Here at HotAir, we’ve covered California’s rapidly deteriorating quality of life on a pretty regular basis. San Francisco is always ripe for post material plundering, with its off-the-wall, no-holds-barred brand of insane progressivism destroying the city in real time. Every day, when the Standard or Chronicle email hits my inbox, it’s almost a guilty pleasure checking their headlines before I delete it. The ledes bewail what’s happening in the city…and then they double down on lather-rinse-repeat.

I have never seen a more destructive hamster wheel full of clueless rodents, spinning furiously. Never would it occur to any of them to exit the wheel.

Good portions of the entire state of CA are on wheels of their own, enabled by a rabidly progressive legislature who has never met a grievance cause they couldn’t fund, a taxpayer’s dollar they couldn’t spend 5 times over, or a formerly unappreciated little life pleasure they couldn’t utterly destroy…like cheap, reliable electricity. Gavin Newsom – the state’s unctuous, Randall Flagg-lite chief executive with cult-leader vibes – is a homegrown product of that progressive San Francisco machine. Thanks to his connections, investments, and looks, he worked his way up through northern CA offices, both appointed and elected, to finally become ruler of a now tarnished Golden State.

A good deal of the tarnish, though he’d never acknowledge the tarnish to begin with, is his own doing.

Clear on the other side of the country – in distance and ideology – is a guy that the Hair Gel King really can’t stand. “Despises” wouldn’t be too strong a word.

No way is Florida’s Ron DeSantis ever going to look slick in a suit, or have that easy, oozy politician’s smile, or smooth as silk brush-off with teeth gleaming. If Newsom always looks like a mannequin, DeSantis just looks like a man. He talks like any dad on the block – even one who wears white rubber boots to work. There’s not a damn thing smooth about the dude.

The contrasts in personality couldn’t be more defined.

There’s another thing Newsom does which DeSantis does not – talk smack. Sadly for Newsom when runs his yap about DeSantis, people immediately think, “Buddy? Have you taken a walk on a street where you live lately?”

If criminals know they won’t be arrested, then they may as well sell fentanyl and stolen goods openly. No reason to hide.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 18, 2023

DeSantis has America and Americans as his priority, and fought ferociously to protect Floridians from the dictates issued from on-high during the COVID pandemic (and we were so grateful for his fearlessness). Newsom was a lockdown fascist of extraordinary and enduring cruelty – while being one of the biggest hypocrites. When Newsom thought it would be a terrific idea to pitch an ad to Floridians reminding them that they were “losing their freedoms” among all the book burners, and wouldn’t we rather join him in his CA hellhole?

Survey says?

Nah.

Newsom, unlike DeSantis, is also well practiced race panderer of the first order.

Gavin Newsom openly mocks California’s tax-strapped and crime-besieged taxpayers. Imagine if he were the president. Can we get our act together, Republicans? Too much is at stake here for all this petty internal BS and incompetence! https://t.co/oqg3JjB5ez

— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) October 15, 2023

That doesn’t fly in FL. Which is really nice.

We folks here in FL also like the idea of a governor who’s into action. If he says he going to do something, DeSantis goes at it. Half the time he doesn’t even tell you until it’s a done deal – kind of like flights getting our fellow Floridians out of Israel while arranging for flights loaded with supplies to go back in. Other people need more time to work out travel arrangement and hotels, I guess. Little more finicky standards.

Could there be a bigger contrast than DeSantis and literally any other politician?

Biden, Newsom, maybe Trump want to "visit Israel." AKA do absolutely nothing of value but get a bunch of media attention.

Meanwhile, DeSantis is organizing flights to get Americans out. https://t.co/kMd5QDtQOw

— Jim Bryson (@jimbryson1977) October 19, 2023

It’s as if going to work and doing your job competently is too much for Newsom to swallow. He has to keep poking and prodding at my governor.

The upcoming head-to-head, Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Governor Bash just took an unfortunate turn for Newsom’s side today. I’m sure it’ll irk the hell out of him and I can’t wait to see how he spins the numbers.

"Mr. Newsom touts CA’s strict gun-control laws, but at least 1/5 of its aggravated assaults last year were committed with a knife or blunt object. Many of the state’s violent offenses are perpetrated by mentally ill or drug-addicted people living on the streets."

— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) October 20, 2023

OUCH

This is a chart guaranteed to warm the coldest Soros DA’s heart. In Gavin Newsom’s CA, everybody gets a criminal!

…The FBI’s numbers on property crime add to the picture. In Florida such offenses are down 27% since 2019, about three times as much as nationwide, while in California they’re up 0.3%. Those figures likely underestimate the true difference, since businesses are less inclined to report theft to law enforcement in jurisdictions where it often goes unprosecuted.

This could be one reason that the FBI shows larceny as declining in California since 2019, despite all the news reports about retailer complaints and smash-and-grab thefts by organized criminals. California in 2014 effectively decriminalized shoplifting and larceny of less than $950. Police often don’t even bother arresting thieves, because they are quickly released. Also notable is California’s 31.3% jump in auto thefts since 2019. Last year about one in every 200 Californians had a car stolen, three times the rate in Florida and twice that of the U.S. as a whole.

What a great place to live and the trend looks to be getting worse all the time.

This should make for an interesting segment of the debate, no? Especially as Newsom is so fond of pounding on FL’s new right-to-carry and Castle Doctrine laws. They offend him.

Newsom celebrates the Soros DAs who immediately repopulate the streets direct from central booking. DeSantis fires them, and then goes to court to make sure they stay fired.

We’re pretty happy with that, too.

But this is horrible.

Finally, some good news pic.twitter.com/FrH6B9yS5F

— CCP IS ASSHOE (@CCPISASSH0E) October 20, 2023

STAY AWAY TEXAS IS NICE