The wildfires ravaging Los Angeles for over a week now are an unbelievable tragedy and an unparalleled travesty. The lives lost are heart wrenching and the property lost astounding. Los Angeles is in dire straits and its citizens in peril, but Californians unfortunately are learning their government is inept. State and local governments are having great difficulty combating the fires and are barely able to render aid to those affected, but even worse is the haunting fact that this unmitigated disaster could probably have been prevented.

Many are already playing the blame game, and of course, it’s Trump’s fault, according to Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey who howled the wildfires are the result of climate change stoked by Trump. It would be laughable, but this disaster is deadly serious. Californians are typically rather receptive to the climate change excuse, but looking at the ashes of their homes and communities, they are demanding real answers not ridiculous tiresome rhetoric.

Californians tend to blindly support Democrats like Governor Gavin Newsom, but they want to understand why he cut about $100 million dollars from the state fire prevention budget last year. Angelinos were proud to elect a black woman as mayor, but now they want to know why she was on some international boondoggle when fires erupted and why did she cut $20 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) last year. They may still be glad to have lesbian fire chiefs, but they want to know why they are unprepared with 16 fire stations shuttered and millions of dollars of equipment in disrepair.

Californians pay the highest taxes in America, but they have neglected almost third world infrastructure and very poor public services. LA Mayor Karen Bass bestowed very generous raises on municipal employees, but services didn’t improve. The CEO of LA Department of Water and Power, who makes $750,000, presided over a system with empty reservoirs and dry hydrants that hampered firefighting. Californians are rightly asking what are they getting for their hard-earned tax dollars?

Despite paying the highest taxes, some of the rich still had to hire private firefighters to protect their property. Real Estate developer and investor, Rick Caruso, who the voters rejected in favor of DEI hire, Mayor Bass, used private firefighters to successfully protect his properties. Hardcore Democrats begrudge him for this, but some voters are reconsidering their choice in view of a paralyzed, ineffective mayor and a proactive effective businessman.

California is perhaps the poster child for extreme green policies, but rabid environmental wackos have driven common sense out of California forest management. California has always been plagued by wildfires, but good forestry practices substantially reduced wildfire damage for a couple centuries. However, the past few decades the green nuts dragged California back centuries by leaving forests untouched, so nature has resumed pruning millions of acres of forests California has neglected.

The sad and shocking point is this catastrophe was predictable and somewhat preventable. Several insurance companies studied the situation and forecasted these wildfires, so they requested rate increases to cover the inevitable losses. When California denied the increases, many, most notably State Farm, cancelled policies and left the state early last year long before the fires. Many are angry with the insurance companies, but many are also angry with their elected leaders who knew and failed to heed the warnings.

Los Angeles is still in grave danger, so for the moment, the focus must still be on putting out the fires and recovering from the incredible devastation. However, when this pathetic chapter is over; there must be accountability for the gross mismanagement of resources and abject failures in leadership. The problematic causes and systemic failures of the Los Angeles wildfires are many, but true leaders know that every problem is a leadership problem!

The average workers, the folks on the ground, or the troops can perform any task, achieve any goal, or accomplish any mission when properly led. Failure is always because the troops were not adequately equipped, effectively trained, or sufficiently motivated; failure is ALWAYS the leader’s fault.

Democrat leadership in California is running from that fact, but a growing number of Californians are realizing that political hacks obsessed with esoteric issues and silly social engineering are incapable of governing and surprisingly useless in a crisis. Bass ran on abortion and LGBTQ+ issues; what does that have to do with running one of the nation’s largest cities? The LA City Council passed a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza! Beyond being thousands of miles out of their jurisdiction, they obviously needed to be more concerned with ceasing wildfires.

Celebrating rainbows and unicorns may placate misguided liberals and get more social media clicks, but the citizens of Los Angeles have found all that nonsense pointless when the flames reach your neighborhood. However, the liberal agenda is not the issue; the inescapable fact is the public officials in California are grossly incompetent. Their liberal lunacy is only an aggravating factor.

There are and have been competent Democrat leaders, but few remain and none in California because Democrats only seek to check boxes for identity politics and reward callous partisanship in pursuit of the extreme left agenda. They have abandoned competency and merit, but that has bit them and everyone in Los Angeles. California still needs our prayers and a lot of help, but the only hope for California is to reject political hacks and elect qualified leaders to govern not grandstand.

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn” (Proverbs 29:2).

Pete Riehm is a Navy Veteran, conservative activist, and columnist in south Alabama. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.