Gov. Gavin Newsom survived the recall and looks likely to cruise to reelection in 2022.

So now what?

I ask because though the state’s voters felt keeping in office Newsom was the best of the options, it’s undeniable that Californians are frustrated with the lack of solutions coming out of Sacramento, which is overwhelmingly Democratic.

And because it’s overwhelmingly Democratic, criticism of Sacramento might seem partisan, but it’s not. It’s important that everyone, no matter their partisan affiliation, ask themselves: “How has an overwhelmingly Democratic ruling class addressed the problems in my life?”

The state is running out of water, the cost of living continues to rise, the housing crisis remains a crisis, homelessness seems to be getting worse, the public education system is failing students and the negative societal effects of COVID-19 restrictions are really starting to show. This is not an exhaustive list of the persistent problems plaguing the state; it’s just the first few that came to mind.

While the Legislature is currently out of session, the Democratic supermajority has found the time to hold hearings recently on tweaking the state’s recall laws. Never mind that recalls rarely qualify, that Newsom won handily or that tweaking recall rules is atop no one’s minds except a few Democratic lawmakers’.

It goes to show that, while there are countless actual problems for the Legislature to tackle, political gamesmanship is the top priority of legislative leaders.

Newsom, meanwhile, is peak Newsom.

He still has the state under a state of emergency, but is out on a book tour. And before the book tour, he was on vacation in Mexico.

A few weeks back, he skipped a global climate change conference for reasons he only explained after being out of the public eye for two weeks. One reason was to trick-or-treat with his kids, which is certainly understandable. Another was apparently to attend a wedding for a Getty heiress (choosing an oil heiress over a climate change conference is certainly an ironic twist).

Meanwhile, the people entrusted with educating children have clearly run out of ideas. Schools are struggling with chronic absenteeism and the tremendous learning loss thrust upon students. Most California students are not proficient in math and science and only around half meet English standards — and that’s by California’s own testing. Nationally, California’s students rank near the bottom in most measurements of proficiency.

Instead of responding to the call to action to help struggling students improve, some of the state’s largest school districts, including Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Oakland and Sacramento, have decided to simply get rid of F grades and limit Ds.

It’s true that you can’t fail if F is not an option.

At the peak of COVID-19, when things were most bleak for students, San Francisco Unified spent much of last winter focused on renaming 44 schools, including those named for George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Dianne Feinstein, names that would be relatively non-controversial in most places outside of San Francisco.

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Again, this isn’t about Democrats as a party. This is about a complacent ruling class throughout the state that happens to be overwhelmingly Democratic.

For those who might be already typing a “What about?” email to me pointing to states run by a Republican supermajority where there’s a lack of improvement, my universal response is that you’re only proving my point about this not being partisan. It’s about a complacent ruling class that feels no threat of political competition.

It’s not the party that matters, it’s the policymakers and their priorities. California needs leaders who will bring real change, not more of the same.

Matt Fleming is a member of the Southern California News Group editorial board. You can follow him on Twitter: @FlemingWords.