California local governments of every size are crying poor as they struggle with budget shortfalls.
We should heed Alexis de Tocqueville's warning: "A man's admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him."
Intellectual curiosity used to define the political right. Now, imbecility rules the day.
Matt Mahon tried to chart a reform-minded path, but too often he came across as a mushy moderate in an election that will be determined by partisans.
Conservatives want local control over housing policy, but they're happy to let the state restrict when local governments can raise taxes.
Any self-styled advocate for limited government should be furious about Trump's $1.8 billion slush fund, but few Republicans are willing to denounce it.
In this recent round, Republicans are entirely to blame. In the new MAGA-fied GOP, winning is everything, and there's no quarter given for concepts such as fairness.
The new rules will fast track clinical testing, but a far cry from legalization or decriminalization.
The commission has tormented property owners and localities ever since it was created in 1976. Finally, legislative and legal efforts are undoing some of its abuses.
After California made this same mistake in 1999, it took 12 years to dig out of the hole. Taxpayers footed the bill.
Hungary is Europe's basket case, a nation that saw little economic progress under Orbán—as well as diminishing freedoms.
Instead of confronting the problems with the state's heavily regulated insurance market, lawmakers are looking for a scapegoat.
Tech companies that create social media apps should not be blamed for the complex mental issues of everyone who might use them.
There is no voting crisis that demands federal intervention.
California initiatives will fuel an already fiery November election, and the state's top-two primary might end up excluding Democrats in the governor's race.
Some MAGA peaceniks have seemingly transformed into neocons.
A transfer tax on high-value real estate transactions is reducing the number of homes on the market and limiting new construction.
The Second Amendment protects your right to carry a gun at a protest.
Thanks to a lack of hiring standards, purposeful federal policy, poor training, and a lack of accountability for bad behavior, ICE is eroding safety and liberty for all Americans.
Limited government means those in power can do limited damage to the rest of us.
Many conservatives are embracing big government, from police-state immigration tactics to socialist economic policies.
The AI boom is showing the limits of our regulated monopoly model for generating electricity.
Huntington Beach's elected officials are pursuing performative MAGA policymaking and keep losing in the courts.
Is the party heading deeper into the right wing fever swamps?
The Trump administration's chest-pounding approach is costing lives and eroding freedoms.
America was not founded to be a theocracy and it should not strive to become one.
A welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota is the Trump administration's latest excuse for demonizing immigrants and refugees.
When the so-called "communist lunatic" and the so-called "fascist" find common ground, it means the country needs an intervention.
The accidental death of one cat in San Francisco is triggering calls for banning Waymo. That would be a huge mistake.
She's praised Nancy Pelosi, said Republicans aren't doing enough to make things affordable, and is generally making a lot of sense. That's weird, but also good.
Rent freezes will discourage construction, government-run grocery stores are a joke, and free buses will become roving homeless shelters.
Overly strict or poorly designed rules could slow beneficial uses of AI in healthcare, education, infrastructure, and public safety.
The federal cuts amount to little more than a rounding error in most state or big city budgets.
Shrugging off the radicalization of right-wing political culture is a mistake.
Don't believe the GOP's 'principled' opposition to Prop. 50
Federal troops are also ill-suited to handle local policing issues.
Masked agents are the unmistakable sign of a police state.
Trump struggles to articulate any foreign policy view with much coherence, and has a fragile ego that makes world conflicts all about him.
While mail-in voting provides obvious logistical challenges, every serious analysis of mail-in voting results has found it to be secure.
Newsom hired a brass-knuckled social-media team to fight fire with fire, but the result is even more childish nonsense in politics.
Perónism: the one import that Trump likes.
If a Democratic president tried to so directly politicize an independent agency, Republicans would be screaming about the coming tyranny.
Thin-skinned MAGA can dish it out, but can't take mockery.
It shouldn't matter whether NPR leans right or left. Cutting its federal funding was the right move.
Trump's ability to shift acceptable policy debates poses dangers, given that many of the shifts obliterate political norms.
You have rights to your property, not to control others.
Without Newsom's efforts, major reforms to California's stifling environmental laws would have died on the vine.
That's inevitable. It should also be deeply troubling to anyone who cares about constitutional government.
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