July marks 35 years since I drove out from Washington, D.C. to join the Orange County Register’s editorial Board. Commentary Director Ken Grubbs, with whom I had worked in D.C., invited me to enjoy the sunshine and the beaches.

Some of the issues are the same, many different. Nominated for the Supreme Court, Robert Bork in 1987 was being “borked” by the U.S. Senate on the abortion issue. The Judiciary Committee was chaired by Sen. Joe Biden. Bork, one of the top legal minds in the country’s history, naively thought he could hold a civil discussion of legal theory with his fellow lawyers, but had his own comments turned against him. We supported his nomination, but the Senate did not.

That’s why every nominee since then has been circumspect on answers to controversial issues. That includes President Trump’s three nominees, who last month helped overturn Roe v. Wade, throwing the abortion issue back with the states. Sen. Susan Collins said they had “misled” the Senate. But she should ask President Biden about the 1987 borking.

Back in ’87, we actually had a Republican governor, George Deukmejian. Housing prices, accounting for inflation, were about a third what they are today. California still was the Golden State for families.

Amazingly, during the 1980s the state gained six seats in the House of Representatives and electors in the Electoral College. By contrast, so many people are leaving now this year we lost one of each.

The internet hardly existed but for universities, researchers and hobbyists. Computers were just starting to get popular in people’s homes. The Register and other newspapers were using faster computing power to cut costs, especially for printing color spreads.

Ironically, it was even faster and faster computer power that finally slammed the business in the mid-2000s as news and, especially, classified ads, went online. I still subscribe to the print Register. It’s a different media experience I enjoy.

Some of the best editorials I remember writing were to help the people in the community. One guy up in Brea ran a company building the mailbox clusters mandated by the Post Office. But against the rules it began limiting him so it could get the business itself. Our editorial got them to back off.

Government abuse of civil forfeiture laws has been covered more by my colleague Steven Greenhut. But one I wrote about involved a couple who owned a small apartment complex in Chino. The local police said a drug dealer had worked out of one of the units, so they seized the whole property without compensation. The couple said they tried to evict the dealers, but couldn’t. And they had nothing to do with the drug deals.

Our editorial got the cops to back off. And numerous editorials on the seizure laws over the years led to some reforms. But the struggle continues.

Our finest hour was being the largest newspaper in the country to oppose President George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. His excuse was the nonexistent “weapons of mass destruction” that could blow up American cities.

Almost everybody now acknowledges we were right. Publisher Chris Anderson and Commentary Director Cathy Taylor were pressured, but commendably stood by their editorial writers: Greenhut, the late Alan Bock and yours truly.

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Just before the war was launched, I wrote an editorial aimed at Bush and the late Secretary of State Colin Powell, who were in town, hoping they might read it. I cited Powell’s own Powell Doctrine, which among other things stipulated one ought to have an exit strategy for any war. Almost 20 years later, our troops still are there.

I left the Register two times for other enterprises, including a stint as state Sen. John Moorlach’s press secretary. The voters two years ago decided to throw us back into the private sector. Then Executive Editor Frank Pine and Opinion Editor Sal Rodriguez of SCNG, the Register’s parent company, asked me to return.

All in all, it’s been a grand time, writing something around 8,000 editorials and columns. And I hope to keep writing here as long as the Good Lord keeps my fingers pounding the keyboard.

John Seiler is a member of the SCNG Editorial Board.