California
Steven Greenhut | 9.6.2024 7:30 AM
After Vice President Kamala Harris secured the Democratic nomination for president, many news outlets featured news stories with headlines such as this one: "Harris Put California at Center of Politics." Or "Bay Area Relishing in National Spotlight." There's little doubt that Harris' ascent—and Gov. Gavin Newsom's long-running effort to tout California's so-called "freedoms" in benighted Red States—has elevated California's national profile.
Harris was, of course, San Francisco prosecutor, state attorney general, and U.S. senator. She only had a marginal—if any—effect on the state's yearslong descent into progressive fantasyland, even if she is a product of the Bay Area Democratic machine. My focus isn't on the vice president, but on the state's one-party politics. Here are a few pillars of modern California's politics:
Tax, spend, borrow, and spend some more: A few years ago, I recall one Democratic senator waxing poetic about the good old days, when the U.S. government imposed income-tax rates (from 1944 to 1963) that topped 90 percent. It reminded me that the overarching goal of our state government—from the governor to Democratic supermajorities in both legislative houses—is to increase taxes by the maximum amount possible without causing........