By: Noah Rothman – nationalreview.com – January 9, 2025

The boutique priorities of the few have crowded out basic good governance — a problem pronounced in California but apparent wherever the ‘blue state model’ is practiced.

Nat Glazer had it all figured out decades ago. In a 1993 lecture, the author and social scientist identified the foremost conceptual cul-de-sac that had produced so much dysfunction in American cities by the late 1960s — a diagnosis that boiled down to the fact that the people voters elect to manage urban life simply got bored with the job description.

“New York,” Glazer said by way of example, “stopped trying to do well the kinds of things a city can do, and started trying to do the kinds of things a city cannot do.” The city subordinated “keeping its streets …

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Source: Crisis of Democratic Overconfidence | National Review