now at the same time as the implementation of nafta the same time as the sapatista revolt californians are going to react to mexican immigrants through racist methods one of them was proposition 187 is also known as the sos initiative sos save our state initiative and this is the reaction in california it was a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit undocumented people of mexican heritage whom they labeled as illegal aliens from using non-emergency health care from accessing public education and accessing other services in the state of california so after massive demonstrations the california supreme court ruled the proposition unconstitutional now kevin drub drum i'm sorry blogging for mother jones magazine on june 6th of last year wrote and quoted from keith humphries the following keith humphries points out today that california used to be a solidly republican place but then republicans reacted to the state's growing non-white population by supporting the infamous proposition 187 and this is humphrey's words like any californian i can attest to the venomous racially divisive nature of the debate that surrounded it republican pete wilson publicly embraced the measure at every campaign stop and rode anti-immigrant sentiment to re-election with strong support from white voters in the process wilson and those who advised him to double down on white suprema on white voters permanently crippled the california republican party subsequent democratic presidential candidates have not even bothered to campaign in this minority majority state why should they the california lesson for the national gop party the party leaders debate whether or not to embrace donald trump racially divisive appeals to alienated white workers can work white voters can work but pursuing such short-term electoral rewards is a route to long-term political oblivion in an increasingly diverse america now this is scientist keith humphries speaking but let's listen to what happened to the republican party in california as a result of the passage of proposition 187 in fact she calls those of us who are in support of proposition 187 racist immigrant bachelors i say we must end services to illegal emirates more and more voices within the latino community were saying we're not this is unfair you know we work hard you know we're not here to you know suck up public services we're here to work really hard my parents are illegal too but i don't want my parents to leave no longer can california afford to educate medicaid incarcerate and compensate all the illegals of the world there's no better example of how the anti-immigrant tone in one election can inflict long-term damage on a party's image than what happened here in california after republicans got behind proposition 187 in the 1990s it's hard to imagine now but republicans actually won this state every presidential cycle from 1968 until 1988. bill clinton broke that winning streak in 92 but only in a three-way race with ross perot and george h.w bush 1994 was kind of a crazy year in california this is when oj got into white bronco and went down the la freeway but other things were going on in california the state had a very large crime problem this is when the state passed the three strikes law the state was in the midst of a very deep recession in the early 1990s uh in the aftermath of the end of the cold war the uh the military industry in california just took a whack the aerospace industry in particular california bled jobs that bled revenue it was a very rough place to be the republican governor pete wilson who had been elected in 1990 a moderate republican pro-choice on abortion was way behind in his re-election campaign because of the bad economy in california illegal immigration started to come to four at that time and wilson running for election ran an ad called they keep coming they keep coming two million illegal immigrants in california the federal government won't stop them at the border yet requires us to pay billions to take care of them for californians who work hard pay taxes and obey the law so a policy fight developed very quickly became a political fight about whether the state should be cutting services for legal residents at the same time they were providing those services for undocumented residents so in 1994 proposition 187 appeared on the november ballot in california proposition 187 proposed that public services be denied to illegal immigrants in california this would be education public school education and health benefits for legal immigrants and because the nature of the electorate in the early 90s this turned out to be a lifesaver for pete wilson's campaign that and the death penalty and the crime issue began to pull pete wilson from the abyss into having a chance of winning wilson is ahead in the polls with less than three weeks to go governor wilson decided to get behind prop 187 and many believed it saved his campaign the measure was approved almost two to one governor pete wilson signed the declaration that would deny more than a million and a half illegal immigrants that success came with a price and so there was this flurry the synergy which led us to be able to organize a lot more people to become citizens to register to vote and then eventually participate in more elections a million new latino voters entered the roles in california that is a peaceful revolution it changed politics is it took an entire generation of younger californians to come a voting age to express their opinions on an issue that had divided their parents and their grandparents but for them it's just simply a matter of common sense uh republicans have struggled to win statewide offices high and low because they're you know 20 to 30 years of hard feelings pent up right now within latino circles in 1994 when pete wilson was running for re-election as governor registered republicans actually made up 37 of the state's electorate today they make up just 27.5 of the voters here and may soon be overtaken by californians with no party preference the debate around prop 187 galvanized latino voters making them a much stronger force in california politics latinos began seeking elected office in numbers that the state had not seen before so one out of every five californians over the last 20 plus years myself included has now changed their opinion on this issue the challenges at the california republican party and even to a greater degree the national republican party hasn't kept up with that tremendous shift in public opinion it really took the federal court to overturn prop 187 it was popular but the the state has changed since then and the country has changed since then but california became a blue state faster than it would have without prop 187 i mentioned stegner quote earlier california's america only more so i like to say california is america only faster so the same type of demographic changes that have occurred here are now occurring in many other parts of the country but the lesson for the national republican party should be a very stark one the question is whether you're going to change ironically it is two national conservatives who aren't running for anything this year jack kemp and bill bennett who are going public with their opposition use my statement to warn the republican party that at the moment it has the best chance in our lifetime of being a majority party we must never ever be perceived or in any way turn our back on people of color okay so i guess the message is clear especially from this experience uh california does not tolerate fascism or will not especially in regards to the latino population so let's appreciate again that california attempted to become fascists just like arizona today and other states that are trying to follow in the lead as a republican party is going to breathe its last breath