For all Californians, I encourage you to learn more about Michael Shellenberger and his campaign for Governor of California. He will need to get second place in the primary ( we have a “jungle primary” where all candidates run against one another and the top two move on to the general) to run against Newsom in the general. Newsom will unquestionably get first in the primary, but once he goes head to head with Shellenberger he can certainly be defeated. And that would be fantastic for California and the US.
I've read two of his books, Apocalypse Never and SanFransicko. Both provide compelling rational and moral arguments for how we are doing things badly, and how we can do things better. I don't agree with everything he says, but I have never agreed with a (now politician) as much I have with Michael Shellenberger. He is running as an independent. I think that is best for California, and just the US in general. People who are not slavishly beholden to either parties must see where the best compromise at any given moment is for the country, and not run the country into the ground by being pathologically partisan to political parties that are substantially corrupt. He is our best compromise at the moment.
If you are curious to learn more about him, here are a few resources that may be informative:
The most important issues I think that California needs to resolve are how to handle the scourge of homelessness and vagrancy, energy instability and cost, water instability, housing costs, and k-12 academic performance. The government won’t be able to solve everything, but we certainly shouldn’t have a government that exacerbates everything. The policies of California for these issues are making them worse — or at least not making them better — as can be witnessed by the fact that since Newsom has been governor, none of these things improved, and in some sense many of the things got worse. This, despite enormous amounts of tax money being given to the government. We pay high taxes but get low quality services and outcomes. Its preposterous. There is no good reason to vote for Newsom.
Most of Californias are prejudiced against the Republican Party though, and the Democratic Party is officially behind Newsom, thus many Californians will simply vote for Newsom to avoid the boogey man of a Republican. Thus, it is very good that Shellenberger is running as an independent — he himself has voted for Democrats most of his life, so the Democratic Party has no rational basis for associating him with the Republican Party (albeit that will probably not stop it if he gets second in the primary).
So, if you are a Californian, I implore you to look into Shellenberger; he is the best hope for California moving in a better direction. If you are not a Californian, but if you know any, if you would be so kind, reach out to them and encourage them to check out Shellenberger.
Alas, I don't live in CA anymore. But I would absolutely vote for him too!