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Today's trouble is enough for today
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Dear John,

Whatever you think of Donald Trump, it’s likely you’re thinking about him today.

We’ve all seen miscarriages of justice as well as acts of pure evil. This unique case carries with it darker possibilities for America — widespread contempt for the Constitution, a ratcheting up of the misuses of public office for purely partisan wins.

Californians have long experience with precisely this sort of official abuse. We’re accustomed to seeing government officials take over and torture the state’s institutions into engines of political oppression. The high-profile problems that bedevil Californians — high crime, taxes, and energy costs; lousy education outcomes; highest-in-the-nation taxes, homelessness, and government fraud; insurance companies fleeing the state alongside entrepreneurs and others — get worse because government officials are more interested in theater than workable solutions.

Consider just a few recent examples of Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats thumbing their noses at the democratic process:

— When a grassroots coalition of concerned parents submitted their proposed “Protect Kids of California Act” initiative for the November ballot, Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office changed the title to “Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth.” The bill would have protected girls’ sports and parents' right to be informed about their child changing genders at school. Not only was the AG’s title deliberately misleading, but Bonta was seemingly conflicted: He was in charge of writing an unbiased title while suing school districts for implementing parental notification policies.

Bonta’s lawfare temporarily succeeded: This week we learned the initiative’s backers, hobbled by Bonta’s misleading title, fell short of the required number of qualifying signatures for the 2024 ballot.

— Trapped by an historic state budget deficit, Newsom declared there’d be no new taxes. That sounded good to some fiscal conservatives — until they learned that Newsom was already in state court trying to kill the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act (TPA). Newsom's attorneys argued before the California Supreme Court against the right of Californians to vote on the proposed statewide initiative already qualified ([link removed]) for the November ballot.

The state constitution guarantees Californians the right to put referenda and initiatives on the ballot to keep voters in charge and the legislature in check. Yet the governor and state bureaucrats are suing to block the TPA because it threatens to rein in their ability to increase taxes and bureaucratic fees without voter approval.

So much for Newsom’s “Campaign for Democracy.”

— Last week, Sacramento Democrats introduced AB 1955 ([link removed]) to thwart the parental notification policies passed by local school boards to ensure parents are informed if their child changes their gender at school. The move follows the AG’s admission in federal court that the state Department of Education “guidance” telling schools to keep secrets from parents is legally unenforceable. Asm. Chris Ward (D-San Diego) introduced AB 1955 by “gutting and amending” another bill just before Memorial Day weekend, skirting Assembly hearings and legislative deadlines.

The bill passed out of a senate committee earlier this week and will bypass another required policy committee hearing because the author of the bill was able to get a rule waiver.

— And, earlier this week, Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli, an attorney and former prosecutor, was kicked off the Judiciary Committee by the Democrat majority and replaced with a non-attorney because Essayli had forced a vote on the Floor “to end sanctuary state protections for pedophiles.”

“We can all sleep better knowing Democrats are hard at work saving democracy by jailing their political opponents, removing them from the ballot, and kicking them off committees,” Essayli wrote in a Tweet ([link removed]) this week.

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There’s a reason that Marxists call it the “long march through the institutions.” But there is hope. For starters, sometimes even the Left can’t escape the gravity of economic and political reality:

— As when San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced ([link removed]) this week that she is proposing a $46.7 million increase to the police department’s budget, which would make it an all-time high of $821.6 million, after the city has imploded on her watch.

— Or when California state Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) gave a headline-making speech ([link removed]) on the Floor condemning Democrats for refusing to support Sen. Shannon Groves’s sex trafficking bill, SB 1414, which would make it a felony to purchase sex from a minor.

“I’m done with us protecting people who would buy and abuse our children,” Eggman said. “I don’t want people buying little girls anymore. And I’m tired of saying it’s okay and that we have to protect the men who do it.”

But you can also find hope in the hard work by groups like CPC and our brave allies — in the Capitol, at local school boards and in our courts:

— Such as the two legal settlements ([link removed]) won by a California mother and teacher against school districts for their policies instructing teachers to lie to parents about students’ gender swapping.

— Or, Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su being grilled and investigated ([link removed]) by Congress following CPC’s report exposing her plan to stick American taxpayers with the bill for some $30 billion in fraudulent payments made when she oversaw California’s Employment Development Department.

— Last week, a 19-state coalition asked ([link removed]) the U.S. Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional the efforts of California and other blue states to impose their climate policies and “dictate the future of American energy policy” on the entire nation.

— And the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling ([link removed]) this week finding the National Rifle Association plausibly alleged that the head of the New York Department of Financial Services violated the First Amendment by coercing DFS-regulated entities into disassociating with the NRA in order to punish or suppress gun-promotion advocacy. The decision is a huge win against Leftist bureaucrats who use their official authority to bully and cancel political opponents.

As the saying goes, "don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." Californians may reasonably feel we don’t always have a whole lot of influence inside D.C., but we do have a massive influence across the nation.

“As California goes, so goes the nation.” If California goes dark, lights go out all over the nation. And that imperils democracy all over the world.

We have much work to do. Thanks for staying in the fight with us.
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Our reception and book signing event with author and school choice champion Corey DeAngelis is just one week away!

Join us Wednesday, June 5th from 6:00-8:00 p.m. in Orange County to hear from Corey — and get a complimentary copy of his new book and national bestseller, The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools ([link removed]) .

Don't miss this chance to hear from Corey, who has quickly become "America’s most prominent and influential advocate of school choice." His relentless campaign exposing the hypocrisy and failures of teachers union leaders like Randi Weingarten has helped upend the unions' stranglehold on the education narrative.

There is no cost for the reception when you use the promo code CPCFREE. RSVP now to reserve your FREE copy of The Parent Revolution ([link removed]) . Space is limited, so don’t delay!
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New Podcast ()
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** Radio Free California #333: She Is the Eggman
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On this week's podcast with CPC president Will Swaim and CPC board member David Bahnsen: State senator Susan Eggman is a progressive who says she’s had it with progressives. CalPERS threatens Exxon at shareholder event, then runs and hides. Bonus tracks: Lance Christensen reports on the Assembly’s latest effort to keep parents out of schools. Oil industry expert Hank Muddmann on California’s trouble with energy. Listen now. ([link removed])


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ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA POLICY CENTER

The California Policy Center promotes prosperity for all Californians through limited government and individual liberty.

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