California, Here We Come

If Joe Biden wins the presidency, it is likely that two of the three faces Americans see during State of the Union speeches will be San Francisco Democrats. The first, the familiar Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House. The second, Vice President — and heir apparent — Kamala Harris.

In an almost hidden way, the American nation’s polarization in the Trump era is a story about California. The California of the 1960s and early 1970s was a middle-class paradise of low-cost bungalows with great weather and fantastic public services. That California, the state that other states wished they could be, produced Ronald Reagan.