Victor Davis Hanson: “Criminal activity is the extreme manifestation of California’s institutionalized progressive hypocrisy. Milder expressions of double standards explain why California has become such a bizarre place. The state suffers from the highest combined taxes in the nation and nearly the worst roads and schools. It is home to more American billionaires than any other state, but also more impoverished residents. California is more naturally endowed with a combination of gas, oil, timber and minerals than any other state – with the highest electricity prices and gas taxes in the nation. To understand these paradoxes, keep in mind one common principle. To the degree a Californian is politically influential, wealthy or well-connected – and loudly progressive – the more he is immune from the downside of his own ideology. Big money is supposed to be bad for politics. But no money plays a bigger role in influencing policy than California’s progressive cash, from Hollywood to Silicon Valley.”