It's been a while, but have another American Federation map.
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With a population of almost 44 million people as of 2019, California (or the Union of the Californias as it is legally known) is the most populous member state of the Federation, and alongside New England and Texas one of its most internationally powerful, with the biggest GDP of any Federation member and of course the international influence on popular culture of Hollywood. Today it is generally looked upon as one of the Federation's most left-wing states with its high minimum wage, nationalized universal healthcare system, strong unionization (despite the efforts of companies in Silicon Valley and LA to restrict their influence), the most extensive protections for the rights of LGBTQ individuals of any Federation member (and the second-highest ranking for LGBTQ happiness of any country in the world, behind only Iceland) and community cohesion between not only immigrant and native Californians but Anglophone and Hispanic Californians, with an officially bilingual system. However, this last part have seen a particularly rocky road, and to begin discussing it it is perhaps prudent to look at one of the most aggressive moments of backlash to it, the 1994 presidential election.
Since the 1910s, California's two strongest political parties have been the Republicans, who have existed since the Californias seceded from Mexico and which were initially opposed by two generally weak and predominantly racial parties (the Anglophone Democrats and Hispanic
Radicales), and the Progressives, originally formed by turncoat Republican Hiram Johnson when he broke from that party as President and unified the
Radicales and liberal Republicans in support of him. Prior to Republican President Pete Wilson winning his first term in 1990, California's had elected Progressive Presidents for every election since 1974, and was coming off two terms of Tom Bradley (their first black President), by which point the state was in financial trouble. Wilson had won his first term by a ten-point margin, with his slogan 'law, order and prosperity' harking back to the glory days of former President Richard Nixon, who had won two non-consecutive terms in 1962 and 1970.
However, Wilson had been divisive during his first term, to say the least. He had feuded with the Progressive-controlled House of Representatives repeatedly, mostly over budget balancing issues, but more prominently (and disturbingly to ethnic minorities in California) over the healthcare and benefits systems in California. He had, on multiple occasions, proposed an executive order that would bar illegal immigrants from receiving free at the point of delivery healthcare or unemployment benefits, and had been in negotiations with Progressive Prime Minister Dianne Feinstein to have this implemented in exchange for no cuts to healthcare programmes. Feinstein had steadfastly refused, and as a result the Californian Parliament had been deadlocked since late 1993.
This played into Wilson's hands excellently. A large majority of Anglophone Californians (67%) approved of his executive order plan, and only 56% of Hispanics opposed it, meaning that to make it a centrepiece of his re-election campaign was a no-brainer that didn't risk alienating many voters who he had a chance of winning over anyway. Better still was the man running to be elected Prime Minister in the concurrent House of Commons election- Francisco Blake Mora, a conservative Baja Californian who supported Wilson's executive order and could sell to many sceptical Hispanics that it was not a racially motivated plan. While the Progressives did put forward a cannily chosen candidate to challenge Wilson, namely John Garamendi, who made the most of his own immigrant background to try and reach out to Anglophones, Wilson was far more popular than the Progressives and his coattails looked to be a sizeable boon to the Republicans.
Wilson won the biggest majority in a Californian presidential race since 1978, taking two of the three Anglophone states (Alta and Medio California, and only narrowly losing Alta California Sur) and, surprisingly, coming very close to taking both Hispanic states due to his sizeable wins in Tijuana and Los Cabos. In Angophone California, only ten municipalities and the City of San Francisco backed Garamendi, and Wilson swept every municipality in Medio California by at least 10 points. In the House of Commons election, Blake Mora unexpectedly became Prime Minister, the Progressives being hurt by losses to minor parties like the Black Panthers and Greens as well as the Republicans. For the first time in 40 years, the Republicans had won a 'duopoly', and commentators wondered whether Wilson's second term would see a conservative realignment in California.
The short answer to that question would turn out to be 'no'. The long answer would turn out to be a decidedly dramatic one.