By Roxanne Beckford Hoge
Six months ago, fires ravaged Los Angeles, hitting both the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, and displacing families and businesses in both areas. Over two dozen people died and almost 20,000 structures were damaged or destroyed, yet who and what bears responsibility for this epic disaster has yet to be determined.
Lest you think that blame is an indelicate and outdated concept, note that the City and County of LA are both shining examples of California’s one-party (Democrat) rule, and they had already decided by January 10, when fires still raged—the cause was evenly divided between climate change and Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, January 8, I appeared on Fox News to discuss the fires, and host Trace Gallagher asked me if I thought that politicians would face any accountability. What worried me even more than elections was the people losing their entire homes, history, and possessions being viewed as collateral damage or expendable due to their wealth. America used to celebrate success. We were better off when we did. I also made it very clear that we shouldn’t discuss the cause without mentioning fires set by sadly strung-out street people of LA.
That said, let us discuss who bears the philosophical burden for these fires. Since Los Angeles is run by one party, it’s their fault—partly. ESPN sports talk radio duo Mason & Ireland used to dish up a blame pie after a particularly egregious loss. Let’s do the same. Turns out, there’s a slice of blame pie for almost everyone.
5% Abortion!
Yes, really, abortion. I represented Republicans on a post-election panel put on by BizFed, a coalition of 240 business organizations. Another panelist represented Planned Parenthood, and she posited that the reason Kamala Harris lost the presidency was that she didn’t talk about abortion enough. You may laugh, but that works here behind the blue curtain. Even now, with classically liberal friends balking at the rank antisemitism, hostility to women’s spaces, and craven socialism of Democrats, cries of “what about women’s reproductive rights?” give them pause when considering leaving the party. Nationalizing state and local election races works every time in the formerly Golden State. Competent conservative candidates need to focus with gazelle-like intensity on local issues in order to win.
10% Casual Racism and George Soros
He’s spent his plentiful resources to install so-called progressive District Attorneys and friendly legislators who spread his brand of chaos to American cities. Los Angeles has felt like a war zone for years thanks to his protégé George Gascón’s (former LA DA) refusal to prosecute offenders. Soros is also a stand-in for the entire Democrat party platform of elevating criminals over law-abiding citizens.
The fires that drug-addicted transients have been setting in Los Angeles for years are usually put out, but the perps are almost never punished. Or were. Newly elected DA Nathan Hochman is a sign that even chill Angelenos can have enough. The arrival of Bill Essayli as US Attorney plus the Department of Homeland Security making a play in the ridiculously named “sanctuary” city of LA could move mountains.
The entire policy of having two tiers of justice and immigration enforcement, by the way, is a polite way of its adherents admitting they don’t think black and brown folk should follow any rules—is that because they think they’re not up to the task? Shockingly, this non-white immigrant is able to do that, and to procure her own ID.
10% Incompetence + Malfeasance
As legendary mid-20th-century mayor of New York City, Fiorello La Guardia, said, “There is no Democratic or Republican way of cleaning the streets.” There is, however, a California Democrat way of not cleaning them. The unholy alliance of public sector unions and one-party rule means that the incompetent get cushy government jobs from which they can never be fired, and their putative leaders have free rein to play God with city and county (non) planning. Are they not very bright or trying to cause chaos? I say, why not both?
As you can see, on January 8, there were houses still standing in Pacific Palisades that later burned.
10% Laziness
We cannot wonder why it is we don’t have good governance when the party associated with it, Republicans, comprise just around one quarter of the electorate in LA county, compared to the lion’s share of voters who are registered Dems. I’m a proud conservative, but the inhospitable numbers are why an otherwise intelligent businessman who’d been a lifelong Republican chose to run as a new Dem in a nonpartisan race. Changing that math by focusing the party and all our conservative influencers on very unsexy voter registration would make potential candidates perk up. People love action and rallies, but if the work of wearing out shoe leather to register and then turn out voters is neglected, we’ll keep getting bad results.
20% Scaredy Cats
America only functions as a high-trust society. For too long, that trust has been broken for anyone who dared to speak up and yearn for competence, common sense, or public safety. The right, the classic liberal, the totally apolitical—all have been too scared to speak up. Humans are social animals who don’t like being shunned. As a mom who spoke out during Covid for the rights of children and business owners to live their lives and for bodily autonomy, I can tell you that ostracization ain’t fun at all. Some conservatives operate in secret because they fear losing work. Some liberals don’t speak up because they’re scared of the Democratic Socialists (DSA) coming after them. I get it. It’s painful to feel alone.
But a piece of blame pie for the destruction has to go to normal people who thought they were living in normal times. I, too, once thought that the government was capable and had our best interests at heart, so I could focus only on my life and family. I was wrong, very much so. And though speaking up can be terrifying, all the closeted conservatives of the most populous county in the USA need to rise up. (Please note that my definition of “conservative” is someone who doesn’t want to be mugged or lose their home or step into human waste outside their office while paying dearly for the privilege.) As a friend said, “we pay 5-star prices for 1-star service,” although I’m not entirely sure Angelenos get a full star's worth from the City or the County of LA. You are not alone. Time to act like it.
45% Envy
There’s a reason envy is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and no less a leader than Plutarch called it the greatest evil in political life. That craven emotion is what drives today’s Democrat Party. All of them—Bass, Governor Gavin Newsom, the ladies of “The View” masquerading as the LA County Board of Supervisors—are in thrall to the radical leftist DSA. Envy, the mother’s milk of collectivism, is why Los Angeles can’t have nice things. It is why so much money is hoovered up from homeowners and taxpayers and given to the Homeless Industrial Complex and to illegal aliens. It’s why the tax code is regressive and punitive.
Even as the fires were raging across Pacific Palisades and Malibu, and Altadena, a chorus of voices were writing and saying things like “multi-million-dollar homes” and “the 1%” as if that makes losses justified. The vitriol directed at Rick Caruso for saving Palisades Village was palpable. Envy is how we got equity replacing equality of opportunity. The immediate glee that some displayed during the fires was disgusting. Envy poisons everything, from the women who cosplay as firefighters with no regard for their ability to carry a man from danger, to the jackals crowing over the land in the Palisades and elsewhere that they hope will be replaced with high-density housing.
Keeping the envious at bay is what makes limousine liberals spout "progressive" policies. They think it will keep the wolves away from their door, but when a worrying number of people think UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder was acceptable, it doesn’t make them immune at all.
California Dems are not progressive, they’re performative, and their results are dismal.
How do we fix all of the above? There is lots of blame to go around, but so much opportunity to right the ship and help our neighbors out. This is why I and so many of my fellow freedom fighters in LA, including RedState’s own Jennifer Van Laar and Bob Hoge, beat the same drum constantly. This toxic brew of envy, cowards, math, missing fundamentals, Democrat incompetence, casual racism, and abortion! is coming for your red state courtesy of blue city progressive strongholds. So please don’t tell us to leave California.
We need to expect, demand—and vote for—good governance everywhere.
Roxanne Beckford Hoge is a mother of four, a Los Angeles resident since 1988, and the Chairman of the Los Angeles County Republican Party (LAGOP). You can find her on X at @RoxanneHoge. She is married to RedState author Bob Hoge—and continues to hate facial hair.