Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast. This is Teddy Kupfer, an associate editor of City Journal. I'm filling

in this week for Brian Anderson. Joining me on the show today is Nick Burns. Nick is a contributing

writer to the new statesman and has written articles for many different publications,

including American affairs and foreign affairs, thereby covering the sum total of human affairs.

Nick is also the author of Referendum Rebukes, a feature on California politics that appears

in this summer's print edition of our quarterly magazine and ran on our website last week.

Nick, thank you very much for joining us.

Glad to be on.

So to start off, I'm going to read a quote from the late James Q. Wilson, social scientist,

that appeared in 1967 story for Commentary Magazine, thanks to Avery James, my colleague, for tracking

this down. Wilson writes, quote, explaining California, especially Southern California,

has always been a favorite pastime for New Yorkers and

Bostonians, who have changed planes in Los Angeles, made a two-day trip to the Rand Corporation,

or just speculated on what kind of state could be responsible for Hollywood. Close quote.

Now, I'm not a Californian. In fact, I went to L.A. for the first time just this past March.

But you very much are a Californian, which means I'm going to rely on you to be our guide to long-term political trends in the Golden State. So let's dive into your piece.

You start by noting a number of ballot initiatives that last November yielded results, which would at first glance, appear to herald a rightward

state, a rightward shift in the state.

Sorry.

California voters rejected attempts to allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries.

They rejected attempts to raise commercial property taxes and to scrap the current

cash bail system.

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