California Can Regain National Leadership by Repeating the Spirit of Prop 209 and Prop 13: Cutting Taxes, Abolishing Unelected Bodies, and Dismantling DEI
Source: https://www.facebook.com/americanspectator/. "When California Took the Lead on Civil Rights | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics." October 15, 2026. spectator.org
The Gist
The author says California once led the nation by banning racial preferences in 1996 and by limiting property taxes in 1978, and voters have kept backing those ideas. He argues that the state's leaders have gone the other way with DEI bureaucracies, high taxes, and powerful unelected agencies. To lead again, California should dismantle DEI offices, cut taxes, and eliminate bodies like the Coastal Commission and CARB.
Conclusion
California can regain national leadership by eliminating unelected regulatory bodies (the Coastal Commission and CARB), cutting taxes, and dismantling its wasteful DEI bureaucracy, which defies the 1996 civil rights victory of Proposition 209.
Premises
- In 1996 Californians passed Proposition 209, ending racial and ethnic preferences in public education, employment, and contracting, and the disasters opponents predicted never occurred; minority enrollment and graduation rates at UC campuses rose.
- Proposition 209 did not end all affirmative action, since schools can still cast a wide net and extend help on an economic basis. It bars only admissions based on skin color and ethnic ancestry.
- Californians reaffirmed this stance by rejecting Proposition 16 in 2020 by a wider margin than Prop 209 won in 1996. Gov. Newsom nonetheless supported repeal and has since criticized CCRI, while the UC system built a costly DEI bureaucracy under his watch.
- California voters have a history of pushing back against high taxes (Prop 13 in 1978 and the Taxpayer Protection Act), but political leaders such as Brown and Newsom have left the state with some of the nation's highest taxes and blocked a voter-approval tax measure from the 2024 ballot.
- Unelected bodies such as the Coastal Commission and CARB override elected local governments and property rights and drive up costs (e.g., blocking desalination plants and SpaceX launches, and imposing regulations that keep gasoline prices among the highest in the nation) without facing voters.
Assumptions
- National leadership is achieved by adopting policies in line with a limited-government, race-neutral, low-tax agenda.
- Past voter-approved measures such as Prop 209, Prop 13, and Prop 16's rejection reflect the electorate's enduring preferences, which current leaders ignore.
- DEI offices are wasteful and contradict the colorblind principle of Prop 209.
- Unelected regulatory bodies are illegitimate or harmful because they lack direct voter accountability, and their regulations cause more harm than benefit.
- Evidence that minority enrollment rose after Prop 209 shows the policy succeeded and is not explained by other factors.
- Higher taxes and regulation are detrimental to the state, and cutting them would improve outcomes.