Add The California Post on Google It’s been a tough few years for Huntington Beach, politically speaking.
The beach town — Surf City, USA — is one of the few conservative bastions left in California, and one of the only such towns on the coast.
That’s exactly why Gov. Gavin Newsom, Xavier Becerra (Newsom’s potential Democratic successor in Sacramento) and the rest of the Democratic Party are constantly trying to attack and undermine it.
Even private-sector lawyers like Kevin Shenkman are after the city. Shenkman recently won a controversial lawsuit to force Huntington Beach to throw out its current voting system, and adopt a ranked-choice system instead that nobody voted for and almost nobody wants.
But Huntington Beach is still fighting — and still loving life in SoCal.
This weekend, and for the week that follows, Huntington Beach is hosting the Lexus US Open of Surfing. It’s one of the most prestigious surfing contests in the world — and the timing couldn’t be better.
Hurricane Fausto, far off the Pacific Coast, has churned up warm water and big waves. The hurricane is heading west — a safe distance from these shores — but it has served up the perfect conditions for an incredible surfing competition.
Visitors from around the world are arriving in town to watch — on the heels of the World Cup, which also brought international tourists to the region.
There’s also the vibe of the place. A visit to Huntington Beach is a throwback to California as it used to be — before homelessness overtook the beauty of LA, before wildfires destroyed Paradise and the Palisades.
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Conservative, yes: You could get a ticket for jaywalking, until just a few years ago, when Sacramento legislators decided that it was “racist” for police to stop pedestrians who had put themselves in danger.
Traditional — sure. The bright crosses that still illuminate hilltops, even in the depths of urban LA, are a reminder of the religious foundations of California, from the missions to the megachurches.
But California was also a place where it was safe to try new things, where people could thrive without being told they had to pay a price for their success.
It was a place where everyone wanted to be — not a place people wanted to flee.
Instead of attacking Huntington Beach, California should take the spirit of Surf City and spread it across the Golden State.
