**Pre-order on Amazon Kindle**
I have been working on this book since 2022. We held off publishing in 2024 because of the presidential election and Kamala coming on at the last moment. The ebook will be released March 3rd, audiobook to follow, and the paperback will come out in the summer. I will serialize some of the chapters here at Atlantic Playbook.
Book overview
The Myth of California: How Big Government Destroyed the Golden State
California is broken, and it’s no accident. For decades, progressive ideologies have solidified their grip on every level of government, turning a once-thriving state into a hollow shell of its former self. The California Dream—a promise of fame, fortune, and paradise—has devolved into a mirage sustained by myth-making and Hollywood’s propaganda machine.
The Golden State has always sold an escape: from Gold Rush riches to Hollywood stardom to idyllic coastal living. But this expertly crafted myth hasn’t drawn the industrious. Instead, it has attracted those enchanted by ease and reinvention, creating a culture more obsessed with lifestyle than sustainability.
Progressive governance, unchecked and unaccountable, has strangled the middle class, driven businesses away, and turned basic aspirations like home ownership into an impossible dream. California’s leaders operate in a vacuum of accountability, unmoored from economic reality. Unlike New York, where Wall Street curbs excess, California has no stabilizing force—just a bloated bureaucracy driven by utopian ideals.
Tourism props up the illusion. Millions flock to sunlit beaches, wine country retreats, and Silicon Valley innovation, oblivious to the crumbling infrastructure, homelessness crisis, and suffocating government policies lurking beneath. Tourism funds the very dysfunction that deepens the state’s decline, delaying its inevitable reckoning.
California’s unraveling is a cautionary tale for America: when a state prioritizes idealism over practical governance, it becomes a victim of its own hubris. The myth of paradise is fading. What remains is a stark warning about the dangers of big government and chasing utopia over reality.
