Adam Carolla Is Wrong: The Palisades Is Not Uber Woke

Will Democrats' mishandling of the LA fires spark an upper class pivot to the Right?

source: @adamcarolla on X

Conservative/Libertarian comedian, Adam Corolla, who ironically had to evacuate his Malibu home from the recent fires, made an ignorant comment on Twitter/X, dismissing the Pacific Palisades fire victims as lefties who voted for Karen Bass. Carolla’s statement that the Palisades voted for Bass was blatantly wrong, when in fact, the Palisades voted for centrist mayoral candidate, Rick Caruso, and tough on crime DA, Nate Hochman. However, I don’t think Adam Carolla was lying, just too intellectually lazy to fact check. Regardless, Carolla should know better living in Malibu and being an LA native, but a lot of conservative pundits are too invested in ideological tropes to look at the reality of political demographics. However, I am not implying that Palisades residents should be immune from criticism.

source: @eyeslasho on X

source: @AlanDana on X

The Palisades and certain other upper class coded parts of LA had a lot of Newsom for Governor and Harris for president but Hochman for DA and Caruso for mayor voters. A lot of them also probably voted for Michael Bloomberg in 2020, with Bernie Sanders being not too popular. There was a mock election at Palisades High, albeit with a fairly small vote sample. That poll placed Trump at only a few points behind Kamala Harris.

source: @VanceUlrich on X

source: elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov

California’s failed Prop 16, to reinstate affirmative action at the height of 2020’s Great Awokening, is the best metric to measure how woke a specific community is. Only one part of the Palisades, Rustic Canyon, which is ironically the most charming part, voted for affirmative action while the rest of the Palisades tepidly opposed it, albeit the vote was close to split. There is a stretch of Malibu right along PCH, that got wiped out by the fire, which was more staunchly anti-affirmative action than the Palisades, though there was an island of support for affirmative action in Topanga Canyon.

Westside of LA Votes on Prop 16 to Reinstate Affirmative Action

• Green = majority non-White where prop 16 passed

• Blue = majority White where prop 16 passed

• Yellow= majority non-White where prop 16 failed

• Red = majority White where prop 16 failed

The Palisades along with Malibu, Bel Air, and Beverly Hills, are not “champagne socialists” but fairly moderate politically, albeit more neoliberal establishmentarian. They are not necessarily super “based” either, though perhaps conservative by LA standards, with Beverly Hills being the outlier to vote for Trump. The more woke affluent parts of LA are Topanga Canyon, Santa Monica, Venice, Cheviot Hills, West Hollywood, and the Hollywood Hills.

How LA County Voted in the 2024 Election

Red: Trump

Blue: Harris

This reflects a trend in LA in which the ultra wealthy are more moderate while upper middle class young urban professionals are more woke. Wealthy areas like the Palisades that are more family oriented also tend to be more moderate politically, as raising kids tends to make one less leftwing. Also, wealthy neighborhoods with some historic counterculture significance, such as Topanga Canyon, Venice, and Laurel Canyon, are more left leaning.

source: @DisgracedProp on X

There is a backlash among LA’s ultra wealthy, including celebrities, over how Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom handled the fires. While those who think that California will go MAGA are coping hard, I foresee some pivot of California’s elites to the center, at least in SoCal. Regardless, I see more of a desire for 90s style Neoliberal centrism among California’s upper class, which deserves scrutiny. Rick Caruso has a good chance at becoming LA’s next mayor if he decides to run again.

source: @SOWEN1966 on X

While I am very skeptical of Trump, in contrast with Karen Bass, he looked pretty good when they clashed at a press conference. This is even taking into account that a lot of what Trump says is utter bullshit, like that we should use the military to turn on the water from the Pacific Northwest when California never got much of its water from there. Not to mention that Trump tried to make fire rebuilding funding for California conditional.

The disaster shows some breakdown in California’s infrastructure, particularly regarding reservoirs and emergency access to water. Conservatives have placed blame on DEI within LA’s fire department, which is probably somewhat true. However, the bigger issue is that there were an inadequate number of firefighters stationed in high risk areas. In the near future, AI drones will probably be used to prevent and fight fires, which fits into the age old philosophical debate about whether man can conquer nature.