Newsletter January 21- Newsom Takes on DeSantis and Buttigieg
Governor Gavin Newsom took on Florida governor Ron DeSantis last week, boasting that two-years into the pandemic, California is better off than Florida. If he’s testing the waters for a head-to-head against DeSantis in the 2024 presidential race, his strategy of comparing the two states is a bust.
For starters, the American people have already begun to “vote” with their feet and California is losing. For the first time ever, California lost population in 2020, with nearly 200,000 people exiting the state. Meanwhile, Florida gained more than 200,000 residents between July 2020 and July 2021.
The latest report from U-Haul on interstate moves for 2021 declares Florida in the top two for inbound growth, with Texas taking first place in states people are moving to. California, on the other hand, ranked No. 50 – dead last – for the second year in a row. In fact, California’s position as the “top state for out-migration” was so off the charts that U-Haul admits that it “simply ran out of inventory to meet customer demand” for outbound vehicles.
The difference in migration patterns between the two high-profile states is no mystery. California shut down its economy with strict COVID mandates, while Florida did the polar opposite. California’s unemployment rate is 6.9 percent; Florida’s is 4.5 percent. And while DeSantis has been outspoken about protecting the rights of parents of school-age kids, Newsom continues to serve his teachers union allies, putting their interests above the needs – and rights – of California students and families.
The not-so-shocking California exodus is the result of an ongoing failure of governance. Newsom and DeSantis are diametrically opposed not just in their handling of the pandemic, but in their philosophies on the role – and limits – of government. By all indicators, a national referendum on Florida vs. California would end poorly for Newsom.
Add train robberies to California’s supply chain failures
Biden transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg visited Southern California ports last week and blamed the state’s supply chain fiasco on “decades of past disinvestment” in infrastructure. In reality, the crisis is caused by California’s trifecta of failed liberal policies: “green” regulations and emissions standards that prevent older and out-of-state vehicles from moving shipping containers and impose costly requirements on new trucks; laws that discriminate against independent drivers in favor of union-run companies; and contracts with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union that prohibit new automation if it reduces union jobs.
You can see the result: container ships anchored for miles just off the coast.
Buttigieg left town just as news broke that street gangs are causing another type of supply-chain disruption. Thieves are ransacking rail shipments in Los Angeles County, stealing thousands of packages from Amazon, UPS and other retailers daily.
Union Pacific reports that it saw rail thefts increase by 356 percent in October 2021 over October 2020. Over the last three months, on average more than 90 containers were “compromised” every day. Images of debris from stolen packages strewn across the tracks shocked the nation, and may have caused a derailment this week.
This rampage of robberies is the direct result of radical Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón’s refusal to prosecute criminals in the name of “social justice.” Thieves that are arrested are charged with misdemeanors and released immediately because of “bail reform.” In a letter to Gascón asking for help, Union Pacific explained that the same thieves return night after night and boast to Union Pacific officers that, when they’re arrested, it’s understood that the DA’s office will plead down charges “to simple trespassing – which bears no serious consequence.”
This is the height of political dysfunction that further distinguishes California from Florida, but it gives us hope.
Why? Because when things get so nasty you can’t pretend you don’t see it anymore, people finally step up to take action. All over California, we’re watching as self-described liberals and progressives, suddenly awake, join CPC in the fight to restore the California Dream.
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