The Los Angeles wildfires decimated communities, destroyed billions of dollars in property, and took the lives of more than two dozen Angelenos. But the catastrophe of the past week also revealed an enormous rift between the American public and their government. Absent politicians, failed evacuation routes, a bloated regulatory environment, and communication failures are just some of the problems that left the residents of Los Angeles—and the whole country—watching in desperation and confusion.
Not surprisingly, partisans didn’t miss a beat before pointing fingers: the left blamed a rapidly warming climate, while the right inculpated DEI for the disaster. There may be elements of truth on both sides, but the real problem is the incompetence of government at all levels to fulfill its most basic responsibilities of managing infrastructure and keeping constituents safe.
In our varied roles as Republican staffers, speechwriters, and think tank leaders, we have long advocated rolling back government, so that free enterprise and individuals can flourish. And yet, while the federal, state, and local government should be limited in scope, it’s imperative that those few, basic functions it does perform, be done well. This approach demonstrates a responsibility to citizens, respect for taxpayers, and should be a prerequisite before any grander public policy ideas are considered.
Bottom line: if you can’t fill the potholes, you certainly can’t run a healthcare system.
But as California natives—with family still in southern California—watching the LA fires has driven that point home even further. The Golden State has long prioritized high-profile (and often politically-motivated) projects—high speed rail, sweeping climate change initiatives, social welfare and equity programs—while failing to do the basics: police, fire, and infrastructure maintenance and investment.
What’s more, often in the course of their grandiose plans, government has made it harder to do the essentials. In the name of climate change and environmental protection, for example, increased regulations have driven up the cost of housing and energy, decreased competition and innovation, and left forest land mismanaged. In an attempt to offset the state’s high cost of living, California put price controls and strict regulations in place for insurance providers, leading companies to drop customers and abandon the state altogether. Burdensome labor and construction regulations have stifled the housing market for years in a state with a dire need for more building. It took historic fires and devastation for Governor Newsom to finally issue executive orders removing some of the legal and regulatory hurdles that infringe on the housing supply, knowing there will be tremendous demand to rebuild homes and businesses lost in the fires.
While the situation in California is grave, Americans around the country share these frustrations about the ineptitude of their government. The Pew Research Center, which has been tracking public trust in government for decades, found in 2024 that a mere 21 percent of the public say “they trust the federal government to do what is right”—and that’s in the absence of a critical natural disaster.
What the LA wildfires put into sharp relief is that the dysfunction is not limited to Washington, DC. Trust in local government is typically higher than the federal government—as people tend to feel more connected to these institutions—but this trust doesn’t hold when there’s a crisis. Look no further than the COVID-19 pandemic, where Deloitte Insights found a sharp 26-point decline in trust in local government. The public especially lost confidence in their government when it came to specific concerns around “transparency” and “reliability.” When faced with disaster, local government also fails to uphold its basic commitment to its constituents.
No doubt the social contract was broken with the residents of the Pacific Palisades. For years, residents have been waving the red flag to the local government about the potential risk around emergency evacuation routes because of the single road in and out of their neighborhood. Nothing was done, and they lost their homes and their community.
We’ve long advocated for free markets and limited government, but what we need is so much more. Government is bloated, wasteful and at times even fraudulent; and smaller government certainly would alleviate many of these problems, spur competition, and innovation, and foster individual freedom. But less government alone is not the answer. We need limited, effective government that oversees and manages the most basic functions of its community so that we can ensure a safe and functioning society, and restore the public’s confidence.
Matt Germer is policy director of the Governance program and Sabrina Schaeffer is vice president of public affairs at the R Street Institute, whose mission is to advance free markets and limited, effective government. Both are native Californians.