California Democrats couldn't bring themselves to endorse a Sanders-backed socialist for insurance commissioner — but they rolled over for her policy agenda anyway, and ordinary Americans should take note of how the party operates when it thinks nobody's watching.
The stakes are straightforward: if the nation's largest state party can be bullied into backing a wealth tax after its own governor said no, the moderate wing isn't a brake on socialism — it's a speed bump.
At their state convention, California Democrats delivered a split verdict that reveals the party's true center of gravity. On one hand, delegates voted to endorse state Senator Ben Allen over Jane Kim for insurance commissioner. Kim, a former San Francisco supervisor backed by Bernie Sanders, had finished comfortably ahead of Allen in the June primary and enjoyed the traditional advantage that comes with being from Northern California, where the party's power and money concentrate. But Kim tanked a recent interview — her own hometown paper called her a "disaster," citing her plan for a socialist-style, state-run home insurance system. Delegates pushed Allen past the 60% threshold for endorsement, a rare feat and a signal that even California Democrats have limits.
On the other hand, those same delegates endorsed Proposition 40, the so-called "billionaire tax" — a 5% wealth tax on the state's richest residents. Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Xavier Becerra both came out against it. It didn't matter. Sanders and the socialist activists embraced the measure with what the New York Post described as "feverish enthusiasm." When the initial vote at the party conference failed to clear 60%, they simply voted again. And again. Three times total, until they manufactured the "correct" result.
So this is the process: vote until you win. Call it democracy.
The Proposition 40 scheme was cooked up by the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West union, nominally to fund healthcare spending — which is to say, to funnel money toward its own members' benefit. Follow the money: a union bankrolls a wealth tax sold as public generosity, and the party falls in line.
Meanwhile, the tax is already doing its damage before a single dollar is collected. The mere threat has driven some of California's biggest taxpayers and entrepreneurs out of the state — a slow-motion revenue suicide that anyone with basic arithmetic could predict.
The New York Post framed the story as Democrats needing "more spine" and being "confused." That's generous. The party didn't fumble — it chose. It chose to block one embarrassing socialist candidate while enshrining her agenda into policy. The moderates didn't lose; they collaborated.
The open question: if California's Democratic establishment will vote three times to give socialists what they want on a wealth tax, what exactly won't they surrender?
