How bad must our cities get before their citizens get it?
Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks at his primary election party, Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
In April 2015, rioters were creating havoc in Baltimore. At issue was a 25-year-old high school dropout and repeat criminal offender named Freddie Gray. Gray died under somewhat suspicious circumstances while in police custody following his arrest on an illegal weapons charge.
Conflicting reports as to how Gray was treated while in police custody led to demonstrations that quickly blossomed into riots.
The very last thing the City of Baltimore needed in 2015 was the burning of cars, the looting of businesses, the chaos and the other violent acts that are part and parcel of riots. Baltimore was already in a state of deep decline and was but a shadow of its once proud and prosperous self.
So, the piece I wrote in this space in April 2015 asked the question, “When will Democrats be held accountable for their failures in our major cities?”
I asked that question because Baltimore in its sorry state in the spring of 2015 had not had a Republican mayor since 1967.
Roll forward a decade and here’s a related but slightly different question.
Will America ever get to have pride in her major cities again?
The news out of New York City this week suggests…well, maybe never.
New York Democratic primary voters just nominated a 33-year-old avowed antisemite, hard-left socialist named Zohran Mamdani to be its next mayor. Mamdani will face incumbent mayor Eric Adams, once a Democrat but now running as an independent, former Assistant United States Attorney Jim Walden, also running as an independent, and local talk radio host Curtis Sliwa, who is running as a Republican.
Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in New York City by a margin of roughly seven to one. So, whoever wins a Democratic primary election in New York almost always wins the general election.
Mamdani is about as radical as it gets. If elected, he’ll make former New York mayor Bill de Blasio look like Winston Churchill. According to his website, Mamdani’s policies include creating city-owned grocery stores, defunding the NYPD and redirecting that money toward hiring social workers, totally free public bus transportation, a breathtaking tax increase, freezing of rents, the building of 200,000 city-owned apartments and a $30-per hour minimum wage by 2030.
Crime will explode. Businesses will close. Those who have the financial means will flee (the big Wall Street firms are already moving huge chunks of their operations to Dallas).
Leftist-run cities fail. Every time.
Cities like Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Philadelphia have been under the total control of Democrats for decades. All are in the process of committing protracted suicide. They all suffer horrific levels of crime and they all are losing population. The people leaving are the very ones that once paid the lion’s share of the taxes.
Thus, yet another question. When will those who are left in these cities connect the dots and stop voting for the Democrats whose policies are turning these once proud and vibrant cities into third world hellscapes?
When comes the awakening? Does it ever come at all?
All mentioned are Sanctuary cities with a plan to inundate themselves with illegals and expel the Republicans or Independents that do not support their woke/DEI agendas. The illegals all come from far more poverty and crime ridden areas of the world; so more lawlessness from the Left is not going to deter them from being given free stuff, jobs, and a place to live at our expense. Question is: When will the Republicans and the Trump Administration and whomever comes after them get enough of these Lefty Judges, Governors, Mayors, and DA’s that are complicit in their jobs to arrest, impeach, or do whatever necessary to get rid of them and comply with Law and Order? So what if you are as Congress person, or Federally appointed Judge, or Mayor or DA; if YOU break the law ( as many have already and keep doing it ) YOU are going to be arrested and prosecuted. You and I cannot get away with all the illegal crap these people have done. Why should they!!!!??? So, until someone with teeth steps up and goes after them full bore; nothing will change. We become even more divided.
I have no idea when the spark of intelligence will fire, but I am not holding my breath!
Democratic political thought has revolved around peddling free stuff for so long that they don’t have any other tricks left. One might think a model like that would implode pretty soon, but you have to get the voters to realize that it’s a dead end. How do you do that?
One thing keeps coming to mind… When taxes become so high that people can not afford to live there and the ones who are being taken care of are illegals, just where are you going to go? We do not need you here in Texas! Number 1. you never learn THE WHY you left where you came from in the first place and bring THAT BAGGAGE with you. #2. You expect to be patted on the head and people say “poor thing” and give you hand outs. #3. If that hard core socialist wins did you ever ask how is a $30 an hour wage going to get paid if people do not eat where you work or buy from where ever it is you “work”?
One thing is for sure, you need to put your thinking cap on and start asking questions before you “elect” a hard core socialist who you will find paints pretty pictures but delivers garbage!!!
P.T. Barnum, the great American entertainment entrepreneur once said, “Once people stop buying tickets, they don’t stop”. This saying can easily be applied to the pathetic Liberal Left who feed off those who are needy and less educated: “Once people start making really bad decisions based on a self-serving agenda, with no thought as to the dire consequences of their decisions for the people who will eventually be the victims, THEY DON’T STOP”. The country is at war within itself, and it’s going to take some extreme measures to fix this mess. Hopefully the current administration, as well as other leaders, will have the courage, wisdom, and overwhelming strength to achieve victory.
I doubt it ever will get fixed thanks to soft, touchy feely parents, (usually just one) and the government (AKA Public Schools). We now have more than one generation that thinks they are owed something just for drawing breath in America. These people do not base their actions based on logic and intellectual scrutiny. They are based on their feelings, combined with a mentality of how do I get mine, the rich are evil, and anyone who decides they want better for themselves and their family should be maligned and shamed.
Sadly, it will have to get a whole lot worse before the idiots that vote this way will start to figure it out.