Incompetence Wins on the Ballots in CA

Audio By Carbonatix

California may be the only place in America where local and state government can fail spectacularly, repeatedly, expensively, and publicly—and still be rewarded with hugs, shrugs, and continued power.

Well…now that you mention it…Minnesota. New York. And every other bastion of true-blue mediocrity. 

Defeat Wins 

Even with an annual budget of $336 MILLION—taxpayer—dollars, employing more than 1,100 people, and paying its top election official nearly $500k a year, Los Angeles still struggles to count votes with the efficiency routinely demonstrated by states with fewer resources.

In most states—in most third-world countries—that would trigger outrage.

In California, it barely triggers curiosity. 

Because the Golden State has institutionalized and normalized incompetence. 

The same pattern appears everywhere you look.

Boxcar Children

In 2008, voters approved a high-speed rail project to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles. Glorious. The wave of the future and all that.The projected cost was roughly $33 billion. Today, somewhere between $126 billion to more than $231 billion has been spent. For the zero trains that have left the depot.

Think about that for a moment.

If a private company told investors a project would cost $33 billion and then came back asking for $126 billion—or even $231 billion—while still failing to deliver the finished product, someone would be fired.

Two decades have gone by. And Gavin Newsom, within the last few months, stated again how he felt this project has been successful. 

“Successful” in the same way the rebuilding of the Palisades has been “successful?”

Up in Flames, Down in Dumps

Residents watched confusion, mismanagement, and bureaucratic paralysis unfold in real time. Now many are watching rebuilding efforts move at the bureaucratic pace of paperwork rather than human need and urgency.

Less than 1% of the 6,000 to 7,000 homes destroyed have been rebuilt. 

Less than 10% of business have even secured permits to rebuild. 

I remember the “conspiracy theories” that swirled after the Hawaii wildfires…they aren’t going to let people rebuild…the property is to valuable…they will just wait them out until they move on…

Maybe the rumors are true?

The homelessness crisis follows the same script.

Year after year, billions are spent. 

Year after year, officials promise progress. 

Yet even local leaders have acknowledged the problem remains unsolved.

At some point, the issue stops being resources.

It becomes accountability. Or more accurately, the lack of it.

It becomes apathy. And the abundance of it. 

Pacific Post-Mortem

California has become a case study in what happens when the voters who demand results are outnumbered by voters who no longer expect them. Or by those who make the ballots…two weeks later. 

It’s a Greek tragedy for those who have it made in the shade out there. 

World-class universities.

Natural resources.

Major ports.

Global industries.

Surf and Sun.

And yet it consistently struggles with housing affordability, homelessness, infrastructure, public confidence, and basic governmental competence.

Why?

Because one-party political environments often create a dangerous dynamic: competition shifts from serving voters to feeding off of them.

The standard becomes not “Did this work?” but “Can we get away with the failure?”

And the recent elections show demonstrably, yes—they can.

Shiny, Happy People

The wealthiest Californians can often insulate themselves from the consequences of their preferred public policy. They live in safer neighborhoods, send their children to private schools, hire private security, and maintain enough distance from daily dysfunction that government failure becomes an urban legend rather than a burden.

Talk about PRIVILEGE.

This is a form of privilege rarely discussed.

The privilege of being wealthy enough not to care.

Meanwhile, ordinary Californians navigate the realities of rising costs, deteriorating trust, and promises that somehow always require one more chance, one more tax increase, one more election cycle, and one more billion.

Friends, at some point institutional incompetence IS corruption. 

Hey, Minnesota Daycares, hey!

Keeping the “fun” in Dysfunction

For years, voters have been told that dysfunction is normal, delays are unavoidable, waste is inevitable, and competence is simply too much to ask from government.

But competence is not too much to ask.

Counting votes is not too much to ask.

Building what was promised is not too much to ask.

Protecting communities is not too much to ask.

Solving problems after spending billions on solutions is not too much to ask.

You have one job, Karen…Gavin…this is it. 

Do your dang job. 

The remarkable thing isn’t that government sometimes fails.

The remarkable thing is how many Californians have stopped expecting it to succeed.

Hey, U-Haul, hey.