The year was 2076 and excitement was in the air. Americans were reflecting on our past while preparing to celebrate our nation's 300th birthday.

In the beginning, there arose a group of patriots, Friends of Liberty. They stood for their God given rights and rejected the oppression of King George III. Those patriots lit the lamp of liberty on July 4, 1776 with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. They risked everything including their lives. Patrick Henry was among them and declared, "As for me, give me liberty or give me death."

87 Years later, Abraham Lincoln stood on the battlefield at Gettysburg and spoke eloquently of a nation "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

The lamp of liberty burned bright for another 100+ years. Slaves were freed, the 14th and 15th Amendments expanded individual freedoms, and the 19th Amendment gave women the vote. Limited government, liberty and free markets created a level of prosperity the world had never seen. Americans of all races and genders thrived. America was the envy of the world – the shining city on the hill with California as its crown jewel.

But the winds of change were blowing by the early 1970's. A new breed of politicians, the Czars of Control, were on the rise in California. The Czars of Control ignored the progress America had made in nearly 200 years. They only saw America's faults and preached a message of doom and gloom. They claimed that larger government and more laws were needed to combat injustice and deliver liberty and equality. The lamp of liberty grew dimmer. For them, liberty became a word without meaning. We still spoke of liberty. It's in our pledge of allegiance – "…with liberty and justice for all" but times had changed. Our government, as envisioned by our forefathers with its broad freedom to let people live their lives as they saw fit was being lost.

The next half century was a dark time. The size and power of government grew rapidly. The czars dominated California politics controlling the state senate, assembly and the governorship. Cries for "Affirmative Action," "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion," "make the wealthy pay their fair share," and "hold companies accountable" were among the catch phrases used to justify an endless succession of new laws.

The SEIU, CTA and other large labor unions became the puppeteers that controlled the czars with wheelbarrows of campaign cash. "Public/private partnerships" and a "Train to Nowhere" became favored pathways for shipping billions of dollars to politically aligned NGO's (non-governmental organizations) and other groups. The czars had imposed the highest personal income taxes, the 7th highest sales taxes and the 6th highest corporate taxes in the nation by 2026. They also shifted costs from the state onto the backs of local governments by, among other things, closing prisons and sending inmates to county jails. Still, those changes weren't enough to feed the bloated government they created. Budget deficits replaced surpluses even as tax revenue skyrocketed. Their deficits caused unfunded pension liabilities for Cal PERS and Cal STRS to balloon to over $265 billion.

Crime, including serial retail theft and drug dealing, was growing but the czars refused to even take up the issue in the Assembly and Senate Public Safety committees. The people responded! Nearly 70% voted to reign in crime by passing Proposition 36. The governor and other czars just thumbed their noses and refused to fund it.

The czars fought tooth and nail against making it a felony to traffic teenagers for sex. They voted for early parole of sex offenders over age 50 calling it "Elderly Parole."

The czars used "Holding corporations accountable" to rationalize micromanaging the insurance industry. Insurers abandoned the state. Others stopped writing new home insurance policies. The insurance crisis that followed saw costs surge for individuals, businesses and local governments. The oil industry also fell victim to the czars' regulation. Two major refineries closed.

The czars' planning laws led to a housing bubble in the early 2000's and a devastating collapse in 2007. That was followed by years of inadequate building and a housing shortage. Warning bells and recommendations from the California Legislative Analyst in 2015 went unheeded. California had the highest home prices in the nation and nearly the highest rents by 2026. The czars were blind to their culpability. They audaciously boasted of having passed over 500 housing related laws in the 7 years leading up to 2026. Their folly was to measure success by the number of laws they passed and the amount of money they spent - not by their results. The Housing Affordability Index (HAI) then stood at 19 (just 19% of households could afford the median priced home) versus 40 for the nation.