A Sub-Nation Leaves Its Country
Tough years make better columns. And 2025 was a tough year for California. It’s not every year that your federal government sens secret police and troops to occupy you.
I write a weekly syndicated column for Zócalo Public Square, in addition to my duties as a democracy fellow at Berggruen Institute and as founder-publisher-editor at Democracy Local
In 2025, I took a couple weeks off my column, but wrote multiple columns in two different weeks. So it was a 52 columns a week.
Here are 10 that represent my best and most urgent work. I’m proud of how these columns see the present clearly—the American dictatorship has kicked California out of the country—in service of pointing a better path to the future. I’m also proud that in a year of horror and tragedy,my column hasn’t lost its sense of humor. Even though I sometimes feel as though I have.
The Fires Aren’t Unbelievable. We Are. Just hours after the January 7 fires that decimated Los Angeles, I was on the scene and wrote this essay while sitting in my car on Mount Curve Ave in Altadena. – THIS ONE
I Went to Find Trump’s ‘Rebellion’. I Ended Up at a Birthday Party. Trump’s siege of Los Angeles began on June 7. On June 8, I was on the border of the cities of Compton and Paramount, witnessing what the president called a rebellion. And I ended up at a quinceanera.
An Obituary for the American Republic, 1789-2025. Too many American journalists keep describing authoritarianism and the loss of the democratic republic as something that may happen one day. But the republic is already gone. So, I wrote an obituary and suggested that, in lieu of flowers, we build a new republic.
California Doesn’t Need to Secede. The questions about California secession or independence now belong to the post. The U.S. has kicked the state out of the union. So what do we do now?
COW Is Our New Country. California, Oregon and Washington are already building government agencies and services to replace a federal government being dismantled by Trump. So why not make our new country a partnership of the three states? Let’s call it COW.
WORLD’S FINEST COLUMNIST FIGHTS FIRE WITH FIRE. In an ALL CAPS response to Gavin Newsom’s new faux-dictator style, I explained why the governor’s fire-with-fire strategy is all but certain to backfire.
Could This Be California’s ‘Finest Hour’? The speech I still wish a California leader would give.
This Dead California Senator Can Save Birthright Citizenship. John Conness was an immigrant, an anti-slavery activist, and a close friend of Lincoln. He also represented California in the U.S Senate during the votes on the 14th Amendment clause. And his words from the 19th century demonstrate clearly that, contrary to Donald Trump’s lies, birthright citizen was meant to apply to everyone.
My Mother’s Love and Skepticism Are Inseparable. I was just 6 when a distinguished journalist taught me the old newspaper adage, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” I never forgot it—not least because that journalist was my mother.
Make California the Craziest State Again. It’s crazy-making that Americans have become crazier than Californians.
GUEST COLUMNIST OF THE YEAR
This contest was a tie between the Antichrist and a San Francisco cat run over by a Waymo.
