California has been a beacon, a destination, a paradise and a promised land since its heady expansion in a wave of gold rushes.

It is also a perpetual source of envy, ridicule and contempt.

This no-saying has gained much more ground in recent years, as California’s population has shrunk for the first time in more than a century.

The “exodus” has become an industry, fueling real estate markets from Nevada to Tennessee, fanning the red versus blue political flames and sparking a thousand analyzes of what went wrong.

The latest insult or refreshing reality check? came from a Los Angeles Times poll last week that found that 50% of adults nationwide believe California is in decline. (Too bad, man.)

Nearly half of Republicans surveyed said the state is “not really American.” Whatever that means.

LA Times columnists Mark Z. Barabak (a proud California native) and Anita Chabria (a lucky Ohio transplant) discuss the poll, the hate from haters, and the state of their troubled but still beloved state.

Barabak: So first of all, Anita, are you okay? Aren’t you suffocated by the harmful air pollution, or run over by some robber trying to escape through your pothole-filled neighborhood?

Chabria: To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of our death have once again been greatly exaggerated. The Golden State remains alive and, dare I say it, a thriving part of the United States.

But I am concerned that almost 30% of respondents

agreed with the statement that California is “not really American.” Nearly half of Republicans thought so, which is less shocking. But inexplicably, so did 21% of Californians. That’s more than just the Fox crowd pushing the right-wing narrative of California as a hotbed of social evil.

Folks, we joined the union in 1850, before Kansas, West Virginia, and Nebraska, to name a few. We have been American longer than many of the so-called core states. I’ve been wondering for days if a third of America is bad at geography or history, or if they think it’s some dig in California.

What do you think, Mark? Are we not, in fact, Americans in some fundamental way that I don’t understand?

Barabak: I suppose it depends on how you define

American

.

If you’re talking about a certain kind of America that is predominantly white and conservative in its social, political, and cultural values, then California doesn’t meet that, um, standard.

We have been a majority-minority state for more than a generation now. Politically, the state has leaned heavily Democratic for decades, after supporting Republicans for much of our history.

Culturally, we have always tended toward open-mindedness or over-indulgence in the eyes of critics. Fresh starts and reinvention have been a lure since the first prospectors, those digging real gold nuggets, flocked here from the more straitened and class-conscious East Coast.

As you suggest, it’s not just Fox News. There are plenty of alienated Californians; the state has more than five million registered Republicans, which is larger than the population of many states that feel overlooked in Sacramento and looked down upon by the so-called sophisticates in San Francisco and Los Angeles. That probably explains the 21% that left you scratching your head.

But to be clear, many people interviewed in the poll clearly view California through a partisan lens. Or perhaps it should be said: while

wearing a thick set of blinders.

I mean,

three 3

in 10 Republicans said the state has a worse natural environment than other states. Real? Shout that from the top of Yosemite Falls. Or in Santa Barbara at sunset. Or on a sunny winter day in Joshua Tree National Park, as people in the Midwest defrost their snowplows so they can dig their cars out of the snow.

That said, we have enough problems, don’t we?

Chabria: This applies to every place and we are of course no exception.

The survey found one problem that most of us agree on: the cost of living in California is too high. More than 80% of Californians felt this way, and that’s no shocker.

I would venture to guess that this has a lot to do with the price of houses. People can’t pay the rent, which leads to a whole host of other problems, including elderly people becoming homeless.

I truly believe that California’s future depends on finding a way to build massive amounts of new housing, not just a few homes here and there. We need the mental health beds promised in Proposition 1 on the March ballot, and we need to find ways to create more affordable housing for the broad swath of middle-class Californians.

And that’s just the beginning.

But the survey also found that the majority of Californians, including myself, are happy living here.

So the Huntington Beach City Council can rant all they want, and the haters can hate. California will always stand for diversity, freedom and tolerance for all values ​​that unfortunately seem to be increasingly scarce east of the Sierra.

Where do you see the bright spots, Mark?

Barabak: Aside from its unsurpassed physical beauty, California is still a place that attracts innovators and entrepreneurs. It is still a haven for the politically persecuted and for those who feel unwanted or unwelcome because they live as their true selves somewhere else.

Yes, our sales and income taxes are high compared to some other places. Housing, as you suggested, is obscenely expensive and we desperately need more of it.

But look at life in other cheaper, supposedly better places. Look at the cost of insurance in Florida. To get

nickel nickel

and every few kilometers it dimmed on the major roads back east. Sweat your way through a Texas summer and hope the power and air conditioning don’t go out.

Certainly, our government regulates more heavily than elsewhere, and it is not difficult to find examples of excesses. But isn’t it nice, for example, to breathe clean air and be spared the watery eyes and clenched chest that smog-choked people in Southern California experienced not so long ago?

Speaking of seeing through the gloom, here’s an encouraging finding in that otherwise bleak poll: the attitudes of young people.

Seven in 10 of 18-34 year olds see California as a trendsetter, and 43% of respondents were twice as likely as other Americans to say they would consider moving to the state. They believe California’s future is bright. Me, too.

I’ve moved around a lot, including the mandatory stint for a political hack like me in Washington, DC. I thought I had spent my career reporting

The capital of our nation, the capital of our nation

, but lasted only seven years. Like Dorothy, who went all the way to Oz to know she really wanted to be in Kansas, California tugged at me the entire time I was away.

Despite all the difficulties and challenges of the state, if you prefer, I can’t imagine ever living anywhere else. California is deep in my heart.

And you?

Chabria: I love California.

As a mixed-race woman with mixed-race children, I appreciate its tolerance and diversity. I appreciate her willingness to fight and lead at this critical time when democracy is fragile. I appreciate that it is truly a place where you can live and let live, even if people disagree.

To me, the poll results say less about life in California than they do about the dismal effectiveness of right-wing political propaganda and the power of fear mongering over the truth. MAGA needs California as the villain, to represent the supposed failures of the Democratic Party, especially on crime and immigration, and reality be damned.

When no one else wants them, we take the tired and poor, the huddled masses. California has always embodied and always will embody the American dream: that each of us matters and that each of us belongs.

That respect for equity and equality is what makes us the Golden State.