LA Fires Extinguished Gavin Newsom’s Presidential Dream

Two years ago Gavin Newsom was widely seen as a rising Democratic star and likely future presidential candidate. Meanwhile Donald Trump, facing massive legal troubles and the results of his own intemperance, seemed to many, like those at CNN, a fading figure.

How quickly things change. Over the weekend, Trump met with the California Governor as they toured parts of California devastated by the wildfires. As Newsom was forced to greet the President with his cap in hand, Trump wasted no time in attacking the state’s progressive policies. On his arrival, Trump called on Newsom to change the state’s water policies, blaming the spread of the fires on deficient supplies. This is partially accurate: although water policy has been poorly implemented, the immediate issue lay in the city’s failure to maintain fire spending and key infrastructure like water pressure for hydrants and keeping the local water reservoir filled and operable.

Trump’s demands have drawn attention to the state’s self-inflicted wounds, and its pattern of astounding incompetence. In 1971, the economist John Kenneth Galbraith described the state government as run by “a proud, competent civil service,” and enjoying among “the best school systems in the country”. This year Wallet Hub ranked the state last in terms of return on investment for taxpayers.

There are signs that the state’s residents are taking note and growing tired of the progressive regime. Only 40% of California voters approve of the legislature and almost two-thirds have told pollsters the state is heading in the wrong direction. Today less than one in three Californians approve of Newsom’s handling of the fires.

Much of the problem can be traced to Newsom’s green allies who have erected barriers to effective fire management, as the Little Hoover Commission found as far back as 2018, which discouraged such things as controlled burns and brush clearance. Even as the state reacted to major fires in 2020, its policies on such practices have been hampered by environmental lawsuits that delay implementation of such policies, as well as fire management budget cuts.

The emergence of Trump makes things all the more difficult for Newsom’s climate policies. Now he must cope with a new president whose campaign slogans is “drill, baby, drill.” So while Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Ohio are ready to get richer, Newsom is taking California in the opposite direction. He has pledged to shut down California’s once expansive energy industry, getting its oil from such progressive bastions as Saudi Arabia instead. This is not a good look to much of the country.

Read the rest of this piece at UnHerd.

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Joel Kotkin is the author of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class. He is the Roger Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and and directs the Center for Demographics and Policy there. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas in Austin. Learn more at joelkotkin.com and follow him on Twitter @joelkotkin.

Photo: California Governor’s office, Public Domain.