. In 2001, now-Mises Institute President Tom DiLorenzo wrote about California being a “La-La Land” where rolling electrical blackouts were reminiscent of what happens in Third World countries. While keeping the lights on is now a bit easier in the Bear Republic than it was two decades ago, the recent Los Angeles wildfires have exposed the follies of never-ending progressive governance there.
California voters ended the career of the governor responsible for the blackouts in the early 2000s, but since then the state has become a one-party entity where progressive Democrats dominate statewide elections despite the disasters they unleash, thus proving F.A. Hayek’s point made in The Road to Serfdom, that in politics, the “worst get on top.” Despite the huge amount of wealth created by businesses in the state, California still “enjoys” the nation’s highest poverty rate, thanks to its progressive governments, thanks to the state and local government policies that have pushed millions of people into destitution.
But the latest onslaught of wildfires has brought a political response that demonstrates just how detached California’s ruling class is from reality. Moreover, instead of discrediting their brand of progressive governance, these crises actually further empower California’s progressive politicians. For those that doubt the truthfulness of Robert Higgs’ theme in Crisis and Leviathan that government-caused crises further empower those failed government leaders, California provides proof.
Yes, those dyed in the wool Californian statists are at it again. The politicians and state agencies are never the cause of these wildfire disasters. It is always the oil companies, the climate change, the stupid people, but never the state, the state policies, and the state leaders. It is truly La-la-land. Let me take a shrewd guess, here, the people know and are getting ready to do something about it.