If you ever saw the film “The Candidate” you will know that it ends with the classic line: “What do I do now?” Robert Redford’s character in that film had just won his election, and though he had spent months promising to help people and move the government towards his agenda, he had no idea how to accomplish that.

That encapsulates the feelings of most people who actually get elected to office for the first time. After months of campaigning and promising, they win, and then they are at a loss as to what to do. To all candidates I ever spoke to when they were asking for my endorsement for office (back when my endorsement meant something), I would always tell them my sixth rule of politics as advice as to how to direct their efforts during their time in office:

“There are two ways to approach your time in elected office. You will either become an advocate for the people to the bureaucracy, or you will become the mouthpiece of the bureaucracy to the people.”

Simply stated, this means you will either press the agenda of the people that elected you to the bureaucrats, or you will explain the agenda of the… Read More

The previous four rules of politics had to do with things I had observed about Republicans, Democrats, and their approach to politics. I know everyone has seen those rules in action, they just have never understood them, or how to put words to the things they have seen. I derived these rules from watching and attempting to understand what I am seeing. I write them down like this mainly just so they are somewhere other than my brain. The next few rules are not about politics, but rather about governance. How do elected officials approach their job? Why does it seem that once elected, everybody seems to do the same thing? That leads to the my fifth rule:

“There is always a good excuse for bigger government.”

This is how the process works. Someone identifies a problem, and their solution is always some government program to fix it. Or, they see a government agency out of control, and try to fix it, and are hit with the “you are allied with the bad guys we are trying to stop” excuse. Ronald Reagan once said the closest thing to eternal life on this earth is a government program. Once it is… Read More

“At some time in political history, Democrats married Unions as their partner in the path to political power, and Republicans married the business community as theirs. The Democrats’ partner is faithful, the Republicans’ partner cheats all the time.”

I learned this rule early on in politics, and it was really emphasized during the two years that Republicans had a majority in the Assembly and the Governor’s office. Unions always gave 99% of their money to Democrats for Democrat elections prior to the 1994 election, and gave even more in the 1994-6 election cycle to unseat the Republicans. The Business Community, prior to 1994, gave about 60% of its money to Democrats with the excuse that they had to because “the Democrats are in charge of the Legislature.” In the 1994-6 election cycle, they gave about 55% of their money to Democrats because, according to one lobbyist I spoke to, “they might be in charge again, and we have to maintain those relationship.”

What? The unions don’t use such a lame excuse to justify their campaign contribution behavior, and besides, when the Democrats take over… Read More

“Democrats are intensely partisan, and they prove that partisanship by screwing Republicans whenever they are in power. Republicans are intensely nonpartisan, and they prove that nonpartisanship by screwing Republicans whenever they are in power. So it doesn’t matter who is in power, Republicans get screwed.”

I first began developing this rule when I saw how the Democrats handled the redistricting process. We all know that Democrats have been attacking Republicans for gerrymandering districts since 2010. Of course, they gerrymandered legislative and Congressional districts at every opportunity since they started controlling most of the state legislative chambers in the 1940s. Between 1954 and 1994, Democrats maintained control of Congress throughout that time by gerrymandering Congressional districts throughout the country. When I was first elected, Democrats controlled all three centers of political power, that is, the two houses of the Legislatures, and the Governors, in 30 states. Republicans only had that tripartite power in 3 states, the rest were divided. Those states where Democrats everything, they used gerrymandering to hold onto… Read More

I began the discussion of my “rules of politics” with my first rule, “there is the evil party and the stupid party, and it is not hard to tell which is which.” This is my second rule of politics.

“Republicans lose elections because they break their campaign promises. Democrats lose elections because they keep theirs.”

The concept is real simple. Democrats campaign promising a socialist utopia. Democrats will tell us time and again they are not socialist, they only want a fair and just society, which always ends up meaning “We want to control your business, your income, your daily behavior and your family,” which by the way, is the goal of every socialist.

In addition, they obtain and maintain power with the help of government unions, which receive their money from government employees mandatory dues, the source of which is people’s tax dollars, then the unions prevail upon the Democrats to increase the size and scope of government, which creates more dues paying government employees and higher taxes, the result of all socialist regimes ever created. If one really analyzes the Communist… Read More

I have been inspired by the confirmation hearings in the US Senate to write down my rules of politics. This is the first one. I didn’t make this one up, I heard it in my first run for elected office in 1990, and it has been confirmed in all my dealings in politics since that time. The rule is this:

“In this country, there is the evil party and the stupid party and it is not hard to tell which is which.”

We are watching this rule play out at the national level right now. As Trump’s appointments make their way through the US Senate, the principal opposition to their appointment is all of the Democrats and a couple of Republicans here and there. Compare that with the appointment process when Biden was elected President. All the Democrats were united in support of the appointments, with several Republicans joining them. The Rs that joined in voting for the Biden appointees always received accolades from the legacy media, just as the Rs who oppose Trump’s appointees get now.

The common theme among the Rs for Biden appointees was that a President deserves the Cabinet he wants. The Ds believe that for a Democrat… Read More

There has been a “fiery” debate about whether it is a righteous position having certain conditions attached to providing the substantial sums needed by California to make whole the areas destroyed by the recent fires. Those considering the limitations need to understand how pernicious the problem is before deciding to release any funding. A recent story I came across displays the depth of the problem. A friend had their home flooded due to a problem with the drainage system maintained by the local community. The flood definitely was caused by the city pipes. The city later blamed the problem on roots grown into their pipes causing the backup but took no responsibility for the damage done to the home. The homeowner was left with no recourse but to pursue legal action against the city because of being stopped from having any recourse by other means. Their insurance did not cover such an event, nor would it normally. They pursued a tax benefit through a section of the tax code called “casualty losses,” but that can only be claimed if you are in a federally declared disaster area. The state of California conforms to the federal law. The homeowner… Read More

Just when you thought the parade of terrible ideas had reached its limit, CalExit is back with a new initiative to put California’s secession on the 2026 ballot. Yes, the most delusional, impractical, and Kremlin-cheered pipe dream of our time has returned, despite its repeated failures and universal ridicule. This isn’t just a bad idea—it’s a spectacularly bad idea. Of course, the aim isn’t to actually make it happen, but to normalize the concept, cause division, and give Americans a reason to attack one another. But America is bigger than that, stronger than that, and frankly, too great to be undone by a few disillusioned cranks and their Kremlin cheerleaders. We can’t talk about CalExit without mentioning its interesting history. While its proponents insist the movement is homegrown, the idea has been gleefully boosted by Russian government-backed media and trolls looking to destabilize our country. Since they can’t get Alaska back, Moscow apparently settled on the next best thing: convincing a few California loons to indulge their fever dreams. Russia’s state-run media outlets and troll farms eagerly talk up CalExit… Read More