Democrat-stronghold California shows why Joe Biden could be a lame duck

Few doubt that Tuesday’s midterm elections in the United States are going to be anything but a disaster for the Democrats.

If Joe Biden’s party loses its majority in Congress, the president is likely to spend his remaining two years as a lame duck, unable to enact the legislation that he wants.

So why are the Democrats faring so badly?

For an answer, look no further than the state that packs the biggest electoral punch.

California, where I live, has been under Democrat control for the past three decades, during which it has gone from being one of the world’s most desirable places to live – the Golden State – to one of the worst.

Today, crime is rampant. Unemployment is soaring. Thanks to an influx during Covid of people from out-of-state, property prices are now unaffordable, with young professionals and middle-class families leaving in droves.

But in Los Angeles, the homeless are ubiquitous, with more than 8,000 people routinely camped out along streets in the notorious ‘Skid Row’ district.

San Francisco and San Diego are similarly affected by rough sleepers. It is estimated that there are now between half a million and a million homeless across North America.

The state has also all but given up on defending against gangs of casual thieves, who walk into stores, empty the shelves and stroll out with their loot – unconcerned that stunned shoppers are filming the robberies on their phones.

Do a Google search for ‘shoplifting in San Francisco’, and you will be greeted with more than 100,000 hits.

Add in cripplingly high taxation – already one of the most heavily taxed states, California also boasts the highest top-rate bracket – hopelessly untargeted public spending and economic stagnation, and you can see why so many are abandoning it.

People ride their bikes past a homeless encampment set up along the boardwalk in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles 

And why bother doing business in the world’s fourth largest economy when you can move to somewhere with far less red tape, where the climate is just as balmy – states such as Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and Texas – and without all the entrenched social problems that come with Democrat-majority administration?

Take a friend of mine, a California state senator who supported my candidacy when I ran for Mayor of Palm Springs.

One day, he just decided to leave the state where he was born and raised, and where he had made a great living.

Why? For the simple reason that California is no longer liveable. Nor is it a functioning democracy.

He felt that, in a Democrat-controlled state, his services as a democratically elected Republican were not only unappreciated, but that the system prevented him from doing the job he was elected to do.

He now lives with his wife in neighbouring Nevada, whose legislature is more evenly balanced between the two parties.

Put simply, Democrats have now been ruling California unopposed for more than three decades, controlling the offices of governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and both chambers of the state legislature.

The mother-in-law of Ted Sarandos (pictured), the Netflix CEO and one of the most powerful men in Southern California, was murdered last year

Without an opposing voice from Republicans, it is a one-party state in both name and approach.

Worse still, some believe that the Democrats have deliberately failed to prevent the arrival of immigrants from Mexico and Central America in order to retain a voter demographic that’s in their favour.

Democrats have freed the state from federal supervision, so illegal migrants can get drivers’ licenses, take local government benefits and generally live off the rich who pay punitive taxes.

It’s as if California had been turned into a socialist state.

And then there’s the crime.

Take the horror suffered by Ted Sarandos, the Netflix CEO and one of the most powerful men in Southern California. Last December, his mother-in-law was murdered by an intruder in her Beverly Hills home.

Such incidents are not isolated. It’s no wonder that those of us who are veterans of SoCal life watch our backs at all times.

Compare this to the treatment meted out to a local doctor. One day, the doctor was arguing on the street with his son, and the police came and detained the son to calm him down.

Now, six months on, the son is still under detention – for no reason. That feels scary and totalitarian.

Homeless people are seen in Sacramento, California, in a state with rising crime rates

Meanwhile, rising house prices are forcing people to leave. An entire lower middle-class has been priced out of town.

Unlike real estate, incomes in California have not doubled in the past two years. In fact, they have undergone a significant reduction.

In some parts of Riverside County, in southern California, there are no more houses for sale in the $300,000 to $400,000 bracket.

It’s not just a problem for California. Other Democrat strongholds on the verge of social breakdown – or voter displeasure – have grasped that they have a problem.

For more than two years, ‘tent cities’ for the homeless have sprung up around Portland, Oregon, another Democrat stronghold that has prioritised liberal law reforms over keeping order.

Now, with just days before polling opens in the midterms, one encampment has been cleared – and replaced with a skate park.

In New York, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two to one, candidates who have campaigned on national issue such as abortion laws – or who had hoped that shouting about ‘Trump and January 6th’ would secure votes – have been exposed as out of touch on bread and butter issues such as the rising cost of living and concerns about street crime.

My hope is that, after Tuesday’s midterm elections, some semblance of political normality will return – which will pave the way for a Republican win in the 2024 race for the White House.