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Nevada GOP suspects there’s a whole lot of Californi-catin’ going on

John L. Smith
John L. Smith
Opinion
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STATELINE — I drove through the sun-kissed Sierra morning to this slice of Vegas on the shores of Lake Tahoe just to see the barricades.

The gambling palaces bustled with weekend tourists, but the roads were wide open at the border between California and Nevada. There were no angry protesters carrying “Honk if you hate the Golden State!” signs, no flags proclaiming “Battle Born, But Lately Trepidatious,” and nary a barricade in sight.

You know, the barricades Nevada Republicans indicate we’ll need to put a stop to all the Californication taking place in our beloved Silver State should the Democrats prevail in the general election. Talk about a golden oldie from the far right end of the political radio dial.

Slightly more than two months from the 2018 midterm election, this is the best the Nevada Republican Party can do to try to energize its base?

This alarming news came directly from Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt’s fourth annual Basque Fry at the Corley Ranch in Gardnerville, an event best known for its patriotic speeches and fried lamb testicles. The speeches are standard fare during the campaign season. The crunchy sheep sacks are a time-honored Basque tradition, or perhaps a really good joke played on your political donors.

Thanks to the reporting of the Reno Gazette-Journal The Nevada Independent was shut out of the affair, apparently for lacking the proper lamb testicle-eating etiquette — we are learning from Republican leaders that Nevadans fear nothing more than becoming more like Californians, and they don’t mean the Beach Boys.

They meant the kind of Californicating that manifests itself in higher taxes and more regulations and socialism and free love and all manner of psychedelic carrying on. And if there’s anything Nevada Republicans in the era of Trump can’t stand it’s higher taxes and more regulations in a state they imagine to be more like a John Ford Western than a functioning government.

You might ask yourself, “A passel of Nevada Republicans just spent a pile of good money for the supposed privilege of eating fried lamb privates and listening to the melodic rallying cry of Kellyanne Conway, how offended by the behavior of Californians can they possibly be?”

It turns out, very offended.

Take, for example, former U.S. Rep. Cresent Hardy, a Mesquite resident who is attempting to return to office in Congressional District 4.

“If you can’t get excited about this election, then you might as well call us East California,” Hardy said.

Excuse Hardy’s poor geography. He thinks Mesquite is part of the Utah Territory.

Then there’s Dana Loesch, the fired up spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association, whose officials don’t run for public offices because they already own so many of them. Loesch fears Californicating.

“It is a huge problem, dare I say, a scourge,” Loesch warned. “You have all of these progressives, not from your state, moving into your state and they’re bringing their socialist values with them.”

And it looks like you can expect U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Trumplandia, to personally man the barricades.

“When I’m re-elected to the United States Senate, we will secure these borders,” Heller said. “Nevada will not become a sanctuary state. Las Vegas will not become a sanctuary city.”

My favorite remark from the paranoid picnic came from Assemblyman Jim Wheeler, who warned all present that if Trumpublicans don’t prevail and Laxalt isn’t Nevada’s next governor, “... these laws will go through and we will be Nevada-fornia,” Wheeler said.

Someone call a paramedic. Wheeler’s signature cowboy hat has interrupted the blood flow to his brain.

The Basque Fry is a fascinating study on several levels, not the least of which is its symbolism for Attorney General Laxalt. He hasn’t been a Nevadan long, but is the grandson of the late Republican political icon Paul Laxalt. While I suspect he still doesn’t know the words to “Home Means Nevada,” through his surrogates and TV ads the candidate continues to try to parlay his familial connection to the state for political advantage. Thus, the “Basque Fry” to benefit the Morning in Nevada PAC.

But California isn’t really their biggest fear. It’s the foundering popularity of the scandalized president to whom they’ve pledged unflinching loyalty. Instead of addressing issues important to Nevadans, they resort to the same tired lines like a bunch of B-movie cow-punchers.

While I’m no expert in such culinary matters, it sounds like a perfectly good waste of lamb testicles to me.

Contact John L. Smith at [email protected]. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith.

 

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