Saving California

Editor’s note: This article went to print before the LA fires hit the city.

Some life lessons come from the least likely of places.

In the case of businessman Stephen J. Cloobeck, who hopes to become California’s next governor, his major life lesson happened while he was a busboy in the early 1970s in a resort near San Francisco.  

“While staggering across the lodge’s crowded dining room, struggling under the weight of about two dozen glasses on a massive tray, I either slipped or lost my balance, I’m not sure which,” he writes in his new book, “Facing Hard Truths: How Americans Can Get Real, Pull Together, and Turn Our Country Around.”

“The next thing I knew, my arms gave way and the heavy load came tumbling down to the door. Crash! The glasses were smashed. It was a total disaster.”

After he cleaned up the mess and the embarrassment was behind him, his boss sat him down to discuss the incident, explaining that they’d be taking the cost of those broken glasses out of his paycheck.  

“He wasn’t trying to be mean,” Cloobeck writes, “but it was only fair: You break it, you pay for it. That’s how life works. Good intentions don’t make up for bad results.”

Getting his pay docked as a busboy turned into a transformative life lesson for the simple reason that he had never thought much about the principle of accountability.

Today, as he gears up for his campaign for governor, he has zeroed in on that very idea of accountability.

“As I’ve since come to realize, this isn’t just how a well-run business works. It’s how life works.” More importantly, he adds, “it’s how politics should work.”

He wonders: “Can you imagine how much safer, happier, and more prosperous America would be if we closely tracked the performance of our elected officials and held them accountable to delivering the results they promised on the campaign trail? Or better yet, if politicians held themselves accountable?”

At a time when trust in politicians is at an all-time low, the cynic in me hears the notion of accountable politicians and can only think of pipe dreams and magical thinking.

But Cloobeck doesn’t see himself as a politician. He may be a registered Democrat, but he sees himself, above all, as an experienced problem-solver. As it says on the book jacket, Cloobeck “built his reputation transforming dysfunctional companies on the brink of ruin into performance powerhouses.”

His mission, as bold and idealistic as ever, is to bring back the powerhouse of his broken and beloved California and return it to its rightful place as the primary home of the American Dream.

His mission, as bold and idealistic as ever, is to bring back the powerhouse of his broken and beloved California and return it to its rightful place as the primary home of the American Dream.

“I still remember what my home state used to be: a place of dynamism and hope, with safe communities, clean streets, and the best schools,” he writes. “During the final few decades of the 20th century and into the 21st, California was a place where businesses thrived and created opportunities for millions.

“It was a place where hardworking people from other states and around the world came to better their lives and claim their share of the American dream. Growing up, I would ride my bike around my neighborhood in Encino or to my Little League games, just being a kid and never having to worry about my personal safety or whether my family would lose our modest home. I’m sure you, too, can recall better days in the communities where you live.”

True to his blunt and direct style, he begins his book by reminding us how far we are from the California of the American Dream. “How the hell did we get here?” he asks.

“Making my way around Los Angeles, I encounter traffic-clogged streets, trash strewn sidewalks, empty storefronts, and tent encampments occupied by the unhoused. I also hear stories from folks I meet about how tough life is today,” he writes.

“It used to be that you could work hard and enjoy a reasonably comfortable middle-class lifestyle, even without a college degree. Not anymore. The cost of living is out of control. And thanks to sky-high home prices and an insurance crisis, it’s almost impossible for working people to buy a home.”

Given that he bills himself as an obsessive problem solver, it’s a smart idea to kick off his book with a hard-nosed accounting of California’s litany of problems.

“What was once was a place of aspiration, immortalized in songs like the Mamas & the Papas’ ‘California Dreamin’, is turning into a nightmare. Rising unemployment. Failing schools. Increasing retail theft. The nation’s highest poverty rate. A health care crisis. An enormous budget gap, in the tens of billions of dollars.

“It’s no wonder so many residents have been leaving the state in recent years. As one demographer says, noting the state’s population declines, ‘California is no longer the preferred destination it used to be.’”

Cloobeck’s biggest challenge will be to convince enough voters that he can deliver on the politics of accountability. He’ll be up against many seasoned politicians who know the ropes of lining up votes. But he sees that as an advantage. He doesn’t carry the baggage of an establishment that has largely failed its constituents.

Cloobeck’s biggest challenge will be to convince enough voters that he can deliver on the politics of accountability. He’ll be up against many seasoned politicians who know the ropes of lining up votes. But he sees that as an advantage. He doesn’t carry the baggage of an establishment that has largely failed its constituents.

If he has one thing going for him, it’s timing. People are nearing the breaking point. The more taxes they pay, the more insecure they get. They see bloated budgets, bloated promises and incompetent leadership. All too many Californians are now voting with their feet, taking their tax dollars and broken dreams to friendlier places like Texas, Florida, Nevada and Arizona.

Indeed the other thing Cloobeck has going for him is that he has put his finger on the most relevant truth of all: after they win our votes, our leaders don’t hold themselves accountable. It’s the eternal virus of democratic politics: voters must wait for the next election cycle to boot out failed leaders.

But as we’ve seen all too well in California, a lot of damage can happen while we wait for that next election. How much better things would be if politicians were conditioned to hold themselves accountable—without demoralized voters having to constantly replace them.

In a sense, Cloobeck is a merchant of attitude. The seven hard truths he highlights in his book are all about changing attitudes to effect positive change:

1.  Life is tough. Get a helmet.

2.  A team that is divided cannot win.

3.  Rules are rules.

4.  The best economies benefit everyone.

5.  Leadership is about competence, not celebrity.

6.  True success requires putting “we” before “me.”

7.  Social trust or bust.

In each chapter, he shows his policy chops by outlining creative ideas and practical solutions to some of the toughest problems facing California and America. But as his “hard truths” make clear, those solutions don’t stand a chance without the right attitude.

That includes us, the voters. He doesn’t let us off the hook, because bringing back the American Dream is a two-way street. “We must try to cultivate the kind of seriousness we want to see in our elected officials,” he writes in his last chapter. We can’t get sucked in, in other words, by superficial solutions. “Politicians do it all the time,” he writes. “But if you never try to solve complex problems at their root, then sooner or later you wind up asking yourself the question I posed at the beginning of this book: How the hell did we get here?

We know how Cloobeck got here — he got his pay docked as a busboy, learned the lesson of his life, and is now ready to share it with the California of his dreams.