A Reason For Pessimism
Hugh Hewitt > Blog
Saturday, May 9, 2026
Katie Porter. Remember her? She is still in the California gubernatorial race, but like a race car after a disastrous pit stop, she is in the the back of the field. Her crime was cursing a staffer on a video call and it went viral. It seems as if demeaning insult is her primary form of debate. This week however, she launched an ad that she no doubt thought would fix everything, yet horribly missed the mark. In the viral video she screams the f-word at a staffer that gets “in her shot.” In the ad she kindly asks the staffers standing behind her to get out of her shot – *giggle* — *giggle.* And there, in two short clips, is so, so much of what troubles us, and especially California, these days.
Her ad shows no regret, contains no apology, no mea culpa, no admission of wrong in any fashion. At best it is an admission of embarrassment at getting caught. The first step in learning from your mistakes is acknowledging that you made a mistake to begin with. The ad is so cringeworthy because it makes it obvious that cursing, screaming shrew is what she is and she has no intention of trying to be less so. She doubled down when she needed to fold. Bluffs only work when no one knows what you have in your hand – her hand; however, might as well have been laid on the table. Her antics are spreading.
And isn’t that the problem with so much these days? So obsessed are we with “feeling good about ourselves” that we try to bluff our way through our screw-ups when we should admit our mistake and humbly withdraw. In church we call that “confession.” In A.A. they call it “hitting bottom.” Whatever you call it it is the first step to improving.
Until we learn to once again admit our mistakes, I am a pessimist.
And with that, the list of leftovers is long, so let’s dive in.
Since the post starts in California, so will the quick hits. It is hard to know where to start. First they rigged the voting system with things like vote harvesting and the jungle primary. Now they are just out and out buying votes. But then they have to when the choices are between communists, the mealy mouthed and the hypocritically ignorant.
This is brilliant. This helps them make their case.
If they are, it is their own friggin’ fault. But while they are complaining about gas prices, don’t forget that $2/gal in taxes unique to California.
Leaving California, we turn to New York. Mamdani seems to want a new Civil War. I guess so he can sell groceries.
Back to admitting mistakes for a minute. Consider Justice Jackson. Then think about Luke 4:23.
The new insurgent politics. This worked for Trump too. The difference is Trump used it to restore sanity, the Left is using it to drive us into ever increasing liberal insanity.
Speaking on insanity. Why is so much of Leftism insane? It is entirely logically inconsistent.
Education fails? It is not about the money – it is about the insanity.
Thank goodness, radio seems to be holding its own.
