Screencap of Twitter/X video.

During a recent broadcast, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria did a monologue about California and how the state has been failed by the one-party rule of Democrats.

He points to the state’s failure in education, the inability to build housing, and the massive homeless problem, among other things.

Zakaria uses all of this to explain the anger of voters and the rise of Republican candidates like Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt.

Partial transcript via Real Clear Politics:

FAREED ZAKARIA: At a time when President Trump and Republicans are faring poorly in most polls, the story has been different in California. Republican Steve Hilton finished ahead of many high spending Democrats in the governor’s race to advance to the November election, facing Democrat Xavier Becerra. In Los Angeles, an overwhelmingly Democratic city, Spencer Pratt, a Republican, former reality television personality, looked as if he might make the mayoral general election before finishing third.

California Democrats will be tempted to dismiss all this as a sideshow, but the frustration is real and justified. California is one of the most dynamic places on the planet. It has Silicon Valley, Hollywood, world class universities, extraordinary agriculture, ports, talent and natural beauty. But it is a case study in how a rich society can spend more and more while producing less and less of what its ordinary citizens need.

The paradox of California today is a successful economy attached to a failing model of governance.

Consider the fiscal record. Since 2000, California’s population has grown by roughly 15 percent. But the state’s general expenditures have grown more than 200 percent, from $78 billion to about $248 billion. General spending per person has risen from about $2,300 to about $6,300. The number of state employees has grown by more than 50 percent by one count.

Does anyone think that California government and its benefits have gotten 200 percent better in the last 25 years?

Housing is the central failure. California has long spoken the language of compassion while building a system of exclusion. Alicia Finley writes in the “Wall Street Journal” that from 2021 to 2024, the L.A. metro area, with nearly 13 million people, issued only 118,000 building permits for new homes. Atlanta with about half that population issued 163,000.

California has made it too hard, slow and expensive to build. The result is predictable. Home prices soar, rents rise, workers commute farther, homelessness grows, young people leave. And people are leaving. Over the past seven years, the state has lost a net 1.9 million people through domestic migration.

Watch the video below:

California is one of the most dynamic places on the planet.

But it is a case study in how a rich society can spend more and more while producing less and less of what its ordinary citizens need.

My take: pic.twitter.com/a8LGEhWCdd

— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) June 14, 2026

It’s nice of Zakaria to point all of this out, after Spencer Pratt has been bumped off the ballot for mayor of LA.

Better late than never, right?

Mike LaChance Mike LaChance has been covering higher education and politics for Legal Insurrection since 2012. Since 2008 he has contributed work to the Gateway Pundit, Daily Caller, Breitbart, the Center for Security Policy, the Washington Free Beacon, and Ricochet. He has also written for American Lookout, Townhall, and Twitchy.

You can email Mike LaChance here, and read more of Mike LaChance's articles here.

Ad block users: Some site features may not work correctly while an ad blocker is enabled, because they break scripts and content this website depends on. If you can't see comments below, for example, please disable your ad blocker.