There is a book called American Nations written about a decade ago that tried to explain the different cultures in America through the nationalities of their ea

There is a book called American Nations written about a decade ago that tried to explain the different cultures in America through the nationalities of their early settlers. This article seems like an application of that book to specific policy oddities in California. It's an interesting idea, but in both the book and this article, the connections are spurious. For example, it's a good soundbite that one can draw a through line from the Scots-Irish individualism to the libertarianism of California, but little real evidence of this actually provided.