Opinion: California’s real resistance isn’t what you think it is
Eons ago, before DOGE began shaking up the federal government like a $6.1 trillion snow globe, California legislators convened in Sacramento to “Trump-proof” the state.
Two months into Trump 2.0, lawsuits are sprouting like California poppies as Elon Musk dismisses thousands of career employees, dismembers entire agencies and unilaterally cancels federal contracts, wielding a chainsaw (both literally and metaphorically) to a chant of “waste, fraud and abuse.”
Many of the people who voted for Trump, disillusioned by what they see as a bloated bureaucracy, are thrilled to see any action — good or bad. Meanwhile, Californians who didn’t vote for him struggle to fire up the decrepit 2016 Resistancemobile.
We have a better idea.
In the face of a politics that demeans democratic institutions as slow and ineffectual, the best repudiation is to create a government in California that’s responsive, nimble and inventive.
It’s in our DNA. As the nation’s largest economy and the innovation capital of the world, we can demonstrate the health of our democracy by aggressively tackling our own crippling crises, hungry competitors and anxieties that our best days are behind us. Battling Trump at every turn may be cathartic, but it won’t solve the problems that drive widespread cynicism and disillusionment.
People respond to results. If we can light the way, our success will echo throughout the world. If we fail, we reinforce troubling calls for authoritarian alternatives.
We already know what works. Leaders must step out of comfort zones, keep it simple, and demonstrate what a healthy, agile 21st-century democracy looks like.
This starts by building housing — immediately. Establish fast-track permitting, upzone aggressively, and stop CEQA abuse that stalls development for years. If a business can relocate in months, housing shouldn’t take a decade to approve.
Bringing down the cost of housing will also help us tackle poverty. Housing costs destroy incomes, turning middle-class wages into poverty-level earnings. Until we get serious about making housing affordable, every other anti-poverty effort is just window dressing.
Another way to regain the public’s trust? Treat homelessness like the existential crisis it is. It’s not an unsolvable jigsaw puzzle for interested groups to chin-stroke over; it’s a public health and quality-of-life emergency that demands a natural disaster-level state response. We need a Marshall Plan for housing and shelter production with far fewer regulatory roadblocks, coupled with compulsory encampment-to-shelter transitions.
We must also make it easier — not harder — to do business in California. It’s not just taxes pushing companies away: It’s bureaucracy, ineptitude and a maddening lack of urgency. Other states move heaven and earth to lure away our employers, then throw a party for the businesses when they sign on the dotted line. We can’t be America’s hardest place to operate.
Finally, we should reclaim our mantle as courageous risk-takers. We can’t afford slow, risk-averse policymaking in a fast-moving world. We should be leading in the use of digital technology to provide public services. If we can’t move quickly, we will lose to states that can. More important, we’ll lose the hearts and minds of Californians who see Trump and Musk’s bull-in-a-china-shop methods and say, “Well, at least they’re doing something …”
Inertia and bureaucracy are turning our state into what our critics claim: a place where big ideas die under a mountain of process. That must end. The best way to silence voices longing for strongmen is to make democracy work — fast, effectively, unapologetically. We have the talent, resources and blueprint. Let’s stop talking about what’s possible and prove it.
If California can’t show the world the future, someone else will — and it may not be as bright.
Tracy Hernandez is CEO of the New California Coalition, a nonpartisan group of everyday voters, business leaders and community organizations.