S3 E2) California Reaming

Fox News hyped its recent Ron-DeSantis-vs-Gavin-Newsom smackdown as a great debate between red and blue. Of course, it was really just a chance for the two governors to bash each other by drawing the supposedly-great contrast between their two states. Notwithstanding her impulse to side with Newsom over the dark lord of book bans, reproductive surveillance and fossil fuels, Tish Durkin finds it’s the whole boxing-match premise that really needs to be knocked out. After all, Florida actually is California, just at an earlier stage of its economic miracle. Instead of jeering California for its population losses, DeSantis should be working to protect Florida from the downsides inherent in its population gains — the same downsides with which California is now being forced to come to terms. Instead, for reasons known only to the man who would out-Trump Trump, he’s doing the exact opposite. God help the Sunshine State.