Midway through this summer, a high-quality poll found that Democrats in California were overwhelmingly in favor of the upcoming ballot measure for a one-time 5% tax on billionaire wealth.
The ratio was more than 4 to 1. But the state’s most powerful Democrats – including the governor Gavin Newsom, his near-certain successor Xavier Becerra and the Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass – have lined up with Silicon Valley billionaires who’ve raised upward of $340m to defeat the initiative.
I think it’s unrealistic to think a new party would have been successful in 2020 and 2024, however, I think if he did choose to build a new party in 2016, the US would have had a third option for the 2028 presidential election. These things take time and we are now seeing what “could have been” from decisions ten years ago.