California

Unless I’ve missed it, she hasn’t discussed a California “model” or its success stories, the way Republicans like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott do about their states, and as her running mate Tim Walz does about his own Minnesota.

California leads the economy of the country. It doesn't present a "California" success story because the country follows the direction that the state takes. California is an economic engine, first starting with a gold rush, the the citrus boom of the 1890s, the oil boom of the the 1900s, the rise of movies, music, and TV, the start of the Internet, etc. California makes history as much as it makes money. No other state can touch that and if Trump tries to change things he will fuck up the economy for the entire country. California can secede and actually be viable as an independent nation. No other state can say that. Even Texas wishes they could but are reliant on a bigger government giving it hand outs. Take California out of America and the US drops from first richest country.

As a Californian who has spent most of his life in other parts of the United States, and as an American who has lived for more than a dozen years in other parts of the world, I’ve often been struck by the ways declinist alarmism about my home state can feel like a displaced version of declinist alarmism about my home country as a whole.

They hate us because they ain't us. California will weather the storm, we will endure Trump and preserve our vulnerable people.