The terrifying and devastating wildfires in California are a terrible disaster in one part of our country that will have continuing national impacts – humanitarian, economic and political.
The noir classic film “Chinatown” may seem completely removed from the terrible, tangible destruction in Southern California, but in fact that film contains insights of considerable importance that bear directly on current developments.
The movie, set in the 1930s, describes efforts of ruthless business interests in the person of John Huston to corner the water supplying Southern California. Private detective Jack Nicholson discovers and struggles to defeat the scheme. The conclusion is ambiguous, but strongly implies the bad guys prevail.
The film was inspired in part by an early 20th century commercial cabal which tried to get a stranglehold on Southern California water. That group failed, thanks to public opposition mobilized by the new progressive political movement.
One consequence was dramatic decentralization of Southern California government. The city and county of Los Angeles are relatively weak entities, partly because local communities decades ago were determined to maintain independence vital to water security.
Pacific Palisades, one of the areas hardest hit by the flames, is part of the territory of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. However, Anaheim, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and other communities in the enormous metropolitan area, anxious about water, developed their own local supply entities. This was a direct consequence of the long-ago effort to control water.
Local government evolved as relatively weak along with being decentralized. Uncoordinated, disorderly responses to the completely unexpected fires within highly populated areas reflects this powerful reality.
Coincidentally, during the first part of the 20th century the automobile was dramatically expanding as Americans’ preferred mode of personal transportation. Gasoline was extremely cheap, particularly in California, then a major oil producer. Public transportation did not develop to the degree in major established cities east of the Mississippi River.
Early dominance of transport by personally owned cars reinforced already established decentralization.
California politics place a premium on citizen participation, building on a rich, at times radical and raw, history linked to the progressive movement, and has kept party organizations weak. The successful recall of unpopular Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 witnessed a large and bizarre collection of candidates, many of whom made victor Arnold Schwarzenegger appear mild and moderate by comparison.
In 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom survived a recall election, but that was not his victory. Collecting enough voter signatures to trigger a recall election confirms broad dissatisfaction with government leadership. The actual winner was the recall system itself, which allows voters to express discontent between scheduled elections.
The devastating current fires have triggered a powerful new effort to recall Newsom.
Ronald Reagan shrewdly exploited the absence of traditional party organization and growing social conservatism among voters. After Reagan’s smashing 1966 gubernatorial election victory, Harvard political scientist James Q. Wilson explained the appeal. In the boom after World War II, prosperous California working people could buy their own homes, a luxury that remained a dream elsewhere. Reagan’s charismatic emphasis on patriotism and tradition drew voters no longer focused on economic need.
Reagan skillfully exploited public hostility to campus unrest, hippies and radicals. He also railed against government waste. He personified a new populism, with government replacing big business as enemy.
After the devastating wildfires, expect tremendous pressures in California for change in government organization and leadership.
Learn More: Robert M. Fogelson, “Fragmented Metropolis” (University of California).
Arthur I. Cyr is the author of “After the Cold War – American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia.”
Contact acyr@carthage.edu
