Letters from Spectator readers, October 2024
The Californication of the Democratic Party At the risk of taking a Marxian perspective, California has become exactly what could have been predicted in 1993, with the loss of its manufacturing base to the 1990s defense cuts and much of its agricultural base to environmental regulation and foreign competition under the WTO. The state’s economy is now based on some of the most unequal industries on the planet: software, entertainment and hospitality. Plus, in the case of entertainment, an industry that has always tolerated and quietly celebrated what may politely be called decadence, or less politely, degeneracy. Just look at who has all the discretionary money and how they got it, and almost everything else follows. — M.
