California is a failed experiment.

"It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”   — Justice Louis Brandeis, New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262 (1932)

Supreme Court Justice Brandeis once envisioned states as safe places to test policy, where failure wouldn’t threaten the republic.

What Justice Brandeis did not, and perhaps could not, anticipate was the depth of systemic breakdown that would accompany modern state-level experimentation. He did not foresee the political capture of corporate entities, where businesses no longer act as independent market forces but as ideological enforcers aligned with the state. He couldn’t have imagined journalism’s failure to safeguard democracy, as legacy media outlets traded objectivity for activism and narrative control. Nor could he have predicted the manipulative power of social media, where public opinion is no longer shaped by debate but by algorithmic engineering and censorship. Most alarmingly, Brandeis could not have envisioned the ideological infiltration of the Democratic Party by collectivist and authoritarian ideals that are indistinguishable from the tenets of communism. Together, these forces form a feedback loop that accelerates failed policy experiments and ensures they are defended, amplified, and exported, no matter the consequences.

What started as an experiment in progressive policy has morphed into a virus — and unless other states resist the spread, the lab breach could become a nationwide epidemic.

Symptoms of California’s diseased political environment.

• Invasion: The deliberate erosion of California’s sovereignty through a planned and politically incentivized invasion of illegal aliens, a demographic flood overwhelming California’s medical systems, public education, housing availability, social welfare programs, and entry-level job markets. This isn’t a failure of border policy; it’s the weaponization of immigration to reshape California’s electorate, increasing the number of population-based Congressional House members, and collapsing the systems that sustain state cohesion.

• Criminal Justice Chaos: In cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, progressive district attorneys have gutted enforcement of property crimes under policies like Proposition 47, which downgraded many thefts to misdemeanors. The result? Smash-and-grab robberies and open-air drug use have become normalized.

• Overwhelming Regulations: We are witnessing a relentless expansion of government regulation and administrative control over nearly every aspect of daily life — from how much water your shower uses to what kind of car you’re allowed to drive, what pronouns you must say, what businesses must pay, and what views can be legally expressed. It’s not just overregulation; it’s a creeping system of behavioral compliance designed to condition submission and extinguish independence.

• Skyrocketing Homelessness: California is home to over 30% of the nation’s homeless population, despite having just 12% of its total population. Billions have been spent on homelessness initiatives, with little to show for it except expanding tent cities and surging drug addiction.

• Housing Crisis: Due to extreme zoning laws, environmental regulations, and bureaucratic red tape, California’s housing market has become unaffordable for most middle-class families. The median home price now hovers around $800,000, far above the national average.

• Tax and Spend Spiral: The state boasts the highest income tax rate in the country at 13.3%, and it’s still not enough. California’s 2024–2025 budget deficit is projected to be over $45 billion due to overspending on entitlement programs and collapsing tax revenues from fleeing businesses.

• Mass Exodus: Over 800,000 people left California between 2020 and 2023 — a trend so stark that the state lost a congressional seat for the first time in its history. High taxes, cost of living, and quality-of-life decline were among the most cited reasons.

The Problem Isn’t Contained and Is Out of Control.

Unfortunately, California is no longer a controlled experiment. It’s a runaway breach of law, logic, and basic governance.”

What makes California’s experiment truly dangerous isn’t just that it’s continually failing — it’s being exported nationwide by politicians like Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Adam Schiff, Alex Padilla, Gavin Newsom, and others..

The state’s influence on national politics is massive. California shapes the direction of the Democratic Party, dominates tech and media narratives, and uses its market power to impose de facto regulations on industries across the country, such as vehicle emissions standards and data privacy laws. Even if you don’t live in California, its policies may already affect you.

Cities like Chicago, New York, and Portland are beginning to mirror California’s approach to governance — adopting soft-on-crime policies, climate extremism, and expansive welfare programs without understanding the long-term consequences. The result? Rising costs, falling public safety, and a growing class divide between the policy-makers and the people forced to live under their decisions.

The rest of the country must decide whether to treat California as a model or a warning because the ideology that drove the state from boom to bust is not staying put. It’s moving onto the national stage through legislation, political donations, education, and corporate pressure.

We are so screwed.

-- Steve