Hillary Clinton formally won the state of California with more votes and by a bigger margin than Barack Obama in 2008. Her margin of 4.3 million votes over President Pussygrabber dwarfed even Obama's huge margin in 2008 by a million.
But Californians did not just cast their ballots in massive numbers for Hillary Clinton. The Golden State was awash in a blue tidal wave while the "rust belt" was busy turning rusty red. That blue wave elected the nation's first Indo-American senator, passed tax increases on the rich and investments in our communities, legalized recreational marijuana in the nation's most populous state, required universal background checks for ammunition sales, and beefed up California's leadership on the environment by enacting a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags.
Californians did another thing: we set up rapid response in the upcoming battle against Donald Trump.
As you have learned previously on this blog, California did not just return a Democratic legislature to power in our state, we supercharged it. Democrats have two-thirds majorities in both chambers of the legislature now, which probably doesn't mean much in terms of veto overrides when we have a Democratic governor.
Two-thirds majorities in the California legislature are empowered to do some things, however, that will be especially useful during Trump's takeover of the White House. First, it allows the state to raise taxes, potentially clawing back any tax breaks for the rich and using the money to invest in our state. But the really important thing a two-thirds majority allows for in California is allow the legislature to insert a clause into laws that allows for them to take effect immediately (rather than the usual six-month delay between a law being signed by the governor and becoming effective). It also effectively disables stalling tactics from interests that seek to further delay laws while they gather signatures for a ballot initiative to nullify it.
To be sure, the California legislature is now two-thirds Democratic, not two-thirds ultra-liberal. Passing laws where Republicans are unlikely to cooperate will require input from the state's moderate Democrats. But in a state where the Republican nominee could not even muster one vote out of every three cast, when California talks about a moderate Democrat, we aren't exactly referring to Joe Manchin. As proof, the California legislature has already passed resolutions warning Trump against deploying a deportation force within our borders, and it not only got every Democratic vote, but also two Republican ones.
California won't take Trump's assault against our people - regardless of why they are targeted: because of the color of one's skin, because of whom one loves, because of one's gender or gender identity, because of one's immigration or citizenship status or because of one's religion - lying down. We will not only offer popular resistance but an array of legislative weapons few, if any, other states will be able to. Voters in our states have given us the tools to stand up to the illegitimate orange smokescreen, and we are going to do just that.