Are We the Wave of the Future or Have We Just Gone Surfin’?

I say, fine. The point of being in California has never been to run with the pack. Many of us like it that way. But I wonder. These fresh headlines that remind us about life being a few degrees different on the western side of the Sierra Nevada: Are they describing a California that’s still leading toward the future or one that is now falling behind into the past?

For more than a generation now, we haven’t had to consider the question. The idea of California-as-Tomorrowland was so deeply ingrained in our self-image, and the nation’s image of us, that the only inquiry necessary was: Well, what next?

All those jokes and cliches about California? They were compliments to the powerful force field that made us the most populous, original, unfettered and, of course, most important of states.

A quarter of a century ago, no one laughed harder than we did when Jimmy Carter remarked, “Whatever starts in California unfortunately has an inclination to spread.” We were heard to wonder, so why is it taking them so long?

In good times and bad, by choice and by accident, events, trends, ideas and personalities emerged from California to reinforce the conceit that the very best vantage on destiny could be had by standing right here where the continent slipped into the Pacific.

Remember, Ronald Reagan made conservatism workable again from his base in nutty California. Jerry Brown launched the state far ahead of itself, not to mention everyone else, in rocket flights of imagination. Think of the forward-leaning words associated with modern California: the free-speech movement, Silicon Valley, immigration, Proposition 13 and the tax revolt, the Pacific Rim, multiculturalism.

Communities where you needed just a sweater on the coldest of days became defined by the hot tub. What other government besides our own would boast on the official state Web site that the No. 1 product sold in this No. 1 consumer state was bottled water? What other state would kill off the last of its grizzly bears with a rifle shot in 1922 and celebrate it as the official state animal?

But now? We can wonder. Yes, there’s plenty of momentum. Only a fool would discount California’s energy or that fine uplifting breeze of freedom that blows here to nourish opportunity and innovation. No one dares overlook our sheer numbers.

For now, though, something of a ground fog has swept over U.S. Highway 101.

It’s not that California voted differently than the nation. So what? It’s that California isn’t striking sparks on election day anymore.

Republican victories in other states here and there, some of them razor-thin, gave the GOP control of Congress. Two airplane crashes in two years killed two Democratic U.S. senators -- seats that went Republican on Tuesday and constitute the extent of this new majority. With it, however, the geography of the future appears to have shifted too.

It’s hard to tell who is trembling more over George Bush’s new mandate: those who fear for tomorrow or those who are cheering it on. One thing for sure, people everywhere feel the political motion and know where it’s headed.

I can see the bumper stickers coming: Don’t blame me; I’m from California.

By contrast, Democrats easily and overwhelmingly triumphed here, falling short only in the meaningless game of expectations. But I think it’s safe to say that nobody -- least of all victorious Gov. Gray Davis -- has much idea where the state is headed or even should be headed, except toward a grinding bloodletting over a fast-shrinking budget and another round of Me-First-at-the-Trough ballot initiatives. Apart from immediate family and paid political lackeys, those who find meaning in the moment are keeping the fact to themselves.

Even those things that continue to set the state apart -- its lead on vehicle pollution, on family leaves, on labor arbitration for farm workers -- arise, unfortunately, not from the well of dreams so much as from the tactical politics of appeasing interest groups. In reaching for the center, Davis always seems to miss the heart.

It’s not so satisfying to look around at ourselves just now. We’re still different. But we can’t be sure it’s in the way that counts anymore.