The left-out coast.

Suggests that California is out of step with contemporary issues affecting the East Coast of the United States.California has always prided itself on getting to the future first--on pioneering the suburban affluence of the 1950s, the tax-cutting revolution of the 1970s and the high-tech boom of the 1990s. So consider this possibility: that now it is the "new America" in the west that just doesn't get it and the "old America" in the east that is grappling with the future. Ever since September 11, 2001 Californians have been out of the loop, flummoxed by the war on terrorism and locked into a pre-September 11th mindset. September 11th is usually credited with bringing America together. But it also opened up a psychological gulf between the two coasts. People on the east coast were inevitably more shocked and shaped by that terrible day than people who witnessed it on television from a distance of several thousand miles. That psychological gap has grown bigger with time. California's worries are very much pre-September 11th worries: the economy, schools and the budget deficit. Meanwhile, the war on terrorism has shifted the national spotlight on to two subjects that California flunks badly--politics and geo-strategy. Reasons for this may be that California, not least its journalism, is stuffed full of celebrities whose access to the airwaves is inversely related to their knowledge. The second is the implosion of the local Republican Party. But the odds are surely on another comeback. Silicon Valley will contrive some new revolution that seizes the national imagination.