Orange County's Conservative Movement Still Going Strong or Fading Rapidly?

As you can see, the headline's more provocative at the hard-copy newspaper.

Here's the online story, at the O.C. Register, "Orange County's famously conservative activism is alive but faces a turning point":

Orange County’s hothouse environment for right-wing movements – which brought you everything from a 1961 anti-communism camp to Orly Taitz’s birther lawsuits – appears unlikely to cool any time soon.

Despite once-dominant GOP voter registration here experiencing a 25-year slide, a dedicated core of conservatives continues to collaborate and keep the flame alive.

“A lot of people have left the Republican Party because they’re dissatisfied with the party,” said Deborah Pauly, a member of the county GOP’s governing Central Committee who has clashed with establishment Republicans. “But they are still very active blogging, rallying, walking precincts. They’re organizing themselves and events outside of the party.”

Those events include a 2011 Yorba Linda rally outside an Islamic event featuring two Muslims who were considered controversial by some. Pauly’s headline-grabbing diatribe at the rally included calling the men “pure, unadulterated evil.”

Pauly, a Tea Party favorite, plans to mobilize these activists for her 2016 Assembly campaign against Harry Sidhu, a more moderate Republican. She’s a fan of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and says she’s glad Taitz raised the question of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate – although not necessarily how she went about it.

“They’re outliers, no doubt about it,” said Pauly, 56. “But the press endeavors to paint them as crazy. ... I support freedom of expression. That’s the beauty of America.”

Pauly is part of a lineage of ultraconservatives extending at least back to the 1961 anti-communism camp, which attracted a reported 7,000 schoolchildren. The weeklong Anaheim event got funding from Knott’s Berry Farm founder Walter Knott, who also supported the thriving county chapter of the John Birch Society.

The Rev. Lou Sheldon, who founded the Traditional Values Coalition in Anaheim in 1980, points to wealthy conservative backers as a key element in making the county a breeding ground for movements such as his. The activist group got started with a $100,000 donation from local businessman Herb Leo.

The TVC, which says it represents 43,000 churches nationwide, is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, citing its verbal attacks on gay and transgender people. Sheldon says his group is simply expressing its view of what it considers deviant lifestyles.

But money is just the midwife in birthing Orange County’s right-wing causes.

Throughout much of the 20th century, Orange County attracted white middle-class and upper-middle-class residents who were either fleeing an increasingly diverse and liberal Los Angeles or were relocating from the Midwest and the South and bringing conservative regional values with them.

“When groups self-segregate, it leads to extremization,” said Peter Ditto, a UC Irvine social psychologist who studies political behavior. “People are more apt to go to that point of view when they are surrounded by like people. It kind of gives you license to become more extreme.”

Also helping focus the political energy was The Orange County Register’s ardent libertarian slant, according to Harvard historian Lisa McGirr’s “Suburban Warriors,” which examines the blossoming of conservative movements in Orange County.

Republicans’ share of county voter registration peaked in 1990, when they outpaced Democrats by 22 percentage points. The GOP’s edge is now 8 points and shrinking, and its share of registered county voters fell below 40 percent for the first time in December. Non-Latino whites are now a minority of the population.

But political experts said it’s hard to predict how such changes will affect the proliferation of right-wing causes.

“It would be less fertile ground, but you still have a big group of people,” Ditto said. “Being under attack, being a smaller piece of the pie breeds frustration, and they could feel even more strongly. As Republican registration chips away, it’s hard to say what will happen.”

I appreciate Deborah Pauly's comments (I know her from the tea party and anti-illegal immigration protests), but the rest of the piece is wildly overstated. North Orange County, from Santa Ana up into Fullerton and Anaheim, is extremely diverse and predominantly Democrat and leftist (the loony Loretta Sanchez leftism, for example). You need to go to South Orange County and the beach cities, especially Newport Beach, to find the remaining bastions of conservatism. Frankly, we're fighting a rearguard action around here, and I don't know how much longer the old-line conservative movement will remain.

In any case, continue reading.