H. L. Mencken famously wrote “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.” Although his heyday was around one hundred years ago, Mencken could have been writing about California in 2025. Two stories in today’s news illustrate it perfectly.

The first to catch my eye comes from Marin County, where I lived for several decades before leaving for the saner Southeast. Marin County is a very Democrat region. It wasn’t always that way. Over the years, it swung between Republicans and Democrats, but the results were fairly evenly balanced, with only two “blowout presidential elections.” In 1920, 68.8% of Marin voters went for Warren G. Harding, and in 1952, 67% of Marin voters liked Ike.

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Things went out of whack beginning in the 21st century. In 2004, 73.2% of Marin voters actually thought that John Kerry was fit to lead the country. In 2008, unsurprisingly Obama won by 77.77 percent, the same percentage that voted for Hillary in 2016. However, in 2020 and 2024—both of which were elections with mail-in ballots only, Marin went stratospherically to the left: Biden got 82% of Marin’s votes in 2020 and Kamala got 80.6% of the votes in 2024.

According to Grok, Marin’s federal choices are also reflected in its state legislative choices:

The last time Marin County sent a Republican to the California State Legislature was in 1996, when Republican William “Bill” Filante represented the 9th Assembly District, which included parts of Marin and Sonoma counties. He served from 1980 to 1992 and was succeeded by Republican Bill Bagley, who served until 1996. Since then, Marin County has consistently elected Democrats to both the State Assembly and Senate, reflecting the county's strong Democratic lean. For example, the current representatives, Assemblymember Damon Connolly and Senator Mike McGuire, are both Democrats.

I mention all this because Marinites definitely had a hand in the California legislature passing laws that essentially force communities to build high-density housing. That was democracy—and now they’re getting it good and hard:

Residents have filed an appeal against a high-density affordable housing proposal in Corte Madera.

The 98-apartment project at 240 Tamal Vista Blvd. will likely cause public safety and traffic problems for its neighbors, the appellants state.

More than 90 people have signed a petition supporting the appeal, said Julie Jay, a project opponent.

[snip]

The Planning Commission approved the project in a 3-2 vote on April 22. Several commissioners said the project seemed too large but that their options were limited.

The applicant, Jemcor Development Partners of San Mateo, is invoking recent state housing laws to limit the town’s discretion and streamline the process.

I know the proposed site very well. It’s on one of two roads that lead to Redwood High School, a public school with 1,800 students. In the morning, what’s normally a 20-minute drive can take twice as long. Add in 98 apartments and it’s going to quadruple or quintuple the time. The town’s residents voted for the representatives who passed these laws and now they’re getting the results good and hard.

Southern Californians aren’t faring any better. Los Angeles County has also been extremely Democrat-oriented. Although it’s better balanced than Marin in presidential elections, it’s still been more Democrat than Republican since FDR was first elected, and the Democrat tilt has been steadily increasing since Reagan left office. Currently, Democrat voter registrations outnumber Republican by more than two to one. The legislative districts are also overwhelming Democrat, both in Congress and in the California legislature.

As with Marin County, the voters are discovering that Democrats don’t govern well, with Exhibit A being the recovery from the disastrous fires that swept L.A. Because of California’s manic environmentalism, nothing is getting built. That led to this very funny tweet from Mandy Moore, a Kamala enthusiast:

As always, I’m sorry for the conservatives who, for whatever reasons, are trapped in these Democrat-run preserves. It’s miserable to be stuck with the fallout from other people’s bad choices. As for the voters who effectively chose these policies, it’s probably going to take even more of that “gooder and harder” before some of them wake up.