If you listen to New York Times columnist Ezra Klein describe his new book Abundance, it would seem the entire thesis is that at some point, Democrat-run cities stopped building houses, and if that were reversed, it would solve the party’s problems.

There’s plenty of truth to the idea that Democrats have made it nearly impossible to build new housing in the places they control, especially in California, where zoning and environmental regulations have stifled building and caused prices to soar. Nationwide, it is estimated that the country is short some 4.5 million homes, with the shortage most acute in major cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and New York. Coincidentally, those cities have spent decades under Democratic control.