Long essay, worth reading. Some highlights.
The Biden Administration’s shock-and-awe statism—trillions of dollars in additional federal spending for COVID relief, infrastructure, and economic opportunity—is not being devised from scratch. According to the Los Angeles Times, Democrats in the White House and Congress are treating California as both a “de facto policy think tank” and an “inspiration.” Former governor Gray Davis told the paper that Vice President Kamala Harris, the first California Democrat elected to national office, will be “sharing ideas, innovations, and breakthroughs from California that might help solve problems on the national level.”
The more you know about California’s recent governance, however, the less enthused you’ll be about replicating its policy triumphs on a national scale. Dan Walters, a journalist who has covered California government for more than 50 years, wrote in 2020 that the Golden State is beset by a “crisis of competence.” As a result, government agencies’ “chronic inability to provide rapid and efficient service—to simply do their jobs—has created boundless frustration and anger.” His list of particulars is long and depressing: accounting systems that don’t mesh; housing programs that don’t mitigate homelessness; a high-speed rail initiative that the Times, once an enthusiastic supporter, recently called “the project from hell”; schools that don’t teach; a power grid that takes sabbaticals.
Vox founder and California native Ezra Klein reluctantly conceded the point in the New York Times earlier this year: “If progressivism cannot work here, why should the country believe it can work anywhere else?” That is, a state where Republicans are in no position to prevent, undermine, or even discredit any policy initiative should be highly conducive to progressive achievements. Democrats hold supermajorities in California’s state legislature and account for 80% of its congressional delegation. More than a decade has passed since a Republican won election to any statewide office.
“California is dominated by Democrats,” in Klein’s summation, “but many of the people Democrats claim to care about most can’t afford to live there.” In the wake of its governing failures, California has turned into a net exporter of people to the other 49 states. The past decade, during which the Democratic Party has secured hegemony in California, has also seen the state’s share of the national population decline, reversing a 160-year trend that began with the 1849 gold rush. California accounted for 11.97% of the U.S. population in 1990, which increased to 12.04% in 2000 and 12.07% in 2010 but fell to 11.95% in 2020. The 2020 Census will bring a reduction in the size of the state’s congressional delegation, something that has never occurred since it joined the Union.
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/progressively-worse/
The Biden Administration’s shock-and-awe statism—trillions of dollars in additional federal spending for COVID relief, infrastructure, and economic opportunity—is not being devised from scratch. According to the Los Angeles Times, Democrats in the White House and Congress are treating California as both a “de facto policy think tank” and an “inspiration.” Former governor Gray Davis told the paper that Vice President Kamala Harris, the first California Democrat elected to national office, will be “sharing ideas, innovations, and breakthroughs from California that might help solve problems on the national level.”
The more you know about California’s recent governance, however, the less enthused you’ll be about replicating its policy triumphs on a national scale. Dan Walters, a journalist who has covered California government for more than 50 years, wrote in 2020 that the Golden State is beset by a “crisis of competence.” As a result, government agencies’ “chronic inability to provide rapid and efficient service—to simply do their jobs—has created boundless frustration and anger.” His list of particulars is long and depressing: accounting systems that don’t mesh; housing programs that don’t mitigate homelessness; a high-speed rail initiative that the Times, once an enthusiastic supporter, recently called “the project from hell”; schools that don’t teach; a power grid that takes sabbaticals.
Vox founder and California native Ezra Klein reluctantly conceded the point in the New York Times earlier this year: “If progressivism cannot work here, why should the country believe it can work anywhere else?” That is, a state where Republicans are in no position to prevent, undermine, or even discredit any policy initiative should be highly conducive to progressive achievements. Democrats hold supermajorities in California’s state legislature and account for 80% of its congressional delegation. More than a decade has passed since a Republican won election to any statewide office.
“California is dominated by Democrats,” in Klein’s summation, “but many of the people Democrats claim to care about most can’t afford to live there.” In the wake of its governing failures, California has turned into a net exporter of people to the other 49 states. The past decade, during which the Democratic Party has secured hegemony in California, has also seen the state’s share of the national population decline, reversing a 160-year trend that began with the 1849 gold rush. California accounted for 11.97% of the U.S. population in 1990, which increased to 12.04% in 2000 and 12.07% in 2010 but fell to 11.95% in 2020. The 2020 Census will bring a reduction in the size of the state’s congressional delegation, something that has never occurred since it joined the Union.
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/progressively-worse/
