California was once a prosperous place to which people flocked. Today, after decades of progressive politics, it is slowly regressing into a third world state. The latest sign of decay is a power blackout during raging forest fires in the summer heatwave. People are leaving en masse – but are they refugees, or locusts?
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) said: “We failed to predict and plan these shortages.” In a walk in the woods, he blamed the recent forest fires during the blackout on global warming. “If you are in denial about climate change, come to California.”
The inconvenient truth is that all the problems California has faced with increasing frequency are not only predictable but have been created by the progressive politics that is turning the state into a third world hellhole.
Progressive Fires
California has always been prone to fires during its dry season. The easy solution that experts in forest management recommend is to have controlled burns of the underbrush every year to prevent fuel from accumulating.
It’s easy, cheap, and proven. California refuses to do it because forest management is “unnatural.” The practice does not align with their progressive green ideology. Both humans and wildlife of California suffer the consequences.
Progressive Blackouts
Power shortages in California are the direct result of a transition from reliable energy, such as coal and nuclear, to the much less reliable wind and solar. Experts have warned about this for years. The blackouts could effortlessly have been avoided. Even if California decided to phase out coal energy to combat climate change, nuclear power is a safe, clean, and cheap option.
Progressive Water Shortages
Due to progressive green ideology, California allows clean freshwater to run into the Pacific Ocean from rivers without utilizing it. Now they have water shortages. The solutions are well-known and easy to implement. Either the state could use more of its natural freshwater runoff water, or it can do what Israel does: desalination of ocean water.
The Sorek desalination plant produces freshwater at 58 cents per ton. A typical customer in Israel pays $30 per month for water, far less than Los Angeles, where people spend nearly $60 per month.
Progressive Poverty
California also has the largest homeless population. Paying some of the highest taxes in the union with little to show for it, many Californians are doing what people from third world countries often do: leave.
The Golden State has been losing population steadily for more than a decade. In 2019, the exodus reached a new high, 38% higher than the previous year. These people are moving to more well-run states, such as Texas.
One famous person who has announced his departure to Texas is Joe Rogan. He explains that “I just want to go somewhere in the center of the country, somewhere it’s easier to travel to both places, and somewhere where you have a little bit more freedom.”
Refugees or Locusts?
Not all people are like Rogan, however, and many other states fear that most of the fleeing Californians are bringing their destructive progressive politics with them. Locusts are famous for invading fertile land and transforming it into a barren desert before moving on to victimize another place. Though, in this case, we are talking about human beings and not insects, does the exodus from California have the same effect? Will the West Coast refugees take their progressive ideas with them to destroy the states in which they settle?
California used to be the land of opportunity: a testament to how fast progressive politics can ruin a state.
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