The durability of failure

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

How much failure will voters tolerate before they demand something different? That question is not unique to Los Angeles, but few cities have put it on display more clearly. 

WORLD commentator Cal Thomas reflects on the city’s mayor, the challenges facing America’s second-largest city, and the surprising durability of political failure.

CAL THOMAS: Politics is the only profession of which I am aware in which competence does not seem to matter. One can fail miserably. One can be corrupt. One can even get away with behavior that, if committed by someone outside elective office might result in arrest, prosecution, and a stint in jail.

Which brings me to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Her tenure has become a case study in what happens when voters stop expecting government to do basic things government is supposed to do.

Start with the Palisades Fire, which erupted on January 7 of last year and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. Rebuilding has moved at a glacial pace, thanks in large measure to a permit process tangled in environmental regulations and bureaucratic delay.

Then there is homelessness.

During her first campaign, Bass promised to end street homelessness. She now prefers the more fashionable term "the unhoused," but changing the language has not solved the problem. Her much-publicized "Inside Safe" initiative has moved some people off the streets, but large encampments remain, along with the drug addicted, the mentally ill, and public disorder that accompany them.

Then there are the city's finances.

Bass approved a budget that cut millions of dollars from the Los Angeles Fire Department, even as the city continued spending beyond its means. The normally liberal Los Angeles Times editorial board recently described the city's fiscal problems as "self-inflicted" and criticized the failure to address deteriorating infrastructure, including broken sidewalks, burned-out streetlights, and untrimmed trees.

These are not ideological issues; they are competence issues.

Citizens expect their government to protect life and property, maintain basic services, and spend public money responsibly. Those expectations should not be controversial.

One measure of how dissatisfied many Angelenos have become is that they have begun looking outside the traditional political class for alternatives.

Reality television personality Spencer Pratt attracted attention in the mayor's race not because he possesses a long record in public service, but because many voters have become frustrated with those who do.

That should concern every elected official, regardless of party.

When voters conclude that experienced politicians are incapable of solving obvious problems, they begin looking elsewhere. Sometimes they find better leaders. Sometimes they do not. But the search itself is revealing.

The real story in Los Angeles is not insurgent candidacies. The real story is that after years of homelessness, bureaucratic dysfunction, fiscal problems, and a painfully slow recovery from disaster, so many voters have become willing to consider something drastically different.

That is not primarily a commentary on anyone but Karen Bass.

For WORLD, I’m Cal Thomas.

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