California Will Be Fine If Larry Elder Becomes Governor
Most of the rest of the country knows this is all crazy, and many Californians do, too. But they don t seem to understand how damaging all the silly posturing can be.
While this is happening, California is being devastated by wildfires, and NIMBYism and the cost of living are out of control. Middle-class residents are leaving the state, poverty problems are perhaps the most serious in the country, and work from home is endangering the traditional revenue sources from employment at the big tech companies. Ezra Klein, co-founder of the Vox website, a columnist for the New York Times and hardly a right-winger, described the current California predicament as a failure of progressive governance.
If Californians had a governor whom people found to be their exact opposite on rhetoric and expressive attachments, they would be forced to wake up and realize that & actually, not very much had changed on the ground. That might nudge some California voters into seeing the emptiness of rhetorical gestures, and perhaps they would instead focus on the actual substance of governing.
An Elder victory also would offer at least some chance of resurrecting two-party competition in California. Democracy works better when each party stands some chance of winning, as that boosts competitive pressures to perform.
Obviously an Elder victory won t make California into a right-wing state, but shaking things up in this manner, especially with a Black Republican governor, could at least diminish the stranglehold of the Democrats on power at the state level. In the longer run that could be better for both Republicans and Democrats.
Tyler Cowen.