In 2020, progressives tried to repeal California’s prohibition against preferential treatment based on race. Proposition 16 lost by a clear margin of 57 percent to 43 percent, at the same time that Joe Biden won the state by 30 points.

Even the Los Angeles Times concluded that these results “provide the clearest evidence so far of the disconnect between (progressive) political leaders and many of their ostensible followers.” Immigrants were more opposed to racial quotas than native-born Americans were.

On top of that, the Supreme Court, of course, has just struck down racial preferences for admission at universities.

None of this is stopping progressives in California’s legislature who are pushing a new ballot measure that would make an “exception” in the Constitution’s ban against race discrimination. It would allow California’s governor to authorize racial discrimination if there is “research” showing that preferences and quotas based on race will “increase the life expectancy of, improve educational outcomes for, or lift out of poverty specific groups based on race … sex, etc.”

This is a progressive gobbledygook that collides squarely with the idea of Americans being judged on their qualifications, not their skin color. By the way, the people who are the principal victims of these presences are Asians – not whites.

We suspect that even in leftwing California the race baiters will lose again.

In June a Pew Research survey reported that nearly 70 percent of Americans reject the notion of curing discrimination by allowing it to be practiced in favor of some groups.