California Dreaming

California progressive political elites are obsessed with sexual peccadilloes, skin color, and tribal identity politics, and act like Nero when their city burns: They fiddle.

Growing up in the middle of middle America, ever since I can remember, I wanted to visit California—I wanted to live in California. When I was young boy in the Midwest, California was a dreamland that seemed as remote as Mars.

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For those who prefer listening over reading, here is the audio for this Substack essay:

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Then in 1994, I moved from rural Kansas to Southern California for graduate school. For over a decade, I lived in and around Los Angeles. Two of my children were born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. I studied and worked in the quiet college town of Claremont, which is in Los Angeles County. I taught at two California colleges. For a spot of time, I lived in the Brentwood apartment complex where Ron Goldman resided before his gruesome murder.

During my time in Southern California, I spoke at numerous public events and connected with people from all walks of life, including several editors at the Los Angeles Times who invited me to write for them—which I did on multiple occasions. I became close personal friends with a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy, joining him on ride-alongs as he worked in a gang-unit in the Watts and Crenshaw neighborhoods of South-Central L.A.

I mention these otherwise mundane autobiographical facts to convey what it means to me personally to watch videos of Los Angeles burning over the past two weeks, scenes reminiscent of Dante’s Inferno or the Book of Revelation. I see many familiar places—where friends and colleagues live—literally incinerated, leaving only smoke, ash, and twisted metal. It is heart-breaking.

The most urgent task is to extinguish these terrible fires, which continue to burn. Please help if you can.

Furthermore, let us personally support those we care about as they sift through the rubble and attempt to rebuild their lives, which for many may mean relocating to somewhere safer.

Finally, when we can pause and think, we’d be wise to reflect upon the lessons we can learn from the horrific destruction we’ve just witnessed. I suggest we start with three key points:

1. The Unconquerability of Nature

2. The Use and Abuse of Crises to Expand Government Control

3. The Human Costs of Progressivism

Nature

There exists a significant divide between the classical understanding of nature and the modern perspective. Classical thinkers studied nature—including human nature—to understand how to live in harmony with it. Some scholars refer to this view as classical natural right, viewing nature not merely as what is in the most comprehensive sense, but also a guide for how we ought to behave—nature as the moral-political standard that ought to guide our moral choices.

What is the final cause or the highest purpose of human life? To what ultimate end do all human actions point? What is the true, the good, and the beautiful? These kinds of questions were central to classical thinkers, who sought answers by studying nature.

In contrast, modern technological science—beginning with Renaissance thinkers such as René Descartes, Francis Bacon, and Niccolò Machiavelli—departed from the classical view. Modern science rejects the idea of natural right and the notion that nature contains inherent moral principles to guide human choices.

Instead, modern science is far more ambitious. Its purpose is not to live according to nature or follow moral axioms discovered within it but to conquer and control nature in order to improve the human condition.

Nature merely supplies the materials with which humans can make and do what they want. The entire purpose of modern science, as Francis Bacon explained, is to reason about how to make and create and do something—technology—which combines the Greek roots technē (craft) and logos (reason).

Modern science emphasizes technology—inventing and making tools that enable humans to do whatever they have the will to do. [Progressivism began with a fascination with modern technological science, as progressives turned their attention to social engineering and using human beings to make a better future the way mechanical engineers use various raw and processed materials to build better machines.]

This emphasis on technology has become more popular than ever, while the lessons and warnings of classical science have long been forgotten. The fires that continue to burn in Los Angeles are a terrifying reminder that nature cannot and will not be controlled, at least, not entirely.

Never Waste a Crisis

Every incident, accident, or problem—regardless of who or what is involved—is seized upon by progressives to advance their political agenda of increasing government size, scope, and power. As reliably as night follows day and lawyers follow ambulances, progressive campaigns to restrict individual liberty by expanding government power follow every problem that garners public attention.

Regarding the recent fires in Los Angeles, progressives argue that the issue isn’t the fires themselves but what was previously termed global cooling, then global warming, and now referred to by the most sweeping name—global climate change. They contend that any weather variation, whether temperatures are warmer or cooler, is evidence of climate change.

So is any destructive fire.

In the case of the Los Angeles inferno and other catastrophic fires, the pattern is evident and has persisted for decades:

1. Preventing Fire Mitigation: Progressive activists, lawmakers, and bureaucrats impede effective fire mitigation, preparation, and responsible forest management.

2. Accumulation of Dead Growth: Over years, dead growth piles up, creating enormous powder kegs of natural explosive fuel, while surrounding human communities remain ill-prepared to combat large fires.

3. Escalation of Fires: Fires that should be manageable become uncontrollable catastrophes.

4. Blame Climate Change: Progressives then attribute increasingly destructive fires to climate change, simultaneously demanding more taxes, government spending, regulations, and control over the lives, businesses, and private property of citizens.

However, many causes of the current Los Angeles fires have little to do with climate change.

In what is now California, fires have burned for millions of years. Much of the state is desert, inherently dry. Fires burn hot and fast in such conditions. Similarly, Santa Ana winds—which can gust over 100 mph and reduce humidity levels to near zero—have existed long before humans. These “devil winds” are ancient and can transform a small fire into an incredibly destructive fire within minutes. These winds are not a product of climate change.

Measurable records of annual rainfall in Los Angeles, spanning over a century, show a consistent pattern unaffected by climate change. Some winters in L.A. are very wet; others not so much. Every summer is long, hot, and dry.

Plants that flourish in the winter become kindling in the summer. The Mediterranean climate of Southern California, combined with seasonal Santa Ana winds—not climate change—renders L.A. and surrounding communities vulnerable to wildfires. Repeated weather warnings about dry, windy conditions elevating fire threats have been ignored, contributing to the devastation witnessed today.

And, as predictable as the rise and fall of ocean tides, progressives immediately responded to the fires in California as the results of climate change, a subject about which there is something important that must be said:

Regardless of whether human beings are influencing climate change or not, We The People of the United States have no evidence that power-mongering progressive politicians and DEI-obsessed, rainbow-flag-waving bureaucrats can manage the global climate.

Zero. None. Nada. Zilch.

We are talking about people who cannot fix potholes, run a school, build reservoirs, ensure water flows from hydrants, or do the one and only job they are supposed to do: protect the liberty and private property of citizens. They cannot even account for billions of dollars appropriated to various government programs—money that just vanishes under their watch.

All they can say is: Whoops!

Let us hear no more that climate change somehow necessitates more taxes, regulations, and government control over the lives, property, and businesses of citizens. Nonsense. The progressive political class is the most incompetent, dishonest, and corrupt class of people on Planet Earth, which is only one of many reasons they should not be in charge of Planet Earth.

From here on, whatever climate change means, let’s ensure it does not translate into more government power.

The Human Costs of Progressivism

Progressivism—including the cultural depravity, bureaucracy, poverty, tribal identity politics, and crony corruption it fosters—has metastasized throughout the United States over the past century. It’s now everywhere.

Not only are our government agencies, offices, and bureaus so gigantic and complex they’d make Soviets envious, but they’re also training camps for progressivism. Virtually every government employee orientation and training seminar is a clinic of progressive indoctrination that you, the taxpayers, are funding.

Government spending programs are progressive spending programs. With few exceptions, American colleges and universities are progressive institutions of higher education. Hollywood is progressive. Professional sports. Corporate boardrooms. Many churches—yes, read that again. Chambers of commerce. The media. The list goes on.

As progressivism has become the new American civic religion and progressive programs incentivize corruption and shameful behaviors, old social pathologies have increased and new ones have emerged. Americans today are setting historic records in rates of addiction, abuse, neglect, depression, and teenage suicide.

Public school children cannot read at grade level—some cannot read at all—but they know about middle-aged men who dress as women. Here in progressive blue Colorado, children in union-controlled public elementary schools don’t know much, but their textbooks emphasize that the current Governor is a man who gets sexually aroused by men, not women, and they’re told this is something to celebrate.

Meanwhile, students are instructed from young ages that there is no objective moral right or wrong, only narrow-minded cultural prejudices, biases, and perspectives. More young Americans than ever enter public spaces and murder random strangers—in desperate acts of nihilistic purposelessness—usually just before taking their own lives.

If these are not the signs of a morally bankrupt postmodern culture, I don’t know what would be.

Progressive regulations, subsidies, and inflation have resulted in skyrocketing prices. Everything is expensive. In many states, the gap between renters and homeowners is now virtually unbridgeable because regulations and government restrictions have made housing unaffordable for so many people.

Progressivism was marketed to the American people as the practical application of love and caring. That was a lie. Progressivism benefits political elites, unelected bureaucrats, and politically-connected cronies looking for subsidies, waivers, and government contracts. It doesn’t help ordinary people. Progressivism hurts ordinary people, large numbers of them.

Live videos from the past two weeks have served as stark reminders of just how badly and deeply progressivism harms people as Los Angeles and its surrounding metropolitan area of 14 million burn.

Desert fires driven by Santa Ana winds are undoubtedly dangerous. Add the serial failures and incompetencies of progressivism—including the chronic underinvestment in key infrastructure—and those fires become even deadlier and more destructive.

California progressives have been warning about global climate catastrophes for years. And, the state of California and its crown jewel—Los Angeles—are citadels of progressivism. Progressives control everything, from the state government to L.A. County to the City of Los Angeles. Everything. So why weren’t California progressives better prepared for a fire? Why weren’t progressives within California governments at all levels ready to protect the lives and property of citizens?

They told us why.

Progressive California political elites such as Governor Gavin Newsom, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, and numerous progressive bureaucrats, including the Chief Executive Officer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Janisse Quinones, and Los Angeles Fire Department Deputy Chief Kristine Larson—who heads the LAFD’s Equity and Human Resources Bureau—have openly prioritized social justice, equity, and diversity of skin color and genitalia. Their focus has been anything and everything related to the LGBTQ+ agenda.

What have progressives in California governments not been addressing? Protecting the lives, liberties, and property of individual citizens. The results are now evident to everyone watching:

• A $7.5 billion bond measure passed by California voters over a decade ago (in 2014) for building dams, reservoirs, and water infrastructure has seen little action. Instead, progressives have been working on a $40 billion allegedly green-friendly high-speed train that goes precisely nowhere.
  

• Huge stretches of California’s electric grid are woefully outdated and dangerous, much of which dates back to the 1960s and 70s, some even to the 1930s. These deteriorating and failing electrical networks often spark fires, yet energy companies are pressured by progressive elites to invest more capital in DEI training and climate change propaganda rather than updating and improving the grid.
  

• Progressives in Los Angeles prioritize painting fire hydrants with rainbow colors and placing transgender pride flags on fire trucks, even though there is no water available when deadly fires break out.

California in general, and Los Angeles in particular—where progressivism thrives—now lead the nation in homelessness and have higher rates of poverty than most of the rest of the United States.

Progressives wring their hands with concern that the United States might become a dystopian nightmare from The Handmaid’s Tale if conservatives win any elections, yet under the actual leadership of progressive Democrats, large and unprecedented numbers of women are abused, beaten, raped, and worse within the sprawling and lawless homeless camps of Los Angeles and other California cities.

These are the real and terrible human costs of progressivism: historic rates of social pathologies, governments that promote their own interests rather than protect the rights of citizens, and, as the last two weeks have shown the world, people in high California government offices, who are obsessed with sexual peccadilloes, skin color, and tribal identity politics, and act like Nero when their city burns: They fiddle.