When you find yourself at the bottom of a deep hole, the first thing you should do is stop digging. But it is a long time since this commonsense advice has been followed in California, according to Fool’s Gold, a scathing examination of the state’s politics and social decline. Instead, the approach of the governing elite has been to dig ever deeper.
The authors of this book are well-suited for the task. Crabtree is the senior White House and national political correspondent for RealClear Politics, the popular news aggregation site. McFatter is the director of research at the respected Government Accountability Institute in Florida. Crabtree also spent part of her younger life in California, so she is a good judge of how much has changed since the time when the state was a magnet for artistic, energetic, and entrepreneurial people.
These days, California is bleeding residents, and the exodus shows no sign of abating. Crabtree and McFatter track the myriad causes: spiraling lawlessness, soaring costs, blackouts and brownouts, collapsing infrastructure, crippling regulations, ever-escalating taxes, pervasive corruption, and a failing court system. The state that was once hailed as a model for the rest of America has become a place where nothing works—except the government’s PR machine. San Francisco, once a showcase city, has become infected with drugs, vandalism, and psychosis. In 2023, 28 percent of all the homeless people in America were in California, even though the state has only 12 percent of the national population.
Crabtree and McFatter cite figures showing that violent crime has spun out of control under Newsom’s watch. In 2022, homicides jumped by 33.9 percent and aggravated assaults by 25.3 percent. Retail thefts skyrocketed to the point that many stores simply closed up and moved away.
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