California’s Journey from Reagan Country to Ruin as Witnessed Firsthand

By Douglas V. Gibbs

California was once the crown jewel of the American dream. Reagan Country. A land of booming industry, unmatched beauty, and boundless opportunity. People didn’t just move there — they flocked there. From every corner of the country and every continent on Earth, they came for the weather, the freedom, and the promise of economic prosperity.

I grew up in that wonderful place, and I have watched it vanish.  And it didn’t vanish by accident. It was dismantled — piece by piece, policy by policy, by the progressive left and their Democratic Party machine. What was once a beacon of liberty and economic prosperity has become a cautionary tale of Marxist rot, bureaucratic bloat, and ideological insanity.

This was not a natural decline. It was engineered. Since 1975, with the exception of George Deukmejian’s brief interlude during the Reagan and Bush years, California has been under the thumb of leftist governors who’ve treated the Constitution like a relic and the free market like a threat. Pete Wilson? Schwarzenegger? Don’t kid yourself — they were no conservatives. They were small and largely compliant speed bumps on the highway to collapse.

I was born in a California beach city and raised in the Los Angeles area and the Inland Empire tucked between LA and San Diego in California.  I watched it happen. I lived it. I survived it.  And, I escaped it.

As a child, I was subjected to the equity-obsessed public school system that didn’t just ignore individuality — it punished it. They yanked the pencil from my left hand and forced me to write right-handed.  With confused coordination and misdirection, it scrambled my development… all in the name of uniformity. That’s not education — that’s indoctrination.

And when I asked about the Constitution — the very foundation of our Republic — I was told it was flawed. Unimportant. Outdated. But I didn’t buy it. I graduated not because of my education, but in spite of it. I voted for Ronald Reagan in my first presidential election, served proudly in the United States Navy, and raised my family in the state I once loved as I marched to the day in which I would become known as a constitutionalist.

As for me being a Californian?  I was one until I couldn’t anymore.

We fled. And it was the one of the best decisions of my life.

From afar, I’ve watched the decay accelerate. Education has collapsed into ideological training camps. Law and order? A distant memory. Criminals roam free while law-abiding citizens are taxed, regulated, and silenced. The cost of living is astronomical — the highest in the country for gas, food, and energy — despite California’s abundant natural resources.

Why? Because the left doesn’t believe in production. They believe in punishment. They shut down nuclear plants, destroy dams, and replace them with solar farms that can’t power a toaster. Rolling blackouts are now a feature, not a bug. The Central Valley — once the breadbasket of the world — is drying up under water mismanagement and environmental extremism.

And don’t get me started on the infrastructure. Rotting ports. Failing dams. State Highway 1 (the famous Pacific Coast Highway) is closed in certain beautiful areas due to landslides and neglect. Wildfires rage because forests are mismanaged. Reservoirs run dry while bureaucrats run wild and refuse to operate in a manner that’s best for the State and its people.

The only thriving sector? The public sector. The government class. The ones who suck the wealth out of California and blame their failures on climate change, capitalism, and conservatives.

It’s a joke. A tragic, expensive, dangerous joke.

California has become a haven for WOKE immorality, illegal aliens, and Hollywood communists. The welfare state is bloated beyond recognition. Homelessness is rampant with California possessing the largest homeless population in the United States. Crime is rising.  Domestic violence is commonplace. And businesses are fleeing in droves. Corporate exile is the new gold rush — only this time, they’re rushing out.

The Democrats don’t want to fix it. They can’t fix it. They’ve built a system that rewards failure, punishes success, and silences dissent. They’ve turned paradise into a prison — and they’re proud of it.

I escaped. My family members and many of my friends have escaped.  And now, all I can do is watch the collapse from a distance and warn others before it’s too late.

— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary