No. The 1996 Democratic platform was quite right wing for example. And California Democrats’ policies on criminal justice were very much to the right.
> Like it's not just Sander's dems, its California which is not all that extreme (yet?)
I’m comparing states to each other, so I’m using “leftist” to indicate that California’s policies are further to the left compared to other states.
Sanders “Democratic Socialism” is basically European social democracy; none of the things Sanders seeks are all that uncommon, or even for the most part particularly “socialist”, by OECD standards.
> [California]’s got the highest taxes
It's not even in the top 20% of states by tax burden, coming in at 11 out of 50. (Iowa, which somehow never gets called leftist, is #10) [0]
[0] https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-bur...
California may not be “socialist” like Sanders wants (and frankly, no country in the OECD is “socialist” anymore the way Sanders wants), but it’s certainly more leftist than the rest of the US. It’s got the highest taxes, among the highest social spending, much more government regulation of the economy, higher percentage of union workers than the US average, the highest minimum wage, etc. If should be doing a lot better than other US states.