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Posted on 06/04/2026 12:14:37 PM PDT by Bullish
The gap between what was promised and what was built is the defining political fact of modern California
I moved to California in 1990. The economy was on an upswing. Teachers, firefighters, and nurses could still afford to buy a house. Thirty-five years later, after uninterrupted progressive governance, the median home sale price in Los Angeles County sits at roughly $910,000. Gas averages over $6.15 a gallon statewide—not because of some distant conflict, but because California’s regulatory apparatus drove its own refineries out of business. Net domestic out-migration hit 288,600 in 2025; the sixth consecutive year California led the nation in residents packing up and leaving.
Nobody who voted for any of this campaigned on it. They ran on compassion, housing equity, and saving the planet. They delivered unaffordable housing, a homelessness crisis that looks like a third-world city, and an energy grid that can’t keep the lights on reliably. That gap—between what was promised and what was built—is the defining political fact of modern California.
In December 2025, Governor Newsom called housing unaffordability “the original sin going back decades and decades.” He said this after years in office. He said it without apparent irony. The same coalition that built the problem is now asking for your vote to fix it. That’s not governance. That’s recycling.
The Rita Mae Brown line—often misattributed to Einstein—defines insanity as doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. I first heard it from my father after another Red Sox loss. I’ve carried it through thirty years structuring deals in private equity, private credit, and family offices. Markets don’t forgive repetition. They punish it. California voters, unfortunately, have been more patient.
The numbers are not ambiguous. California’s overall tax burden ranks among the highest in the nation. Its business regulatory environment consistently finishes near the bottom of every credible ranking. Corporate headquarters—Oracle, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Tesla, Charles Schwab—have been relocating to Texas and other states for years. What’s leaving isn’t just companies. It’s the tax base that funds the programs the progressive coalition depends on to stay in power.
The policy response to each failure follows a predictable pattern: the problem wasn’t the approach; we just didn’t go far enough. Housing unaffordable? More zoning mandates. Grid unreliable? More renewable mandates. Schools failing? More money to the same system. California spent roughly $23,000 per pupil in 2023—more than nearly every other state—and still produced NAEP scores that rank near the bottom nationally. The investment is real. The results aren’t.
The Marine Corps drilled one principle into my skull: you don’t grade the mission on effort or intentions. You grade it on results. Outcomes are auditable. NAEP scores. Energy prices. Net migration. Median home values. Debt-to-GDP at the state level. These are the numbers that tell you whether a policy worked. Not press releases. Not applause at a campaign rally.
California isn’t out of options. School choice would break the monopoly that’s failing a generation of kids, particularly in lower-income districts where the damage is most visible. Regulatory reform—real reform, not the staged kind—would let builders build and refiners refine. Repealing AB 5 in any serious way would restore economic mobility for hundreds of thousands of independent contractors the state reclassified out of existence. None of this requires a revolution. It requires electing people who measure their own performance by outcomes rather than ideology.
The same politicians who ran the same failed plays for thirty-five years will appear on your ballot again with updated slogans and fresh faces beside them. The question isn’t whether you’re angry—most Californians are. The question is whether that anger produces a different decision in the voting booth, or just another cycle of recycled promises from the coalition that built the problem.
Adjust your stride. Clear the hurdle. Stop handing the keys to the same drivers who put you in the ditch.
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Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
And you can’t vote them out with rigged elections.
I consider most elections intelligence tests. And Californians have been failing miserably for some time now.
The same goes for many blue cites and states.
One of the biggest problems here in Ca is that too many people don’t vote at all. Turnout should be much better, but there’s many people who are completely ignorant of issues and politics in general, they just tune it all out and don’t show up at the polls. The democrats take full advantage of the electorate’s ignorance selling them hokum, smoke and mirrors and outright lies.
You have to make it 'too big to rig' like we did in 2020 for DJT.
There is an elected official in the Kalifornia State Government that is in charge of, has a duty to audit spending. The Kalifornia Controller.
Many moons ago, a person ran for this office stating that his first duty would be to actually perform audits. While he received a lot of votes, there was no way the Kalifornia democRATs/DemoKKKrats were going to allow him to win.
Kalifornia is now the epitome of: it is not who votes that counts. What matters is who counts the votes.
"Turn on, tune in, drop out."
From Chat-AI on California.
“California’s U.S. House delegation is majority Democratic. As of June 4, 2026, California’s delegation has 42 Democrats and 13 Republicans (55 total seats), so Democrats hold the majority.”
“42/55 = 76.36% democrat.
A very well thought out, reasoned and written article.
Too bad most California ‘voters’ can’t think, reason or read..
You can’t vote out the vote counters.
I was born and raised there. Probably the most beautiful place on earth. (South Lake Tahoe. Then was stationed along the coast for my CG time. And then stationed along the Monterrey Bay when I was a CDF firefighter.). I got out days after graduating college (Fresno State)because I saw the writing on the wall. Very sad to see what democrats do to everything they touch. Destruction, ugliness, violence are what they do. I still have family there and graves to visit. I love the beauty of California but I don’t like visiting.
I get a good laugh whenever someone talks about building “Affordable Housing” in the tarnished state. It will NEVER HAPPEN!!!.
10 years ago we decided to build a new house on our 10 acres in Acton, Ca, its 30 outside of Los ANgeles but in Los ANgeles County. It was almost $300,000 in building permit costs, I quit counting at $200K, and it took OVER 4 YEARS to get all my permits. I won and it;s been just over 4 years since I finished, now and I am going to sell it.
I just built a Brand New House to replace my old one here in Mohave Valley, AZ(COlorado River) and TOTAL permit costs for everything was $900 and took 30 days!!!
Wow, I knew it was bad but I didn't know it was that bad. That's unbelievable.
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