Leading the Nation?

California has been on the leading edge of American progress since before the Second World War. Can we suppose that it's still true?

According to California GOP strategist Tony Quinn, “The good news for the California GOP is that they are not a dying party,” Quinn wrote in his blog last week. “The bad news is that they are dead. There is no state Republican Party left and its numbers in the legislature make it irrelevant.”

And for everybody who thinks we need to be generous and accepting and forgiving, and try to include Republicans in our "One America," I agree whole-heartedly and think we should start doing so as soon as the GOP gets rid of its right-wing extremists (20% of the party), its racists (another 20%), the fundamentalists (20%), it talk-show hate-mongers and its own "news" network, its stupid and intrusive obsessions with all matters relating to sex (gay marriage, contraception, abortion), its ridiculous "we deny any science we don't like" positions on global warming and evolution (!!!) and macro-economics, its thinly-disguised priority one of increasing wealth for the wealthy, and about a dozen other declarations/positions that illustrate its fundamental disregard for actual, observable reality and the welfare of ALL the American people.