By now it is a familiar pattern in California: Democrats create a problem, are totally incapable of solving it, then desperately try to blame someone or something else. In January, their extreme environmental regulations created the conditions for the catastrophic wildfires in L.A. Their utterly inept response made it worse. And then they tried to blame the whole thing on 'climate change', as if that had anything to do with fire hydrants that ran out of water. A few months later, another disaster in LA, and it's the same old story. The crisis over ICE immigration raids was created by Democrat 'sanctuary' policies. Raids to pick up violent criminals at their place of work are necessary because state and local authorities refuse to cooperate with the feds. When the inevitable agitators started whipping up protests, instead of immediately clamping down on it to ensure order, state and local leaders stood back until things were completely out of control. Then, when President Trump weighed in with his decision to deploy the National Guard, the California Democrat chorus started bleating about 'escalation' and how Trump had 'manufactured' the crisis. At the heart of it all, the increasingly preposterous figure of Gavin Newsom. What was his main response to the devastating scenes of chaos unfolding in his state's largest city? Trolling Trump on social media. What was the only discernible action he took over the riots that yet again convey the impression of California as the world's richest failed state? Taking Trump to court. Lawyering while Los Angeles burns. What an absolute joke. Does he have any idea how demoralizing it is for the people of California to see their so-called 'leaders' surrender to the mob, time after time? The response to these riots is perfectly in line with the attitude that has come to define the upside-down morality of Democrat rule in California: if you do the right thing, you're punished; if you do the wrong thing, you're rewarded. So the rioters who set cars on fire, vandalized property, defaced public buildings, smashed up small businesses and violently assaulted police officers are encouraged to 'keep protesting.' But if you actually run a small business in California; if you are just a regular family trying to keep your head above water - the government will come after you with the full force of its authority: taxes, regulations, endless nanny state bureaucracy making your life an expensive misery. The most expensive, and the most miserable, in America, by the way: California is now 50th out of 50 states on affordability, and in the same lamentable position for opportunity. These riots illustrate the central problem with California today, after fifteen long years of Democrat one party rule: the insufferable decadence and decay of a smug and sanctimonious ruling elite that has completely lost touch with the needs of regular people. An insular, entrenched political establishment that is consumed by cronyism and concerned only with pandering to its most extreme supporters. Gavin Newsom, Karen Bass, Kamala Harris: this is what you get when a party has been in power too long. Machine politicians whose only real skill is playing the political game. Delivering the basics of good governance is a complete afterthought - if it ever occurs at all. Instead it's all about saying the right thing to please the activists who give them their ideological instructions, or the government unions who fund their campaigns. This is how you end up with the worst homeless crisis in America despite spending untold billions trying to 'solve' the problem. It's how you end up with the worst poverty and unemployment rates in America despite being the world's fourth largest economy. And it's how you end up with once-great cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, that once captured for the world the beauty and splendor of the American Dream, collapsing into chaos, crime and squalor. We can't go on like this. California is too important to America - and the world - to let this continue. In the next few years Los Angeles will host the soccer World Cup, the Superbowl, and the Olympics. Who thinks for one second that Newsom, Bass or any other California Democrat is capable of turning things around? We have a serious problem, and these are not serious people. It's time for change in California. Everyone can see that. If January's fires didn't make that clear enough, then these totally avoidable riots surely will. In 2026 we will have a chance to change direction: to make California truly golden again. Let's hope we take it. Steve Hilton is running for governor of California.