By Douglas V. Gibbs
Spencer Pratt is a problem for the Democrats. Like Donald J. Trump, he is an outsider that refuses to play by the rules of the typical political game, and he’s unpredictable. Even worse, he has humiliated them. He’s getting a lot of attention and with that attention he’s exposing their underbelly in such a way they are scrambling to deal with him, but because they’ve never been hit this way before, they truly don’t know what to do.
The Democrats can’t win in the arena of ideas, and that’s why Pratt even cleaned the floor with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and Nithya Raman in the last debate, to the point that they are running away from any more debates. Then, when they attack him, it backfires. They have no idea how to handle a basic exchange of ideas.
Their only ploy, at this point, is to pull on Pratt what they’ve pulled on Donald Trump. Lie, call him a fascist, and hit him with lawfare. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has already launched attacks against Pratt, but in her frustration she is realizing that the popularity of Pratt is simply a case of Spencer tapping into the electorate’s anger of the policies of Democratic politicians like Bass.
While Spencer Pratt has not yet reached incumbent Karen Bass’s numbers in the polls, he is rapidly climbing, surging up 12 points since March in the Emerson College poll.
The Democratic Party’s crisis in California has become so severe that with two Republicans threatening to win the top two spots in the gubernatorial race, there are talks that the Democrats are considering abandoning the jungle primary system, a law that’s been in place since 2010. Democrats did it to lock Republicans out of political office, and now the GOP is threatening to lock Democrats out of the 2026 November general election with the “top two” primary.
No matter how they’ve tried to cheat, the bad policies of the Democrats have come home to roost. They embraced identity and partisan politics, they spied on their opponents, they arrested their opponents, and they threw their opponents off the ballots – but voters care about results and the Democrats have none in the column of successes – and the voters have noticed.
While Spencer Pratt has a political science degree, Bass has pointed out that he has no political experience. You know, the same argument they used against Trump. Pratt is actually doing the same thing as Trump did – he’s talking to the voters in a language that speaks of common sense, and taking a business approach to governance. And besides, at this point, many voters believe that anybody that’s not Karen Bass, and not a Democrat, is what Los Angeles needs. The Democrats have made a mess of the Golden State – perhaps it’s time to stop following the same path of insanity, and actually try something different for a change.
The Palisades Fire was a tipping point. There was no water or proper personnel and equipment to stop a raging fire that destroyed roughly 16,000 homes. And since then, the policies have not changed. The lesson was not learned. Democrats after controlling the area for nearly three decades and driving everything into the ground are basically arguing, “give us a few more years and we’ll get it turned around.” How? With the same idiotic policies? Their taxation is sky high, and the money is not going to where it is needed. Meanwhile, homelessness is worsening (after Bass said three years ago that by 2026 she’d have that issue tackled), and Bass’s plan has been to give them new needles for their drug usage, and pay for them to get new teeth.
The choices are basically a failure named Karen Bass, a democratic-socialist named Nithya Raman, or Spencer Pratt who is a newcomer to politics and offers voters a genuine alternative. Win or lose, Pratt is offering new ideas, a new message, and new tools of campaigning – incredible videos, and a message that says either choose him and clean up the city or choose one of his opponents and continue to watch the city burn with a continued tumble toward bankruptcy, less reliable services, and more mass poverty.
Pratt’s message is simple. Los Angeles is worth saving, and his opponents have been letting L.A. burn and fail for decades. His campaign simply highlights the ongoing mess in Los Angeles and how they are directly related to the failed Democratic socialist policies like those of Governor Gavin Newsom and current L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.
What Pratt represents is a continuation of the movement begun by the TEA Party, and accelerated by Donald J. Trump. It’s a recognition that special interests control Democratic Party politics and that the ruling party has become parasitic, obsessed with gaining more power and profit, and guilty of using every extreme, overhyped, idiotic game to try to maintain control.
Can Pratt win? Can a Republican win in California? Perhaps. If it is going to happen, this seems like the election season that it will.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
