California has spent years telling the rest of the country what good governance looks like. Now it is showing everyone what happens when voters refuse to accept change, no matter the results. The lesson is simple: In a state that is this committed to a particular ideological philosophy, failure is not grounds for reconsideration. It becomes a reason to double down.
The state’s June primaries made two things abundantly clear. On the statewide level, Xavier Becerra, the former Biden administration health secretary, advanced to the November general election for governor. In Los Angeles, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, whose tenure has been defined by record-low quality of life, a homelessness crisis with no end in sight, and a wildfire response so disastrous that she fired her own fire chief, will face off against City Council member Nithya Raman, a Democratic Socialists of America member who thinks Bass is the problem because she isn’t far enough to the left.
Think about that for a moment. The Democratic response to a mayor who has presided over genuine civic failure is to offer voters either her or someone further left. In Los Angeles politics, there is no lane for questioning whether the entire approach might be worth reexamining…