Leaders Lead. You’ve read this axiom a bazillion times in my political lifetime in critiques of the CAGOP Leadership.
It appears that Politico and Newsweek may well have been attempting to sound the alarm to their fellow democrats with articles they wrote in March. Perhaps they recognized the sea change in the CAGOP. Even flaming communists recognize leadership – even as they quote clinical trump haters like Mike Madrid and continue to miss the fact that 2025 Trump is not 2017 Trump.
Enter the Corrin Rankin administration.
The California Democrats blocked a provision in a bill introduced by one of their own assemblymembers that would have made soliciting 16 and 17 years olds for sex a felony. This went national and was a monster embarrassment for the dems.
Why did this go national? The CAGOP went straight for their throat. The democrats went berserk on the floor of the legislature as well making some of the most insane arguments I have seen in favor of leaving solicitation of 16 and 17 years olds a misdemeanor.
you gotta wonder if Mike Madrid was in mourning over this
Yep the CAGOP made news by torching the democrats like Mark Gonzalez (who I believe has major personal issues) that led the charge to water down the sex trafficking bill. Gonzalez made headlines with his insanity.
Wanna buy a Teenager? Ok with me.
It got so bad that the stuff went national. You can see Gay Republican Guy Benson torching Mark Gonzalez for equating buying teenagers for sex with Gay Rights.
The CAGOP’s rapid response on this issue caused headlines everywhere. I do not recall seeing anything like this in 20+ years of doing CAGOP politics. It was so bad that the democrats ran ads accusing the Republicans of doing what they did!
This is what happens when Leaders Lead.
And of course the Sacramento Bee lied multiple times trying to cover for the democrats, but CAGOP Vice Chair John Park tore in to them along with others:
I doubt the Bee makes a correction because they have become and out and proud Pravda-style rag. (Versus some thin veneer of journalism in the past)
And then, the Coup. The democrats realizing that fake ads, the Sacramento Bee and others could not save them, capitulated:
Absent the CAGOP getting ads up and spending real money (make a note, the CAGOP has money and is raising plenty more), none of this happens.
Leaders Lead.
Now, if I was the CRA / others in the opposition, rather than sitting in silence creating the impression that you are upset over the success… I’d suggest the next time the Rankin Administration kicks some ass (pun intended), try a response like this:
The CRA applauds the effort by the CAGOP to embarrass the extreme left on the issue of prostitution
Today, the humiliated democrats had to undo one of many insane votes they took in the legislature, agreeing after all to make buying 16 and 17 year olds for sex a felony. We applaud the CAGOP for their leadership in spending money and earning a million impressions highlighting this issue. When we opposed the current leadership of the CAGOP at the March 2025 convention it was because for years we were told “We’d take the fight to the democrats” only to see them take the fight to conservatives.
It appears that we are seeing something different now than we have for the last generation of CAGOP leadership. We are cautiously optimistic about the future direction of the CAGOP and look forward to more leadership like this from the Rankin Administration.
Instead, the opposition missed an opportunity to show mature leadership. Leaders Lead.