Washington Post columnist George Will shocked his conservative readership when he announced he was backing Democrats in the past two elections, citing Donald Trump. Mr. Will is of the old school, and if you’ve read his columns for decades, you can tell this man was not one to hop on the MAGA train. It’s unfortunate, but at least he hasn’t gone the way of other anti-Trump Republicans, or at least isn’t as obnoxious about it. Will still delivers insightful analysis and had one about California that might be important to folks at the Republican National Committee.
The Los Angeles County fires continue to burn. At least 24 people have died, but the shambolic response, the cuts to the LAFD, and the basics not being honored regarding public safety might be the last straw. Will was on NewsNation with host Leland Vittert, where he thinks a political earthquake is about to shake-up the Golden State. He admits there is a caveat: California isn’t going Republican in national elections, but every other contest might be fair game. He also warned Kamala Harris, who might have gubernatorial aspirations, to wait and see how things shake out (via RealClearPolitics):
GEORGE WILL: You are, and there's going to be an earthquake coming in California, the big real earthquake, every once in a while. I mean, we've built a major metropolitan area in a desert on a tectonic fault. We're risking things.
You ask for trouble in this naughty world, you get trouble. But there's going to be a political earthquake from this, Leland. The California government is so busy micromanaging life from algebra classes in schools to the names of the schools, you name it, just protecting endangered species, doing all these things.
And people are going to say, can we get the basic things right? Public safety, basic elementary...
VITTERT: The fire hydrant's working. Adam Carolla, of all people, the comedian, had some thoughts on the political earthquake. Take a listen.
[…]
VITTERT: California really is not going to go red.
WILL: It's not going to go red in presidential elections, but this is a tremendous opportunity for someone. And if Kamala Harris thinks that she can now, with her funding base and her name recognition, waltz into Sacramento as governor of California, she might want to think again.
VITTERT: Well, that's an excellent point in terms of what her priorities are. The famous line from Joe Biden, right, show me your budget and I'll tell you your priorities. We can see it.
They were not testing fire hydrants because they didn't have the money, but they kept their DEI office and other things. There is going to be a special session of the California state legislature in the coming days, not to deal with the wildfires, but to authorize more money to fight Donald Trump. What is going to be the consequence, you said one for Kamala Harris, but for Gavin Newsom?
WILL: This is really just the last straw, but there's a mountain of straws about his record in California that has produced this enormous flight away from California. California, after the 2030 census, is apt to lose four, perhaps five electoral votes, five congressional seats. Leland, this is for the first time ever, California, since the 1840s, is losing population. And it's not just losing it, it's hemorrhaging population.
We’ll see if that happens, but the population bleeding and the state’s loss of congressional districts and electoral votes is going to make things interesting.
Mayor Karen Bass, who was excoriated for not being in the country when the fires broke out, opting to attend the Ghanian presidential inauguration, got further embarrassed when it was discovered she was at an embassy cocktail party when the blaze began to engulf southern California. She partied while the state burned carries a Nero-esque theme, doesn’t it. To make things worse, when asked, she has no regrets about leaving the country, even when it was clear there was a wildfire risk.
Bass’ office cut the LAFD by $17 million months before the fires, scrubbed memos about the lack of training, manpower, and resources that will denigrate response to disasters. And Gov. Gavin Newsom cutting part-time firefighters and not replacing them while also not filling crucial reservoirs, like the one in Santa Ynez, which could’ve helped in the still raging Palisades blaze.
It's a clown show.
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