Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
The recent California gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral elections—where, remarkably, Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt both appear to have advanced to the general election in November—offer a glimmer of hope.
Could it be that some on the Left, along with a number of Independents, have finally realized that neither wealth nor an upscale ZIP code can protect them from the Left’s vindictive socialist madness?
California gas prices, even prior to the Iran war, had reached the highest levels in the continental United States.
The cause is self-evident: left-wing policies that forbid most new gas and oil exploration, impose radical green-fuel mandates and levy the highest gas taxes in the U.S. and drive out oil refineries.
Illegal immigration has soared. Currently, some 11 million Californians—28 percent of the resident population—were not born in the U.S. This foreign-born demographic exploded at precisely the time that civic education and melting-pot assimilation and integration were denigrated in the public schools and replaced by ethnic chauvinism and pre-civilizational DEI tribalism.
A third of the nation’s welfare recipients and nearly a third of the homeless live in California. Almost a quarter of the state’s population lives below the poverty line.
California has the highest electricity rates in the mainland United States and the steepest income taxes in the nation. And yet it annually runs the highest budget deficits of the 50 states.
Despite massive unfunded pension debts of $265 billion, the state has spent billions of dollars on illegal-alien subsidies, from free health care to solar panels.
The state has wasted between $15 billion and $20 billion on its Bakersfield-to-Merced high-speed rail line since the project was approved in 2008. Not a single foot of track has yet been laid in the past 18 years.
Less than a third of California public school students read at proficient levels.
Gavin Newsom’s first budget as governor in 2019–20 was $214 billion. His newest 2026 budget is $350 billion—a 63 percent increase in spending in just six years.
About 12 million Californians have fled the state since Newsom began his uninterrupted three-decade political career in 1997. And it seems that the more Californians have left, the greater the yearly exodus grows, with a likely 400,000 to 500,000 leaving in 2026–27.
Mass flight from the most beautiful state in the Union is the greatest indictment of the Democrat monopoly—supermajorities in both houses of the legislature, overwhelming numbers of liberal-appointed state judges, and no statewide Republican executive officeholders.
Only 13 percent of California’s 52-member congressional delegation is Republican. Yet Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won 38 percent of the state’s vote in 2024—nearly triple the percentage of its paltry seven congressional seats.
In the most recent Reason Foundation 50-state ranking of roads and highway infrastructure, California (with its temperate weather) ranked 49th in the nation, only ahead of frigid Alaska.
We know the cause of these California disasters—one-party rule for nearly two decades and the rise of Silicon Valley-funded, powerful left-wing Bay Area politicians (Barbara Boxer, Willie Brown, Jerry Brown, Dianne Feinstein, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Nancy Pelosi).
The neo-socialist new Democratic Party is strongest in California and has pushed through a slate of disastrous radical-green policies, sanctuary-city madness, harebrained schemes to deal with homelessness, critical race and legal theories, and solar and high-speed-rail boondoggles.
Left-wing Bay Area politicians rely on Silicon Valley’s $11 trillion in market capitalization and on public unions like the SEIU and the CTA. Election Day in California is a mere construct, since winners often mysteriously do not emerge for weeks.
Add it up: massive legal and illegal immigration, an unprecedented exodus of the upper middle class, and an enormous influx of new wealth have created a medieval society of the well-off and the very poor—with increasingly few in between.
We know the medicine to save California, but the Left feels it is worse than the disease.
Sane leaders would create humane, drug-free relocation shelters for the treatment of the homeless far from downtowns, coupled with strict enforcement of vagrancy laws.
They would push vast new investment in infrastructure and roads.
They would end no cash bail and return to three-strikes-and-you’re-out sentencing.
Californians require the restoration of their oil, timber, and mining industries.
We must finally end the divisive and nihilist tribal chauvinism of DEI hiring and admissions.
Closed borders and an end to sanctuary-state and sanctuary-city status would lead to a return to diverse, legal, meritocratic, measured, melting-pot immigration.
Across-the-board tax reductions and deregulation could win back fleeing wealth and investment.
Stiff penalties for welfare and entitlement fraud would deter the chronic looting of state programs.
Sane water policies would end the vast outflow of scarce water into the ocean.
Finally, the schools will either reject failing therapeutic curricula and embrace a return to traditional classical education or ensure an illiterate population unable to maintain even the basic infrastructure and institutions they inherited from far better-educated previous generations.
The+politicians+brought+in+all+the+illegals+against+our+will.++Politicians+are+to+blame+and+will+never+be+held+to+account.+
Decades ago, the people of Mexican ancestry, for the large part, decided they wanted to take back the lands that were once theirs.
Can California be saved? That depends on what you mean by ‘saved’.
I came to the conclusion in 2020 that California was beyond hope, so I packed up and left. My mistake is that I moved to Colorado, which in 4 years will be just as bad as California.
California is the modern Atlantis… however, instead of being swallowed by the sea, they are drowning in a morass of their own making
There is a question that holds true “Is it bad enough yet?” Until the most radical liberals feel the pain..there is no hope. No one wants to live in a sewer..it just hasn’t seeped into those neighborhoods of the leftist elites. The toilets will back up someday, the walls will break and it will get “bad enough” Until then, endure the smell lingering in the air.
California is a lost cause. We’ve lived here for nearly 30 years. We’re counting the days until we can leave (children).
Nothing will change as the voters that would vote for anything different are leaving en masse. They’re being replaced by voters willing to vote blue no matter who. Rinse and repeat.
Unlike Mr. Martyniuk, I’m not infected with TDS. California had been in steep decline well before Mr. Trump decided to get into politics. At this point it’s likely best to nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
“Nuke California from Orbit. It’s the only way to be sure!”
Corporal Hicks, Space Marines…
As long as people are willing to lick the boot of the state of California for the privilege or living there
nothing will change. For those of you in California, please chime in if you are reading this. How bad does it actually have to get for you to decide that soiled boot tastes awful?
How many shackles are you going to wear before you decide enough is enough?
You need to spend more time west of I-5. Big homes, green lawns, ocean views, marinas full, locked gates, private schools, expensive cars, 5 carat rings, private jets lined up, the biggest tragedies in their lives are not getting what they want and, maybe, a divorce here and there. Nothing at the ballot box or heart-rending stories is going to change that. What happens east of the freeway is something like a foreign country to them. Good luck.
Why would a MAGA desire to be Governor or any politician in California? Let it burn. Karma.
BBBBut….Cali has the 6 largest economy in the world, That is their validation of misconception.
How is Cali DJT’s fault. I mean, he has his faults like the rest of us, but that is a monstrous exaggeration of his gravitas as an agent for good or bad.
California is a lost cause, mainly due to Trump’s stupidity.
Even life long republicans like me have lost all respect for the imbecile, and he will drag the country down the sewer.
So incredibly sad to read. A state that 25 years ago prospered and was coveted. Now, not enough money in the world would even entice me to visit, let alone live there. And that is saying a lot because we live in NYS which is following in CA’s footsteps. The good news for us is we live in Naples , FL for 4 months of the year. Depending on Nov election, it could be longer.
As long as a paragon of dim-wittedness exists among the left wing pseudo-intellectual lemmings, NOTHING can be saved Victor. Glad you are recuperating so stay strong and take care of yourself. God Bless America, our military and Veterans.
What is there to “save” culturally in California? At 63, I live in the same area of CA as my g-g-g-grandparents… but English is not the first language I hear each morning after leaving my house; all social interaction in stores and banks etc. now reflects foreign norms and body language; products on store shelves aren’t the ones I grew up with; community events offer endless ethnic dancing and non-English singing; the post office and libraries are just crowded information clearing houses catering to immigrants (foreign books, visa renewal seminars, passport paperwork, etc). I don’t care what happens anymore. It is no longer “home” but there is no place familiar to go.
I am a Californian from birth. Raised in Southern California suburbs. Father a civil service employee of LA County. Functioning public schools. Well educated UC system graduate. Governor Reagan built a great public college and university system. Night and day difference between then and now. If not for real estate investments and family here, we would be gone. Our younger relatives have already fled to Southern states. You only have a future in California as a ward of the state or if you are well off. The state continues to chip away at anything you have built for yourself to pay for the poor, captive voter population, and government grift. The tipping point has already been reached and we will see decline at an increasing rate. I also said Trump could not be elected President, and I am happy that I am often wrong.
Communism would work great if only I was in charge……
here, this is me,taxing everyone into prosperity…….
Fine, I tell you, everything’s FINE !……
I just need another 20 Billion…..
Of Course, It’ll work this time……..
Gavin for Dog Killer, oops, I mean, President…..
Can I please have that 20B, now?
Karen Bass is doing a good job…….
Wadda mean? The reservoirs had the water removed?….
It is not the Democrat Party of past days. Dr Hanson continuously and correctly identifies the cabal as Jacobins. The D Party was subsumed decades ago by the fanatics of the Left, yet keeps the brand as a means of concealing their true intentions. A little reading into history will clearly predict the future with the tyrannical, radical, lethal Jacobins in power. What will stop it? A cataclysm of nature and/or the natural response of a largely free people to the tyranny imposed upon them (us) by the Left/Jacobins after critical mass is achieved.
Not if a Republican governor and/or more Republican leaders are elected. …Note VDH’s upfront comments how the recent primary results offer a glimmer of hope for Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt.
Who is John Galt?
A majority of white Californians vote for Republicans, or at least they did in 2024. So, change will have to come from minority voters, particularly Hispanics. It’s no great logical leap to see that dwindling opportunities for the young also means dwindling opportunities for minorities who make up a large portion of the young. However, they may vote for Becerra in a vote for ethnic solidarity, and you can’t discount the appeal of voting for “one of your own”. However, there’s not much reason to hope that Becerra’s governance will be anything but Newsom’s third term.
The Democrats have long wanted to close many industries, ironically often those that actually require blue collar workers, as opposed to hedge funds, law firms, software, etc. that don’t. They’ve been successful in driving out the fossil fuel, mining, forestry, and manufacturing industries. Now, they’ve decided they want the tech industry gone even though Silicon Valley has largely supported Democrats for years. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. I guess Hollywood is still left.
Illinois perhaps provides an example. They’ve been on a downward trend for decades and show no sign of pulling up. That may happen here. The old adage that if you find yourself in a hole stop digging is seldom followed if it means acknowledging that you’ve gotten yourself into a hole.
I doubt that we’ve seen bottom yet.
In other words, California is a lost cause.
California lefties now know have a good estimate of how many counterfeit or forged ballots they need to eke out a victory over Hilton and Pratt. They’ll feed those ballots into the count slowly under a righteous “count every vote!” flag.
This may be the “break the glass” remedy Gov Newsom spoke of on television. It’s now a familiar corrupt voting pattern that the left has mastered.
God help us all —
1944- CALIFORNIA POPULATION 9 MILLION
2026- OVER 40 MILLION, debt in billions, maybe 500 billion counting unpaid pensions?
Beyond Human Scale to fix anything or pay the bills. Or pay taxes. Take all the money from wealthy Hollywood and it does not begin to fill the hole of bad performance by near everyone and all politicians. Out of control like flying carp.
Who can change California? What would be the change agent? What catalyst would ignite change?
The voters won’t do it. Hilton will not be elected governor, and Pratt will not be elected mayor of LA. Period.
The ones who have the financial means to make it happen have been party to its decline by virtue of their Democrat contributions and buying lawmakers favoring their businesses. And now that the legislature has decided to stab them in the back, seizing 5% of their wealth outright and more to come later, they are suddenly up and running to red states, where they can keep more of their earnings. For them, it’s “California … you are on your own”.
I’d never live there, never send my kid to a university there, and never support any Democrat ever from that state. I see no way back for that sad place in my lifetime.
So you are saying that to save california the democratic party must change everything it believes in?