Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
COULTERVILLE, Ca.— Never in my wildest California dreams of making the move nearly 3,000 miles across the country from Washington, D.C. to the Golden State did I imagine landing in the “nicest” small town in America, just in time for Trump to allow the U.S. Federal Government to shutdown again in a standoff with Democrats in Congress he used to “extract maximum pain” against his perceived political enemies.
The Trump administration embraced the government shutdown and a senior White House official said there are no plans to negotiate with Democratic leadership in the House and Senate to get it back open. Democrats in the Senate are demanding that Republicans negotiate a bipartisan stopgap spending measure and to extend some Affordable Care Act subsidies expanded by Congress in 2021 due to sunset at the end of the year.
Trump lied and blustered all over social media and cable TV blaming Democrats for making “unserious and ridiculous” demands. “He read all the sh*t they’re asking for, and he said, ‘on second thought, go f*** yourself’,” the president said, according to a White House official quoted by Politico.
In reaction to the shutdown, California Governor Gavin Newsom said: “Trump and his lapdogs in the majority in both the Senate and House are shutting down the federal government because they do not want to extend health care funding that makes it affordable to get support and care. Trump’s team literally told POLITICO that Democrats can ‘go f*** themselves’.”
As President Trump and his Republican enablers in Congress — who hold the majority — prepare to shut down the federal government, Newsom said, impacting nearly 40 million Californians’ daily lives, he highlighted how severe and damaging this “extreme, selfish, and politically motivated this shutdown is for Americans.”
“Trump is shutting down the government — making monthly health care costs jump hundreds of dollars for millions, putting food assistance for people in need at-risk, and making troops go without pay,” he said. “It’s despicable and it’s completely MAGA made!”
Meanwhile, due to preparation, opportunity, timing, good friends and little luck, my California Dreamin’ has come to pass, and here’s the thing. In 2022, Reader’s Digest named Coulterville, California, as the “Nicest Place in America” – talking about its people.
“Just 2.5 hours from the San Francisco Bay Area and 45 minutes from Yosemite National Park … Coulterville serves as the golden gateway to unmatched outdoor recreation and is the perfect base camp for a true Mother Lode experience. With everything from deep history dives to showy flower tours, from one-of-a-kind lodging to foodie brunches, Coulterville epitomizes the spirit of where granite meets gold. Welcome to winding (mountain) roads … and lots of Gold Rush-era flavor.”
John Steinbeck made it here in the 1930s and documented that crisis in his novel, “The Grapes of Wrath,” published in 1939 (now in the public domain).
Woody Guthrie made it here too, and wrote and sang ballads about it. Dorothea Lange made it and photographed the conditions of migrants, particularly her famous “Migrant Mother” in 1936.
John Muir made it here too, along with President Teddy Roosevelt, where they negotiated at the Hotel Jeffery and in Yosemite Valley and came up with America’s Best Idea, America’s National Parks. That should be the motto of the town, and may be soon, once we get it on the new FM radio station being developed in town. Stay tuned.
The California Dream is up there with the American Dream, which may in fact be on its death bed now after so many writers have declared it so over the decades, including Hunter S. Thompson, who chose to settle in the mountains of Colorado instead. Song writers and bands have sung about the California Dream, most famously the Mamas and the Papas when they had a hit with the song written by John and Michelle Phillips in 1963. The Beach Boys had a hit when they covered it too.
While Southern Hospitality may have turned mean, thanks to divisive political rhetoric, the California Dream seems alive and well. Let’s see if Gavin Newsom can shine some of the golden light across the country to Washington, and keep the American Dream alive at least for a little longer.
Glynn Wilson is editor and publisher of New American Journal (NewAmericanJournal.net).
See an illustrated version of this column at California Dreamin’ On a Beautiful October Day
