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ALPERN AT LARGE - Let’s please be honest with ourselves: if we have to take out a $3 billion loan or other budgetary restructuring to pay for Medi-Cal replete with illegal migrants…is that good governance?
If we don’t have enough money to pay for our streets, freeways, sidewalks, mass transit and energy infrastructure, while the California High-Speed Rail Project goes up and up and up in unsustainable costs…is that good governance?
When California’s dams, reservoirs, and water supply reserves are decades-ignored and getting worse…is that good governance?
When Californians’ utility costs, homeowner and car insurance policies, and property taxes keep skyrocketing beyond the affordability of most…is that good governance?
When taxpaying Californians’ children and young adults can’t access state universities because these universities are increasingly admitting out-of-state and foreign students for their higher tuitions…is that good governance?
When housing continues to become unaffordable, and when the state becomes a homeless magnet that is financially derelict…is that good governance?
When we have a state where taxpayers who built the state since the 1960’s are leaving, and with big businesses following suit…is that good governance?
Of course not. Of…course…not!
Gavin Newsom has but one more year to craft a budget and implement policies (go ahead, use executive order and eminent domain!) that might reverse years to decades of neglect and return the Golden State to common sense that most moderates would adore.
But a pod-cast is just talk—he can hang out with the MAGA-bro’s and debate conservative firebrands, but does that mean he’ll pull back from the far-left policies that brought California to the brink of financial unsustainability?
Clearly, Gavin Newsom has his sights set on a 2028 White House run—but who knows, maybe Brother Gavin just wants to become a well-paid podcaster or CNN journalist with his own show on how the Left needs to moderate a bit when it comes to good governance.
I’m sure that Greg Gutfeld’s popular show on Fox News (“The Five”) would love to have Gavin Newsom as a regular figure as the “token liberal”.
But when does talk end, and actions begin?
To resist the Far Left in the Sacramento Legislature, and to cobble together moderate Democrats and Republicans in that Legislature to ram through a few key policies, might take spine and guts but probably would be a good narrative if Governor Newsom means business about restoring California to moderate politics and governance:
1) Welcoming out-of-state homeless? Unsustainable.
2) Paying for the health and welfare of illegal migrants? Unsustainable.
3) Adhering to green environmental/energy policies that are leading to zooming water and energy costs? Unsustainable.
4) Paying for a California High-Speed Rail Project at the expense of all other transportation/infrastructure priorities? Unsustainable.
5) Not investing more in affordable university education, and in a cost-effective manner? Unsustainable.
6) Letting whatever rain we have dump into the ocean while our reservoirs get ignored and under-supplied? Unsustainable.
7) Not allowing businesses lower taxes and forcing them out of the state? Unsustainable.
8) Not creating new suburbs and far-flung cities like Banning and Beaumont and Fresno to get more water and infrastructure for new $200,000-400,000 homes and encouraging remote commuting and remote business development? Unsustainable.
9) Reforming fire prevention, utility policies, and forest management working hand in hand with the federal government? Unsustainable.
10) Preparing for a 2028 OIympics while the city and county of Los Angeles, and the state of California, are all up to their eyeballs in unpaid debt? Absolutely unsustainable>
So if Governor Newsom wants to mystify listeners and upset Democratic lawmakers with his pod-cast?
If Governor Newsom wants to talk openly with Trump loyalists and anger Democrats?
Well that’s his right with respect to free speech.
But talk is cheap. And right now the 2028 presidential race is replete with far-left individuals who plan to be the Democratic candidate to oppose presumed GOP front-runner J.D. Vance.
Governor Tim Walz? Forget it. Governor Josh Shapiro? Maybe!
But Governor Gavin Newsom—well, if he wants to show that he’s got the guts as a “reformed Leftist” who wants to focus on moderate and balanced good governance, he can talk publicly to the state, and outside of a “talk is cheap” podcast.
But bankruptcy awaits California and its cities, unless the human heart and spirit can do the brave thing and recognizes we’ve gotta stop digging the hole that’s drowning out all the California sunlight.
Your call, Governor Newsom…what’s your last budget, and what’s your last State of the State gonna be?
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as an At-Large and Westside Village Zone Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
