Neither the mayor of Los Angeles nor the governor of California can control the Santa Ana winds. But the wind isn’t the only problem exacerbating the wildfires in California. La has a shortage of firefighters and many hydrants have run dry. These are problems of governance. The root cause isn’t that Mayor Karen Bass or Governor Gavin Newsom are particularly inept or crooked. It’s a deeper problem, and it’s not just a California thing. Democrats, especially since 2020 have been choosing ideology over competence. They have shackled themselves to near religious ideas about climate, gender and Dei, and this spiritual devotion has gotten in the way of the basic tasks of running counties, cities and states. This is also the story in the places where crime and disorders still run rampant, such as the DC suburbs in Seattle.

It’s also the story of the Biden administration.

Let’s start in LA where there isn’t enough water to fight fires in the higher elevations. Why not? Well, it doesn’t help that the state hasn’t built a new reservoir in 20 years, one

reservoir in California. Has been in the works for over a decade. California voters in 2014 also approved $2.7 billion for more water storage. Why didn’t this money build new reservoirs? Environmental regulations and labor rules slow things down even more in California than anywhere else in America, and as the California globe put it, the state officials in charge bow to environmentalists by allowing half of the state’s water to flow out to the ocean, leaving farmers and local governments to fight for the other 50%

there’s also a shortage of firefighters in LA. Why? One NPR headline tells part of the story. Quote, firefighting is mostly white and male, a California program aims to change that.

Comedian Adam Carolla says he was forced to wait seven years to apply for a fireman job in California because he was a white male, the leaders are choosing ideology over competence. Again, this isn’t just in California. When my former home, Montgomery County, Maryland was plagued by a youth crime wave caused by excessive lockdowns, the county executive ran for re election on the issues of climate change and abortion,

President Biden’s two biggest problems were the migrant crisis and inflation. Both of these were caused by Biden elevating ideology and partisan politics over common sense.

Biden abolished all of Trump’s immigration policies, including the good ones, in pursuit of a wild ideal of open borders, he opened the spigots of government spending even wider after Trump’s COVID spending spree in pursuit of being the next Franklin Roosevelt, the results were predictably bad.

The problem isn’t that these politicians are taking left wing stances on social and environmental matters, it’s that they are embracing ideology over doing their jobs.

The consequences are real, crime waves, inflation and now in California, wildfires more destructive than they would be if California and La had competent governance and.