150 years ago, the British historian Lord Acton wrote one of the world’s most-quoted observations about politics. ‘Power tends to corrupt,’ he declared, ‘and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’  Lord Acton probably never heard of California, which was then a newly formed state, but his adage comes to mind today.

California has essentially become a far wealthier and more beautiful version of North Korea, a place where one party rules with an iron fist. The numbers speak volumes:t the State Assembly and the State Senate are both 75% Democratic supermajorities.  California has 52 representatives in Washington, out of which seven are Republicans, and both Senators are left-wing Democrats.  But more than quantity is the quality of the elected officials.

The odious Eric Swalwell was merely a bit player, a footnote in a volume of corruption and deceit. Senator Adam Schiff made his name by lying about Donald Trump’s ‘collusion’ with Russia and seemed to have spare bedrooms at MSNBC and CNN.  His Senate colleague Alex Padilla managed to grab some attention by storming the stage where Kristi Noem was speaking and getting cuffed in the process.

In the House, it would be an insult to Star Wars to compare California’s delegation to that movie's bar scene. 40-year veteran Nancy Pelosi, aka the Wizard of Wall Street, recently won her San Francisco district with 73% of the vote.  87-year-old Maxine Waters lives in a mansion that’s not even in her district, while Congresswoman Lateefa Simon was among the leaders in the absurd ‘defund the police’ movement. California’s cities are run by incompetent loons like Castro-loving Karen Bass in Los Angeles and Barbara Lee in Oakland.

One-party rule has staggering costs in both money and human lives because there is absolutely no electoral competition, no incentive to expose fraud.  The folly of a bullet train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco has gone way off the rails, with the cost estimate ballooning from $33 billion to $126 billion. Imagine how many people have gotten very wealthy from the train to nowhere.  Soon after the wildfires in SoCal, LA Mayor Karen Bass promised that the recovery would be ‘the fastest in California history.’

According to Politico, 34 homes have been built in the devastated area so far.  The latest California scandal is massive fraud in hospice care; an anti-fraud task force estimates the cost at $600 million.  No one will be surprised if it turns out that many of those millions went to Democratic politicians who greased the skids and looked the other way.

So what’s next for the once-Golden State? Eric Swalwell has taken his sullied hat out of the ring, leaving two prominent Democrats in the upcoming primary.  One is the execrable Katie Porter, famous for berating staff and dumping scalding mashed potatoes on a former husband.  The other is billionaire Tom Steyer, who wants ICE agents arrested and makes Gavin Newsom look like Ronald Reagan. On the Republican side, conservative former Fox News host Steve Hilton believes he has a fighting chance and actually leads in some polls.  But his support is in the 18% range, and it’s a steep uphill battle in a state where Democrats dominate.

Ironically, Hilton was born in England, also home to the aforementioned Lord Acton.  One Brit lamented the terrible damage inflicted by absolute power; another Brit may be California’s best chance to end the absolute corruption that has engulfed America’s most beautiful state.