But are California’s families on board with all of these edicts? According to the latest survey of California likely voters from Rasmussen Reports, the answer is no. And the margins aren’t even close. Californians disagree that the rights of parents are somehow diminished or terminated when a child is inside a public school and they do so by “overwhelming margins.”

Parents don’t lose their rights at the schoolhouse door, according to an overwhelming majority of California voters, most of whom also support laws requiring schools to notify parents if a student identifies as transgender.

A new telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports and Real Impact finds that 82% of California Likely Voters disagree with the statement, “A person loses their parental rights when a child enters public school,” including 69% who Strongly Disagree. Only 12% think parental rights are lost when children enter public school.

We have to read a lot of polls here, and it’s a rare day when you can find one with this wide of a margin. More than 82 percent disagreed with that proposal. An even larger percentage (84%) said they would approve of a law that required parents to be notified of “any major change in a child’s physical, mental, or emotional health or academic performance.”

A slightly lower percentage (66%) would support a law requiring parental notification specifically of gender transition issues. But that’s still a very solid majority. The news gets even worse for the “It Takes a Village” crowd. Respondents were asked if they agreed with Joe Biden when he said in April, “There’s no such thing as someone else’s child. Our nation’s children are all our children.” 64% disagreed with Biden while only 29% agreed. And I’ll remind you again… we’re talking about Californians here.

And yet the state legislature keeps passing one law after another that flies in the face of these sentiments. They have declared the state a “sanctuary” for young people seeking trans treatments against the wishes of their parents. They’re currently working to make preemptive approval of trans identity a prerequisite for adoption. These crazy policies go far beyond parental rights, of course. This is the same government that is preparing to ban store employees from “interfering” with shoplifters.

Earlier this month, the California Senate passed Bill 553 , legislation that would discourage retail store employees from confronting shoplifters. The legislation — passed weeks after a Home Depot security guard was shot and killed during a Pleasanton, California, robbery — is designed to protect employees, supporters say, by forbidding employers from instructing employees to confront shoplifters.

If you were to take a similar poll of California’s likely voters and ask them if they support allowing people to engage in shoplifting without any store employees “interfering” with them, how many of them do you suppose would say yes? We haven’t seen any poll data on that specific question yet, but I’d bet a shiny nickel that it wouldn’t be very many.

And that brings us back to the question that I suggested at the top. If so many people oppose some of these fundamental progressive “values” and don’t like the way these matters are being handled by Gavin Newsom and the state legislature, why do they keep voting the same pack of maniacs into office year after year? If one of them leaves for some reason, they vote in another person just like them. Is this a case of everyone not wanting to speak up because they fear they’re the only one with common sense? Perhaps more education is required.

We can’t feel very much sympathy for the people of California until this pattern changes. In fact, there’s not much we can do for them other than encourage them to flee the state, as so many already have. But if there’s one issue that might give most of the state a quick shove back toward sanity, it’s clearly parental rights. Perhaps California Republicans can seize on this issue between now and next November and start winning over some hearts and minds.