Once in a while, however, the natives get restless and officials are forced to remove that velvet glove. We’ve seen the latter play out recently in California.

We’ll call that the “iron fist in a velvet glove.” In this case, officials give grandiose lectures about democratic ideals, but quietly dominate the myriad levels of government power to ...

FILE – Gov. Gavin Newsom delivers his annual State of the State address on March 8, 2022, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) ...