Authored by Richard Truesdell and Keith Lehmann via American Greatness,

As we outlined in Part One, here in California, we have an economy that would be the fifth largest in the world if it were to be separated as a standing nation. Home to Silicon Valley, Hollywood, world-class agriculture, and medical schools, California is an economic powerhouse.

Yet we, in California, have the highest poverty rate in the nation. We have a majority of the nation’s homeless people. We have the highest overall tax rates in the nation. Our energy costs are double that of the national average. Our per-student spending in schools is well above the national average, yet our students consistently have below-average grade-level test scores. Our major cities are crime-ridden, our power grid is woefully vulnerable, and our beaches are regularly closed due to raw sewage contamination.

We are a one-party state. Democrats have a supermajority hold in California politics, meaning that there is no Congressional opposition to whatever they wish to do. They are in charge.

California’s economy serves every Democrat’s whim and desire. 

• High-speed rail boondoggles? The line between Los Angeles and San Francisco, originally expected to cost around $40 billion, was expected to more than double in cost to at least $95 billion. Then the project’s scope changed after abandoning plans for dedicated high-speed tracks at both ends of the line, reducing costs to nearly $70 billion. This will make the mandated 2-hour and 40-minute trip virtually impossible. It might never be completed at all.

• Unworkable EV mandates and banning of gas-powered cars? On September 23, 2024, Governor Hair Gel, Gavin Newsom, signed an executive order to ban the sale of new internal combustion engine (ICE) cars in the People’s Republic of Kalifornia by 2035. This insane executive order, which is not likely to stand up to judicial review, would ban all ICE vehicles from California’s roads by 2040. That is never likely to happen. What are the state’s poor people expected to drive?

• Over-regulating oil and gas companies out of the state? In another effort to cripple oil drilling and production in California, Governor Hair Gel issued an executive order in 2021 to stop hydraulic fracking. While it is claimed that fracking in California represents just 2% of production—a statistic that is disputed by the industry—it’s the long-term threat to the oil and gas industry that contributes to the exodus of almost 100 energy companies from the state (many to Texas). This contributes to the fact that residents of this state pay some of the highest prices for gas in the nation, much of it due to onerous state taxes (60¢ per gallon on top of state and federal sales taxes on the sale of gas at the pump).

• Mandating solar panels on all new construction? While on the surface this seems like a reasonably good idea, in reality, it is not. Why? Because the state does not have the electric energy infrastructure in place to support such a mandate. As increased loads are placed on the antiquated power grid, every summer, we suffer from rolling blackouts whenever temperatures climb over 100 degrees across the state. As the grid strains under the prospect of more EVs on our roads, this is a recipe for disaster.

• Issuing insane minimum wage rules and closing hundreds of small businesses? No better place to see the law of unintended consequences rearing its ugly head is California’s 2024 law mandating a $20/hour minimum wage for fast food workers. This small-business-unfriendly law has put pressure on the economy in a destructive manner. It has put upward pressure on wages paid for many entry-level jobs, pricing many first-time workers out of a job and raising costs beyond what the market will bear. Why would you work for $12/hour for a landscaping job (cutting grass in the hot sun) when you can flip burgers in air-conditioned comfort at In-N-Out for $20/hour? With labor being an important component in fast food costs, California’s residents have rebelled at paying $20 for a Big Mac combo meal at McDonald’s, crippling many small businesses in the fast food and casual dining sectors.

• Emptying and then closing prisons? California has a rampant violent crime problem and laws that have basically decriminalized retail theft up to $950 for a single theft. When you don’t have crimes being prosecuted by left-wing, George Soros-funded-and-supported district attorneys, you have less of a need for jail cells. While Governor Hair Gel has approved the closure of three prisons, he’s resisting closing more. Could the optics of closing more prisons be affecting his future political plans? We’ve noted the impact on local communities, many in rural areas, when prisons are closed and good-paying, not-easily-replaced jobs are made redundant.

• Offering zero-interest home loans exclusively to illegal aliens at the expense of actual California citizens? This one we can’t blame on Governor Hair Gel. As Newsom wants to burnish his prospects for his expected 2028 run for the presidency (should Kamala Harris lose in November), he smartly vetoed this insane legislation proposed by the California State Legislature. We think that at some point, long-time California residents will see the folly in such idiotic policies and make Democrats pay at the polls.

These policies are simply crazy.

California’s economy and the vast amounts of revenue generated by millions of citizens and their businesses allow for every bad left-wing idea to be realized, tried, failed, and then tried again. In this economy, taxpayer money is not used to provide a better quality of life to its population; it is a tool to be squandered repeatedly in pursuit of a leftist utopia while lining the pockets of favored industries, activist groups, and entrenched political players. Nancy Pelosi is the poster child for the power of the elite political class.

It does not matter if these programs fail. There is no accountability for failure, only praise for intentions. In California, those in power wield it aggressively while demanding to be worshipped for their generosity with taxpayer dollars. In essence, they’re control freaks with unlimited funding.

When Democrats are in charge, the quality of life for ordinary citizens plummets. Almost every major city in America is under Democrat control and are disasters—Chicago, Baltimore, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Detroit, Seattle, Portland (we could go on and on)—all due to far-left control freaks using taxpayer funds to use as they see fit.

News of Democrat public officials directing tax dollars to friends and family is so common that, unless it is too egregious to cover up, the legacy media doesn’t qualify it as news anymore. The California news media considers this graft and corruption as business as usual. There’s a reason why many of the state’s more fiscally responsible residents have long called it the “People’s Republic of Kalifornia.”

The worst thing about corruption as a system of government is that it works so well. With so much consolidation of power and personal enrichment at stake, it’s no wonder why politicians work so hard to stay in office. It’s the cottage industry of the so-called Golden State and the power-intoxicated elites that have run the state into the ground over the last 50 years.

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Richard Truesdell is a former consumer electronics retail executive and automotive travel photojournalist. In the last 25 years, he has visited more than 35 countries on six continents. A former high school history teacher with a BA in Political Science from Waynesburg University, he is a lifelong Conservative moderate who has turned his thoughts and keyboard to political commentary and popular culture. A cross-section of his writings can be found here.

Keith Lehmann is a retired consumer electronics industry executive who has written extensively on technology, transportation, and international travel. Living in Southern California for over fifty years, he has first-hand exposure to societal and cultural happenings of the left and submits decidedly realism-based, Conservative viewpoints, much of which can be found on his Substack.