, my own Beverly Hills went even more solidly for Trump this year than in 2016. When Rodeo’s redder than the rodeo, you know you’re living in screwy times.

And on the subject of Californians and electoral surprises, commentators left and right have been puzzling over the fact that we defeated an attempt to bring affirmative action back to a state that banished it in 1996. Proposition 16, which would have allowed for favoritism of nonwhites in public employment, education, and contracting, lost by a wide margin. Yet the backers of Prop. 16 outspent the opposition $30 million to $2 million. And what a list of backers it was! The California Democrat Party and every Democrat officeholder in the state championed Prop. 16, as did every major newspaper. Every leftist “social justice” organization—the ACLU, NAACP, NOW, the ADL, BLM, even the Sierra Club and the PTA—backed Prop. 16. So did the Chamber of Commerce, Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft, Uber, Dropbox, Reddit, Lyft, Yelp, AirBnB, Instacart, Gap, Levi’s, United Airlines, Wells Fargo, the 49ers, the Giants, and the Oakland A’s.

Soros backed it. The Chan/Zuckerberg Initiative backed it. Ava DuVernay backed it. Kaiser, Blue Shield, and PG&E backed it.

All those heavy hitters. All that money, and in a “blue state” no less. And yet…it wasn’t even close. The big bucks, the big endorsements, the push from big business and big tech, came to nothing.

And the pundits are baffled.