The Heavy Cost of Nationalizing Local Politics
Trump's bad. But maybe your local government is screwing you, too.
There’s a lot of terrible shit going down in Los Angeles right now.
City leaders are staring down a $1 billion budget deficit, an infuriating development considering the astronomical sums of money taxpayers fork over to the city and state. As Mayor Karen Bass proposes cutting services and laying off 1,600 city workers to balance a budget, Angelenos continue to face a housing crisis, homeless crisis and insurance crisis. The endless piles of literal trash on city streets is just the cherry on top ahead of L.A.’s plan to spend big on hosting the World Cup and Olympics soon. Things are going great!
You’d think all the audits showing that the city mismanaged billions in taxpayer resources would light a fire under some asses. One would expect that the diminished quality of life that has resulted from the utter incompetence of local leadership would encourage Angelenos to spring into action and demand change. But much of their ire has solely been directed toward Donald Trump and the chaos be brings to the federal government. After all, liberal L.A. is governed by Democrats and Trump plays on the opposite team.
Look, I get it. There are many downsides to the chaos and cruelty of the Trump White House. The man is unapologetic about his disposal of due process or his administration’s admitted “administrative mistake” in deporting migrants with protected status. The president evokes fear as he threatens to take things a step further by similarly deporting American citizens. Again, I get it. I have to spend much of my day studying his every move before producing and hosting a two-and-a-half-hour show about his depravity.
But local political dysfunction has a more devastating impact on our lives than Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Signal debacle does. That’s not to minimize the stupidity and possible consequences of Hegseth’s actions. But I’m more worried about California’s Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara signing off on State Farm’s demand to raise premiums on homeowners by as much as 22 percent a mere year after its customers got hit with a 20 percent premium hike. This news is going to crush Californians who are already struggling to make ends meet.
While the media would surely obsess over any inkling that Trump might be misusing campaign money, there no local media uproar over Lara allegedly raising funds through a phony lieutenant governor campaign only to use the cash to stuff his face at high end eateries. According to the San Francisco Standard:
"Lara, with less than two years left in his final term, has been using what appears to be a shell campaign committee to pay for nearly $30,000 in meals and drinks at some of the country’s fanciest restaurants and bars. Almost a third of these charges were listed as campaign meetings, and it’s unclear who Lara has been wining and dining during meals costing hundreds or, in at least one case, more than $1,000.”
I wish that were the worst of California’s problems. But that’s not all.