The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: California Dems Quiet On Issues They Caused

Episode Date: May 13, 2026

Amid the 2026 California gubernatorial race and the Los Angeles mayoral election, Democratic candidates seem determined to talk about anything except the problems facing the Golden State—an inadequate government response to the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, the highest income and gas taxes in the nation, and record-breaking homelessness. Why? For nearly two decades, Democrats have controlled almost every major center of power in California: the governor’s office, the state Legislature, and the state Supreme Court. There is no one else to blame but themselves, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.” 👉 The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: http://dailysignal.com/donate 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠  Also on Spotify: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9753340027  👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enable notifications:  https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1 👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal. We've had a series of debates on the future of California, at least in venues for the mayorial race in Los Angeles, in which the outsider Spencer Pratt challenged Karen Bass, the mayor, and councilman Rahman, both hard leftists. And then we had a series of gubernatorial debates in which we had just two conservatives, Chad Bianco, the sheriff from Southern California, and Steve Hilton, Fox commentator, and they were arrayed against Kathleen Porter, Havio Bicera, Anthony Villa Gerasa, and, in addition, Tom Steyer. Now, there's a common thread to all of this.

None of the people on the Democratic side want to talk about any issues. In the mayoral race, neither Bass nor Rahman wanted to talk about what happened in the LA fire, or why Karen Bass was in Uganda, Ghana. Or we don't want to talk about why the reservoirs were empty or the hydrants not working, or it was against the law to remove brush, or the conduct of the fire department, those are the vice mayor phoning in a bomb threat. So when the mayor was gone, the vice mayor was under arrest,

there was nobody in control of the city. Nobody wants to talk about the highest taxes on gas in the nation, the highest income tax. Nobody wants to talk about one third of all the welfare recipients here. Almost half the nation's homeless are here. The high-speed rail, $250 billion. dollar boondoggle without a foot of track laid, probably 250 billion wasted in various government entitlement frauds administered by the state. I could go on and on, but when Spencer Pratt tried

to mention these things and ask them why you did this or what, they don't want to talk about it. They don't want to talk about because for 20 years, they've had a supermajority in the legislature and both the Senate and the Assembly, and it's been 20 years, 30 years since a Republican governor, so it's all the judiciary, both the federal judiciary under Biden and Obama's nominees, but mostly the state, Superior Court, appellate court, Supreme Court, have all been nominated and approved by Democrats. And so there's no one else to blame. That's why they will not talk about it. And their argument is that, essentially we have this huge $13 to $14 trillion Silicon Valley, of which now they've turned on

with their millionaire and billionaire taxes, and that runs the whole state. That's their argument. That's what Gavin News. Every time Gavin Newsom is presented with a critique of his leadership, he said, we're the fifth largest economy in the world. He never says that I've driven out oil refineries. I've prohibited pipeline construction. I drove out the timber industry and that I, as a San Francisco County official, as a mayor of San Francisco, as a lieutenant governor of the state, and as governor, I've had over 32 years, and no one is more responsible for California as it is today than Gavin Newsom. No, he won't talk about any of these problems. He just talks about Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump. He has these nasty sort of two social people who use capital letters, foul language.

and threatened people who would have hit Trump in the mouth or people in Europe got on their knee pads, kind of foul imagery, thinks it's really neat. He gives these interviews where he kind of wiggles his shoulders, but he doesn't talk about his record. So how did we get here if they didn't tell us? How did a state that was well governed and had a natural paradise and was the envy of all 50 states in matters of energy production, defense production, tripartisan, tribe parts, higher education system, a solid K-12 educational system, great infrastructure. Why would the American Trucking Association say, I don't want you driving on the 99 or north-south lateral,

most dangerous highway in the nation per miles driven? What happened? Well, how did these people come to power? The first thing was that we had an explosion in technology in the 1970s and 80s, and due to the location of Stanford University and UC Berkeley, in between was Silicon Valley. And that boomed as the creators of everything from computers to iPhones to iPads to Adobe to everything. Now it's AI. and that is now ballooned to $14 or $15 trillion in market capitalization, and its left wing.

At least it was until recently, the state has turned on them. We'll see what happens. But when Gavin Newsom says, we're the fifth largest economy in the world, he doesn't talk about anything he's done. He's saying that despite our efforts, these people are multi-billionaires, and they're anchoring our entire agenda and paying for it and subsidizing candidates, donating to candidates.

Second is when this thing started, high taxes, very little in return from it. We were losing 200 to 300,000 people a year. So the proverbial dogmation, Pete Wilson, Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger voter doesn't exist. He and she are in Montana. They're in Nevada. They're in Florida. They're in Tennessee. They're in Texas.

And they're making those states redder and redder. But they're gone. And then we had the highest level of illegal and legal immigration of any other state. So we probably had half of the original 11 million illegal aliens that were here, maybe up to 20, before the Biden influx. We don't know how many they are. When Karen Bass was asked specifically, would you allow illegal aliens to vote in California election? She wouldn't answer the question because she knew she'd have to say yes and get some criticism from people. on the stage, one person on the stage, maybe.

And so 27% of the state residents were not born in the United States. That's an enormous task of acculturation, assimilation, integration, language, fluencies, civic education, we didn't do any of that. And those are powerful lobby groups. And they feel as newcomers, they're not as affluent, although many are, as the existing resident population, and they should have repertory entitlements. and they should run them. And so you put all of those things together in California is what it is.

What can save California? What will save California? Well, if the people who got their wish, and that's the people, 60% of the population, who continually vote in the Karen Basses and the Gavin Newsom's, and they approve of that agenda, and yet the gas is now about $8 on the coast, and here's about $6.50 a gallon in California, $2 at least higher than elsewhere.

Electricity runs from $0.45 a kilowatt, and we're going to have shortages. There's not enough water anymore because of the releases into the bay. And my point is that there's so much regulation, and there's so much bureaucracy, and there's so much diversion of key monies from infrastructure to illegal aliens or to subsidize, the 40% of the state who's, 50% of the state is on Medi-Cal. If you have all of that, who can stop it? The only answer is it won't work anymore. It'll reach collapse.

It will be unsustainable. What can't go on, as the old proverb says, won't go on. And then people will say, well, where's my dialysis clinic? Or it takes me, it's too dangerous to drive to San Francisco from Fresno. a DUI person hit my daughter on the highway and left the scene of the accident and we don't know where he is and if we do know where he is he's going to be out with no cash bail so when it starts to hit a majority of the people and we're very close to that then it won't go on anymore but the question I leave you with when it's no longer sustainable and people say I can't take this anymore

and they and they start voting in a different fashion will there be a california. left to save. Thank you very much, Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Seag. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.