RE: Who is imposing this misery on them?
By analogy to heaven and hell, C.S. Lewis used to say: “the gates of hell are locked on the inside”. It is not that God sends them into this isolation — in fact, it is just the opposite: even though God thirsts for our communion with Him, some choose to exclude themselves. Such people have chosen the prison of self-made aloneness rather than the joy of communion with God.
Similarly, You might call it misery, but the voters of California call it paradise. They WANT this to happen and are happy for this to happen.
Consider — They had a chance to recall Gavin Newsom but decided to keep him ( by a landside too ). This simply means that Californians ( or those who opt to stay ) actually LIKE what’s happening.
The opportunity was there to get out of hell, but they LOCKED the door from the inside.
Yes, they do. Along with more than a few cases of Stockholm Syndrome clouding their judgement.