SACRAMENTO — As a pessimist, I always figured it was a matter of time before Democrats would decide to counter the rise of a grievance-based populist Right with a grievance-based populist Left. We saw shades of this in the 2020 election, when Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders came perilously close to securing the Democratic presidential nomination.

My worst fears weren’t realized in Tuesday’s election, but the results did leave me with some concern. Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term, Republicans have created never-ending chaos. They’ve embraced an imperial presidency, massive tax increases (tariffs), abusive ICE raids and have put divisive culture-war stunts above bread-and-butter issues even as inflation soars and the economy stumbles.

So, as much as I disagree wi

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