The Opportunity For The Unqualified

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

California suffers two great illnesses.  One, because it’s “Hollywood” they think image matters more than reality  Two, the Democrat majority have rendered elections seemingly uncompetitive for Republicans and taken monopolistic control.  That’s an ugly combination and it has come home to roost.  (Actually, the first one there came home to roost with the election of pretty boy Gavin Newsom who has proven utterly incapable of governing, but this post is about the combination.)

Leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Eric Swalwell, has had to withdraw not mere from the race, but from his congressional seat as a result of sexual assault allegations.  Really gross stuff, apparently covered up by his close supporters for a long time now.  There is that whole image trumps reality thinking.  And given the unintentional pun, I suppose I should mention the president’s very wrong-headed AI-image post.  Distasteful and disrespectful.  But a long way from sexual assault and also revealing.  Trump’s not hiding his distasteful tendencies which when contrasted with massive cover-ups like Swalwell is refreshing, distaste notwithstanding.

Swalwell’s withdrawal has left California once again in the position where it could face two Republicans in the general election given the jungle primary system they have there.  This leaves Katie Porter back in the Democratic lead for the nomination, a women long ago discredited due to her acidic, ugly and verbally abusive temperament – protecting image before reality.

It seems like Democrats, thinking that Republicans were simply no longer in the picture in the formerly golden state, have turned out a long list of incompetent, or worse, candidates for a job that at the moment demands extreme competency.  That tends to be what monopolies produce.  A lack of competition brings out the worst not the best.  “Iron sharpens iron,” as the Proverb goes.

The thought of a Republican governor in California does not fill me with great hope as the legislature will undoubtedly remain firmly in incompetent Democratic hands.  The last time that happened the legislature quickly pummeled Arnold Schwarzenegger into submission.  And while the two Republicans in the gubernatorial race most certainly have more backbone than the Governator did, they will quickly run into a number of obstacles that will severely limit their success at reform.

And that, I think, describes California’s current problems very well.  When I moved to California in the mid-1980’s it was the place where you went to realize your dreams.  Now it is the place where dreams die.  Actually, generally, those dreams are murdered – perhaps by an assault of the image conscious, but incompetent as you challenge their image – perhaps in a mountain of red tape – perhaps because the system is simply rigged against you.  California is now a place where you survive, not thrive.

And that is how this absolute mess of a governor’s race will come out.  There will not be a winner, only a survivor.  And if that survivor is a Democrat, an unqualified survivor.