California Doesn’t Have to Suck Politically and Economically: A California Moderate’s Plea for Sanity

I love California. It is almost impossible not to. To drive along the Pacific Coast Highway with the salt air in your face, to walk among the giants in the redwood forests, or to look out over the fertile expanse of the Central Valley is to realize that this state was blessed with an embarrassment of riches. Its greatest asset, however, has always been its people: an energetic, diverse, and fiercely aspirational population of innovators, dreamers, and hard workers. But as a lifelong political moderate, I am watching this beautiful home being systematically dismantled into a dysfunctional “wannabe” utopia. For the past two decades, California has been governed not by a representative democracy, but by a progressive socialist Democratic mono-party. Lacking any meaningful opposition or competitive check on their power, our leaders have operated with absolute impunity. The result is a tragic paradox: we are a state with some of the highest tax revenues in human history, yet we are drowning in crumbling infrastructure, soaring costs, and jaw-dropping administrative incompetence. Under the guise of creating a progressive, anti-capitalist utopia, our governing class has instead waged a slow, devastating war on the California middle class. Nowhere is this ideological dysfunction more glaring than in the staggering, unchecked waste of our taxpayer dollars. While middle-class families pinch pennies to buy groceries, Sacramento has treated our tax contributions like play money, allowing billions to vanish into a black hole of fraud and mismanagement. Consider the numbers, which read like a ledger of pure negligence: $32 Billion in COVID Relief Fraud: During the pandemic, the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD) oversaw one of the largest hustles in American history, sending billions of dollars in unemployment benefits to international scammers, identity thieves, and even state prison inmates. $25 Billion in Unaccountable Homelessness Spending: Over the last several years, the state poured an astronomical $24 billion into addressing homelessness. Yet, a devastating state audit recently revealed that Sacramento failed to track where the money went or whether it had any impact. The crisis, predictably, has only worsened on our streets. $18 Billion and Counting on High-Speed Rail: What was promised to be a cutting-edge transit system has instead become a multi-billion-dollar monument to government waste, plagued by delays, ballooning costs, and outright fraud, with virtually nothing to show for it. $2.5 Billion in Food Stamp Fraud: Depriving those who actually need assistance, our Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) system has been systematically plundered due to outdated security features the state was too slow to upgrade. $650 Million for a Broken 911 System: Taxpayers funded a massive upgrade to our emergency response system, only to be left with a dysfunctional network that has repeatedly failed when Californians needed it most. While billions of dollars vanish into thin air, the state squeezed its law-abiding citizens to make up the difference. Californians now pay the highest gas taxes and some of the highest sales taxes in the United States. We endure the highest home prices in the nation, making homeownership an impossible dream for the next generation. Our homeowners’ insurance premiums are skyrocketing, that is, if you can even find a company willing to write a policy anymore, as major insurers flee the state’s highly regulated, fire-prone market. To make matters worse, the state’s aggressive regulatory environment is killing the very economy that funds it. California now suffers from the highest unemployment rate in the nation. Well-intentioned but economically illiterate top-down mandates, such as the fast-food minimum wage hike, have backfired catastrophically, resulting in the loss of over 18,000 fast-food jobs and counting. Small businesses are quietly folding, while major corporations, the traditional engines of our tax base, are packing up and moving to states that actually value their presence. This isn’t just a political talking point; the math is catching up to us. For the first time in our history, California’s population is shrinking. The middle class and wealthy taxpayers are voting with their feet. We have already lost one electoral vote, and we are firmly on track to lose another. The tax base is eroding, leaving us with a looming fiscal crisis that no amount of virtue-signaling can fix. We are being run by a class of wealthy elites who are insulated from the consequences of their own policies. They champion a generously funded, highly dysfunctional anti-capitalist rhetoric while living in gated enclaves, leaving middle-class families to deal with high crime, failing schools, and a prohibitively expensive cost of living. But there is hope. The upcoming 2026 midterm election represents a critical fork in the road. This is not a call for California to suddenly swing to the far right. Rather, it is a plea for sanity, balance, and the restoration of a pragmatic center. The 2026 midterms offer an opportunity to finally crack the foundation of this progressive mono-party. If voters can unite to elect common-sense moderates who prioritize accountability, fiscal responsibility, and basic competence over performative ideology, we can begin to salvage our state. We must send a clear message to Sacramento: we are done funding a bankrupt, delusional utopia at the expense of our families' futures. California is too beautiful, and its people are too resilient, to let it be destroyed by the arrogance of unchecked power. It is time to bring back balance. It is time to save the Golden State. Hello, and thanks for listening to my podcast For years, my mission has been to foster a community around engagement, unique takes on interesting stories, and conversation. If you value what I do, please consider supporting me. I've started a GoFundMe to cover my production and operational costs, including those pesky social media fees. 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