The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: California Is Stuck in a Doom Loop

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

"The real problem is that 300,000 to 500,000 Californians are leaving the state. They can't put up with what I just discussed. They're sick of it." — Victor Davis Hanson  California has some of the highest taxes and energy costs in the country, but residents say quality of life is getting worse. Yet voters continue to keep the same political leadership in power. The issue isn't just policy failure—it's a massive population shift. As taxpayers and businesses leave, they are being replaced by a population dependent on government programs, while the wealthy political elite remains insulated from the consequences.   Hanson explains why he believes California is stuck in a "doom loop" and what the state's future will look like if current trends continue on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.”  👉 FINDING OUR WORDS: Words That Made America—the book for our 250TH & ALWAYS—is available now in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, Audible, and in Spanish translation HTTPS://WWW.MOUNTTITANOMEDIA.COM/   👉 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

Welcome to the Daily Signal podcast, where we provide intelligence for the intelligent. Now, without further ado, here's today's take. This Father's Day start with a question, like where did Dad's story begin? Ancestry DNA now has up to $75 off on our Father's Day sale, so Dad can explore his roots across more than 3,600 regions, and discover the places and cultures that shaped his story. Save now, give Ancestry DNA from only 6,000. $29.

Offer ends June 21st. Visit Ancestry.ca for details. Terms apply. Here's a question. As we approach our 250th, is it possible for us to turn around our education to restore civic leadership and enjoy summer vacation with our family all at the same time? Well, Mount Titano Media says, yes. This is the book for our 250th and for all ages, finding our words. Finding our words, words that made America.

This collection of the greatest speeches delivered in American history, many almost entirely forgotten, displays those very words that defined and can still drive the American mission. And now you can take them anywhere this summer with the Audible Edition. These words that move the world are read by Michael Knowles, Andrew Claven, Spencer Clavin, Spencer Clavin, Bill Whittle, U.S. Army generals, and leaders in classical education. Every speech includes a powerful introductory essay written by acclaimed scholar Tracy Lee Simmons,

whose preludes set the stage for a deeper understanding of each work. Mount Titano Media publishes single works and compilations of the greatest works of Western civilization for education at all levels and for independent lovers of learning and culture. Finding our words, Words That Made America, a great book for our two, 50th and always is available now in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, Audible, and even in Spanish. Get your copies at Amazon and on the Mount Titano Media website. That's Mount Titano, Tintanon, Mountatatano Media.com. Visit www.w.w.montatano Media.com.

Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. We've talked a lot about the crisis that California, is in and what it may predict for the rest of the United States, should they follow the California blue model, and many of them are. I guess we could sum it up as a doom loop. A doom loop. California is in a cycle where there's no chance unless it makes radical change. It can get out of it as it heads toward what we would might call third world extinction. Now, we need to break it down. from the symptoms to the cause. The Greeks had a word in the historian Thucydides.

They said there was a, he said there was a prophesus, a superficial explanation, or an apparent explanation, or sometimes a disingenuous explanation. And then there was the ITIA, the real problem. And people don't really want to talk about the real problem. But here's the symptoms, as we know it, the prophases. We have the highest taxes in the United States, 13.3 income tax, highest gas taxes, among the top 10 highest sales taxes. We have the highest gasoline prices. We have the highest electricity prices in the continental United States.

We have some of the worst services. Reason magazine said our roads are 49th in the nation. We know that our schools are in the bottom 10% based on test scores. half of all bursts are conducted through Medi-Cal or state welfare system. 40% are on it. 25% don't or can't pay their power bills every month. We've got the largest fraud in the country. It may over many years have extended up until now $250 billion.

Okay. So those are the symptoms. And we know the manifestation of those symptoms. We have supermajorities in the state legislature, supermajorities in the Senate and the House. And we have only seven of 52 congressional seats are held by Republicans. Donald Trump won 38 percent. Most Republican presidents win 40 percent. That's 13 percent of our congresspeople.

And remember, that's considered too generous by the left. Given their new redistricting plan, we may go down to five Republicans. And because we've had no statewide offices, I mean governor, we haven't appointed a liberal, we haven't appointed anybody but a liberal judge, no conservatives, no Republican judge on the state superior court, appellate court, and Supreme Court in 15 years. And the federal system, the 9th District, is already known to be quite liberal. So if you go to court in California, you're going to be facing a liberal judge. Just the truth.

But here's the real problem. Those are symptoms. The real problem is 300 to 500,000 Californians are leaving the state. They can't put up with what I just discussed. They're sick of it. They're sick of it for a very strange reason that's not so apparent. Yes, they're sick of paying all that money and taxes and power and getting terrible services, terrible roads, not very good health care, terrible schools, but they're being insulted.

They're saying, go, go, we don't want you. That's the message from California. Elon Musk is worth a trillion dollars. Can you imagine had he stayed? He wanted to stay in California. And we're losing a lot of the Google people, and Mark Zuckerberg are leaving. And they're leaving because not just do they pay a lot and they get very little, but they're being insulted by this government. It's truly a socialist government, that government in the widest sense of the word, state, local offices,

but people do not like wealthy, successful people. They feel they cheated or, as Elizabeth Warren said, you didn't build that. So they're leaving. That's the people who pay 58% of their income in federal, state, and local taxes. Those are the people who pay a large segment of their income at over 10% and even over 13.3%. Now, they're being replaced. Over 50 years, 12 million a month left. These were the Reagan voters, the Pete Wilson voters, the Dormuzon voters, the Dormuzon voters, the Dormazian voters.

voters, the Arnold Schwarzenegger, but they're being replaced. 27% of the California resident population was foreign-born, largely from the western hemisphere south of the border, Asia, Africa. And most of them, not all, come here very, very poor, very, very poor, and in need, because we're a kind and humane society of massive subsidies, health, education, legal housing, food, and that is one reason why we chronically run budget deficits. We're spending enormous amounts of money on redistributive fraud, sometimes fraud, but welfare entitlements, Medi-Cal, food stamps, what we used to call food stamps,

Section 8 housing, all of that. And the people who paid for that are leaving. There's one other wrinkle, the real cause of this problem. Silicon Valley inherited at the millennium a global audience, 7 billion consumers for Apple and Google and Facebook, Twitter, and all of it. $14 trillion confined to the area between San Jose and Berkeley, and that has created a political class as that money trickles through the economy to lawyers and Hollywood and elected officials.

and unions, all the avenues of left-wing political expression, it's made a coastal elite not subject to the consequences of their ideology. They don't really care about the price of electricity. They don't really care about the price of gas. They don't care that we have almost half the nation's homelessness. They have so much money and a secure zip code that we, the lab rats, experience the consequences of their experiments. upon us. So let me just sum up. We have seen the largest diaspora of population shifts in California

in our history, much bigger than the Oklahoma diaspora to California. People are leaving with money who paid the bills and the people who are coming are the recipient of programs funded by their money. And we have an elite who knows this but feels sort of protected. It's sort of like Tom Steyer who ran for governor, a billionaire who started out funding or investing in Indonesian coal and offshoring his money to avoid taxes and then renouncing billionaires. That's sort of how it works, that the wealthy trash the wealthy, and then they take advantage of all the tax advantages that the wealthy alone have the ability to exploit. Add it all up, and we're in a doom loop. Yes, everything is bad in California. The elections are bad.

We don't have a Republican Party. There are no conservatives with political power. But the reason is there's this great population shift, and it's not getting any better. And if it continues, as I think it will, California will become sort of like the United Kingdom, a once prosperous, vibrant 1970s, 1980s at the Millennium Country into something now. that is poor than Mississippi. Don't laugh. California can be poor than Mississippi if the present government

and the present demography and the present migration patterns sustain themselves. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal. 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. Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up?

That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca.cair, every style, every home.