Enduring Change
We all know something is wrong, but how do you change things which are so entrenched?
The theme of the last few weeks has moved a little beyond our disaster here in Altadena toward California and its issues, encapsulated in our Gubernatorial campaign in the heat of the first round.
The election has delivered in a purely California way.
We have the “muddled rise.” We have hubris. We have the fall. We have the underdog story. It is very much a scripted drama unfolding right in front of our eyes. West Wing would have done it about the same.
Where it ends?
That is the part which is truly fascinating.
But, the “California Story” is not unique.
It is a continuation of a story which has been running for a long time. One can point to the rise of Donald Trump in 2016 and the politics of our nation turning “anti-establishment.” Another point is 2000 when George W. Bush was elected to the White House on the “hanging chad” (and for those of you too young to remember that episode, Google it, as it was in its infancy then).
What we have seen here in California is a drift to single party rule. If you looked at this State in 2000, you would see similarities, but the underlying change of single party rule (which was starting then, but the supermajority put things on steroids), fundamentally shifting the State.
The work to seed the supermajority was long. It took time to imbed. There were many fits and starts. Over time a “Machine” was created. It took Power. It consolidated it. Eventually the lack of competition means you get lazy. Events take hold, showing the weakness. Those who created “it,” leave, retire, are forced out, or just do not care anymore the way they did when they “built it.”
The fires of 2025 brought what we read about, right in our face. The failure was absolute- and failure rests with the system the Machine created, make no doubt about it. The response? More of the same. When mobilized, the system only took care of itself, its allies, and not the people it was designed to protect. It is exactly what a system designed and managed by interests would do, incapable of looking beyond those provincial interests.
We have felt the frustration of the “single party rule” before 2025, but 2025 was the clearest example of the failure writ large. Blame is solely at the feet of those in Power because these failures were human as much as we tried to shift the blame early in the disaster cycle.
The thing is Power requires you to execute.
The failures we are seeing the outcomes of those who control the levers.
With all monopolies, things go bad, and then one has to look in the mirror. Small one off’s can be dismissed. Destroying two cities because of Government failure is not something you can dismiss. Interests of the few took priority over the interests of the many.
It was not an act of god like lightning, it was a fire not put out due to various regulations and failures, and another because of an inability to properly regulate a powerful entity.
Now, we see the veneer starting to fall off.
Fraud is widespread, postulations to the contrary by our Governor. Just this past week, our Attorney General announced a $267 million fraud case after the US Attorney was hitting on the fraud himself.
Money is everywhere and nowhere at the same time (see our schools).
Homelessness is making marginal changes with extraordinary funds spent (and misspent).
Our rebuild is a battle between DC and Sacramento instead of a collaboration (and yes, DC has some to do with it, but there is a lot of blame to be laid right here).
Power is being consolidated and not for the good of us here in California.
The crash of Eric Swalwell, endorsed by the high priests of California politics, the Teachers, the SEIU, and most of all, the California Federation of Labor, who has poked many in the eye on the business side, demonstrates the emperor has no clothes.
So, what is to be done?
Power has been consolidated in such a way where change is difficult. It hit me when I read David Crane’s piece on Eli Broad’s attempts to usher school reform in 2016 he published last week. It was sent to me by some folks who want to make real change, but are thinking about “the how.”
Quickly, Broad wanted to make change in schools in 2016 and spent almost $20 million to elect many Assembly and Senate members who could help. The end was they were co-opted by the Power of Labor and the CTA. School reform was left by the wayside and the Machine subsumed the effort.
Why?
The CTA uses tax dollars to effectively underwrite its lobbying and campaign donations.
Their source of funds is “secure,” as long as the budget is on autopilot. The more the budget increases, the more they have to continue their position of Power.
To fight it you need similar firepower. $400 billion, of which 40% ($160 billion) is devoted to education and a position of anything cutting “education” is bad, leaves them in a very strong position to beat back any challenges to Power. Putting the scale of our education budget in context, $160 billion is more than all States except for California and Texas. That’s right, it’s more than 47 other States, including New York, Illinois, et cetera ( and do we even want to talk about outcomes).
The CTA is very Powerful, yet it is but one of the interests controlling our State.
To counter such an effort, Broad’s attempts were a single cycle for his cause.
He went up against the CTA which has been building Power for 50+ years before his push back.
He “won the battle and then lost the war,” as they say. Politics requires you to be “all in,” and not temporarily. The CTA had the budget of the State to sit back and let him spend his money and lose (see SEIU and DaVita).
How do you take on an organization with that kind of Power? These Substacks have been exploring that question for weeks now (and I have been doing it since 2016 in DC).
You need a strong counter, but you cannot take them head on- you will lose. Are they vulnerable? Sure. Power is elusive; very much a mirage. The issue is you have to do it right. The fascination with Eric Swalwell’s story is Power did not learn in 2022.
They wanted a pliable “puppet,” again as they did with Bass in LA in 2022 (especially when you consider the alternative was Caruso).
Do not fall for the idea he was set up by the Party to fail- his endorsers would never have endorsed him otherwise.
They wanted him.
They either are too arrogant to do the research or they were fine with the rumors about him.
That is how Power is- amoral.
If people are run over, used, discarded, hurt, destroyed, killed (in the case of ICE), so be it, it is about Power. Those are collateral damage in their minds.
Things only change when voters realize “the con,” and say, “no more.” Disgust has to reach a level of beyond revulsion. Scandals are useful to encapsulate the story, to capture in words or events the disconnect you know is there and cannot articulate.
The flaw for Swalwell was both human and Machine.
The lesson of Broad is the arrogance of the duration of the Machine is there unless you do something about it. Look at the headline in Politico a couple weeks ago- “many have tried, few have succeeded” from Lorena Gonzalez, the head of the California Federation of Labor (and endorser of Mr. Swalwell).
Well, they feel invulnerable, exactly the time to challenge when they open the door.
The moment is now.
Swalwell represents the chance to peek behind the curtain (again).
We had the chance in 2022 with our City Council in Los Angeles, an early warning.
Indictments. Scandal. Then the tapes.
The Machine blinked, they sweat, and then they survived, along with Measure ULA and Affordable Housing.
Now, we have them again, except this time it is California.
The “human” is Swalwell, but the real fight, the BTA and beyond.
They are vulnerable again, but this time, maybe we can land the blow we so desperately need.
We have to stop it before they burn down the entire State instead of just Altadena and the Palisades.
Those are the stakes. We need the movement to counter it, and not just one cycle. Labor has your dollars to fight you. Their allies are in the philanthropic organizations you set up, funded by your tax dollars, controlling so much of our State. Look around, is this the State you envision? Go back to the Los Angeles Times poll last fall- look at the level of dissatisfaction. Look at the why. Government functions not for the voters, but the interests. Which interests control Government? Look at Eric Swalwell’s endorsers. That is where the blame and the fire needs to focus on.
Do not let them use the “shiny object” to distract us.
You need to find a way to get the money back.
Here is the key piece- electeds go where the votes are- that is their currency.
You need to spend the money to change those votes.
Swalwell opens the door, do not let them close it. It has to be more than the BTA. It has to be taking back California. It has to be more than “basics,” it has to be “we are coming, and not stopping until we get it.”
Are you in, or will they win again? Many have tried…