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Poisoning from The Left
This is not a debate about policy. In the political arena, competition is required and expected. This is about attacks on fundamental America; its heart and soul. This is not about the confrontation of Liberals and Conservatives. Both of those terms have little to do with America’s current political polarity.
The current Democrat Party is a very big tent stretched to and sometime beyond its limits. Within this tent are Blue State Centrist’s, progressives, socialists and neo-communists. On most issues these groups within the Democrat Party compete for patronage. This competition deepens their inherent polarization. However, for purposes of this discussion, the Left is comprised of aggressive progressives, socialists and neo-communists.
The Left is championed by much of academia, by media at many levels, by some within the larger Democrat party and by some corporate leaders.
The Democrat Party has become the party of urban America. There are zero Republican mayors in cities with over 1 million population in the United States. Of the 24 cities between 500,000 and 1 million there are 20 Democrat mayors.
As a result, their core constituency is focused on solving urban problems often using Leftist theories. However, Leftist politics in the cities and states where they dominate have generated the greatest degree of suffering. When in control, the Leftist’s do not follow their stated agenda, goals or political philosophies. In cities and states controlled by Democrats, there is the least affordable housing, the highest homeless populations, the most school districts basically separating rich and poor and the races. They have the highest tax rates, the highest crime rates and the greatest multi-generational poverty.
Leftists pour poison into the American well in at least these areas.
In university campuses across North America as well as social and broadcast media, anyone who varies in word or intent from the “accepted” Leftist word usage is called out and attacked. In recent years, new threats to speech have emerged on some college and university campuses. They include the concepts of safe spaces, trigger warnings, and micro-aggressions. Safe spaces can refer to university policies that shield students from uncomfortable or unwanted ideas either written or spoken. In this environment some “words” are defined as “attacks” from which students must be protected.
This concept of safe spaces is threatening free speech, because the purpose of higher education is to expose students to different and challenging ideas. Trigger warnings refer to professors telling students in class before discussing concepts that may be upsetting to certain students. Whether requiring trigger warnings violate the First Amendment depends on whether a public college or university mandates that college professors issue trigger warnings. Administrators mandating trigger warnings demand compelled speech. Compelled speech is anti-American, unconstitutional and destroys academic freedom.
National newspaper writers have been fired for using a “prohibited” word. Leftist’s lead in the cancel culture that rules movies, tv and liberal media at every level. When a college dean wrote that “All lives matter,” she was required to publish an apology or face loss of her job. Left leaning social media moguls often ban individuals for their “speech.” Some are banned in total due to a perceived history of “dangerous and or “unapproved” statements.
Leftist university policies leave students feeling that they can’t express their true feelings or ideas if they fall outside of the “accepted” point of view. In a majority of American universities, students report that they do not feel free to express opinions or have open inquiry. Here a just a few samples.
Northern Arizona University
58% of students say shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is acceptable.
61% of students say they have self-censored on campus.
54% of students say they are worried about damaging their reputation because someone misunderstands something they have said or done.
For every one conservative student, there are roughly 1.8 Leftist students.
University of Washington
69% of students say shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is acceptable.
57%% of students say they have self-censored on campus.
63% of students say they are worried about damaging their reputation because someone misunderstands something they have said or done.
For every one conservative student, there are roughly 5.6 Leftist students.
Columbia University
73% of students say shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is acceptable.
64% of students say they have self-censored on campus.
73% of students say they worried about damaging their reputation because someone misunderstands something they have said or done.
For every one conservative student, there are roughly 6.8 Leftist students.
Destruction of the individual
At core of the American uniqueness is the fact that we are sovereign individuals. We are each born equal and with certain inalienable personal rights granted us by our creator. Each is equal before the law. Each is equal in their quest for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. American history is a story of the continuous application of these individual rights to more and more Americans. Except in Wyoming, women could not vote in until 1920; a full 144 years after the founding. Black Americans did not reach full respect of their civil rights until 1965; 189 years after the founding. America has continued its mission to ensure that every individual citizen shares the same equality of opportunity as all other citizens. Equality of opportunity is not an achievement. It is America’s unending mission.
The fall of classic communism, resulted the murder of over 200 million of their own peasants, artists and intellectuals. American Leftists have now re-imagined all the clap trap that comprised classic communism under the banner of Intersectionality and Post Modernism. Intersectionality focuses on the power imbalance between groups and the resulting exploitation that results.
Post Modernism preaches that there is no one “truth” about anything. Reality is whatever you happen to believe at the moment. America is thus founded on “myths.” There is no such thing as equality or justice or anything other topic that has rules that must be followed.
The complementary component of Leftist dogma is that there is no such thing as a sovereign individual. We are all part of competing groups. Achieving power for our group is the only objective. We are all oppressed by one or more other groups and all groups are oppressed by the Male Hierarchy which rules the world. Every gain achieved by one group comes at the expense of another group. There is no such thing as an individual. Individuals are comprised totally of the insights, attitudes, life experiences and identity that come only from the groups to which they belong.
Of course, this is just an expansion of the Marxist theory of the battle between the bourgeois and the proletariat. In America it results in endless groups fighting for their “rights,” political power and status with zero concern about the existence or “rights” of the individual.
Destruction of Our Heritage
Leftist, like old line communists, need to see history as one continuous march in one direction; theirs. The process used is called “Presentism.” This is a way to see history through current values, philosophies and a self-righteous political lens. Thus, all of American history is one of total disaster awaiting only the arrival of the “new” age, be that Leftism or Communism. One result of this distorted view of history is to see only villain’s and corruption. Everyone is either an oppressor or the oppressed. in America’s past. The founders are despised as slave holders, religious bigots, rapists of the environment, vicious despoilers of native people and cultures. Later America was run by warmongers, predatory Capitalists and corrupt political leaders. Of course, the only way history can be viewed this was is by applying current political, ethical and moral values to those who came before us. Their intent is to describe an America absent of any moral or ethical value. It’s founding documents only crafted to serve the political and economic interests of a tiny minority of rich white land and slave owners. To them our founding documents are a declaration of oppression.
Making Equity the Enemy of Equality
Two of the great political movements of America’s 20th century were for equal rights. The first fight was for equal rights for women. The second was for equal rights for non-white citizens. The moral, ethical and legal basis for these movements is secured by our Constitution.
The Constitution established the right of equal opportunity to all citizens. There is no doubt that America has not yet achieved equal opportunity for all citizens. Many school districts in America graduate students that lack even basic skills in reading and math. Many Americans live in communities governed by street and drug criminals. Many Americans live in polluted environments that dramatically and negatively affect their health. Many in America find it very difficult to find affordable housing. 35% of Americans rent. 38% of America’s children live in a single parent home. These and many other participants in the American experience find their opportunities unequal.
Each American generation is called upon to expand equality of opportunity. The historic approach to expanding equality of opportunity is to identify the root causes of inequality and bring forward solutions in law and in social services such as education and healthcare. The fundamental belief is that equality of opportunity will result in a vibrant meritocracy in which each individual is prepared and free to achieve their aspirations through the ever-increasing value of their contributions.
To Leftists, the solution to all forms of inequality is to call for equity. They believe that the single source of solutions is governmental regulations that provide direct advantages to those deemed “disadvantaged.” The leftist theory, extracted from communist dogma, is that it is responsibility government is to make things “equal.” Men make, on average, more money than women in the workforce. The equity solution is to “require” that in all employment men and women doing exactly the same jobs must be paid the exact same compensation. If a company has 100 engineers, they are expected to hire 50 men and 50 women. Black Americans comprise approximately 13% of the population but because of “historic” underemployment, the government requires that employers must be audited to insure they are hiring Black Americans at rates greater than 13%.
Because Leftists see the American population as a large number of competing groups, they believe that the role of the government is to provide equity by balancing the rights among and across all those groups. The fundamental theory is that government alone is capable of creating a vibrant and equal society by incentivizing certain “victim” groups over other groups to a higher place in the social, economic and political hierarchy. To Leftists there is no such thing as “meritocracy.” You are higher in the social and financial hierarchy because you have “privilege” and not because you earned it. You were born with it.
Return to Race-based Politics
Because Leftist believe that politics is competition for the allegiance of groups, their policies and practices have returned the Democrat party back to the party of race-based politics. Today 87% of black American voters vote Democrat. That is partly because a large part of the black population occupies urban areas. However, it is also a result of a calculated plan to sow fear of Republican policy which they see as benefitting suburban, rural, rich and white voters. While this appears on the surface to be a very effective political ploy, the impact on the urban black population of American has been devastating. There has been little or no improvement in the life of urban black Americans for the past 120 years. By every standard of measuring quality of life, urban back Americans have been left behind. Their politician’s commitment to Leftist theories enrichens Leftist politicians but leave non-white communities in ruins.
Shell Game Politics
Housing
There are 18 states in the U.S. where Democrats control the legislative and executive branches or else have some veto-proof majority in the legislature.
What do Democrats actually do when they have all the power? First, they ignore the Democrat Party Platform. At the same time the 25 wealthiest Americans in those states pay little in income taxes compared to their fortunes, sometimes nothing at all.
In California housing policy is a demonstration of Leftist shell game politics. The Democrat Party platform uses the word “housing”over 100 times. Children who are born in neighborhoods with degraded environmental conditions, with a lack of access to high-quality public services, poor schools, poor public transit are at a permanent disadvantage. And they even say verbatim, “Housing in America should be stable, accessible, safe, healthy, energy efficient and above all, affordable.”
“Housing is a human right.” “Housing is a human right.” “The rent is going through the roof. Housing is a human right.”
There is little or no affordable housing in California because in California, the cost of housing is so high that for many people, it’s simply unaffordable. The state has simply, for the most part, stopped building housing at a rate insufficient to keep pace with California’s population.
The median price of a home in San Diego County is now $830,000. All around California, there are cities full of people who say that they are Leftists, progressives, and liberals. They say they believe in a more equal America, a more diverse America. Their single-family neighborhoods are actually the result of specific policies, intentional policies that keep these neighborhoods spread out and full of single-family homes, as opposed to higher-density buildings like duplexes or apartment complexes.
Strict zoning of single-family (low density) housing is strangling California’s premier work centers. Over the past eight years, the San Francisco area has added 676,000 jobs but only 176,000 housing units.
Palo Alto wanted to change it from low-density housing to higher-density housing so that they could build a 60-unit affordable housing complex for elderly members of the community.
The overwhelmingly liberal residents of Palo Alto decided to hold a vote to overturn the decision, to revert it back to low-density, single-family housing. And it passed. And the zoning was overturned. So now when you go to this plot of land, instead of an affordable housing complex for the elderly, what you’re going to see is this, a row of just a few houses, all of them massive, and worth around $5 million each.
The top 10 cities for homelessness are all Democrat cities and they comprise 55% of all the homeless in America.
That is why Leftist politics is a cynical shell game. Say all the “right words” but never implement them. Here Leftist policies actually focus on benefitting the richest citizens at the expense of the poor.
Taxes
Democrats say they believe in a progressive tax system, where the rich pay a larger share of their income than the poor. This is like the most basic policy vision of a progressive movement. It’s front and center in Democrats’ policy platform.
Another example of the Leftist Shell game can be seen in Democrat run Washington State. The Democratic Party talks about taxation, saying that our tax code has been, quote, “rigged against the American people.” Democrats all the time are decrying the fact that tax cuts are going to the wealthiest Americans. “It is time for a wealth tax in America.”
However, in Washington State, you will find that less-affluent families pay a much larger share of their income in taxes than the wealthiest residents of Washington State. People like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, two of the state’s most famous and wealthy residents, are in this lovely situation of paying less in taxes as a share of their income than the poor people who live in the same state. This is a fundamental inversion of the values that the Democratic Party professes. There is no state with a more regressive system of taxation than Washington State. Other Leftist run states also are in the top 10 of most regressive tax regimes, like Nevada and Illinois.
Education
Another major theme in the Democrat Party platform is education. The Democrats say, quote, “We must provide a world-class education in every ZIP code, to every child, because education is a critical public good.” They use this word “ZIP code” to represent the fact that in America, schools get their funding based on the real estate taxes of the houses within that school district. The more expensive the neighborhood, the more funding goes to the school.
In Illinois, which is the quintessential liberal state. In Chicago they have decided to divide themselves into more than 140 school districts. So now you have all these tiny school districts which are like gerrymandered around the richest part of town. Thus all of the taxes from these rich homeowners go into one little bucket and then only get distributed to the schools within this rich region of the county.
It can be on the same block that the town line runs through the middle of it. And if you live on one side of that line, you’re consigned to an inferior education by virtue of the fact that you and your neighbors don’t have as much money. And if you live on the other side, you’re basically a member of a club that is sponsoring a private school, essentially, for the benefit of that small group of kids who are lucky enough to live in that affluent community. Poor communities have less money to educate their children and rich communities have more money to educate their children. Leftist actions speed louder than their words. In the Democrat city of Chicago, the kids who have the greatest needs have the fewest resources.
The same thing is happening in wealthy, liberal Connecticut and other blue only states.
But for some of these foundational Democratic values of housing equality, progressive taxation and education equality, Democrats don’t actually embody their values.
Blue states are the problem. Blue states are where the housing crisis is located. Blue states are where the disparities in education funding are the most dramatic. Blue states are the places where tens of thousands of homeless people are living on the streets. Blue states are the places where economic inequality is increasing most quickly in this country. All the while affluent liberals show up at marches and talk about how they love equality.
Leftists do not live their values. People who live in blue states, people who profess liberal progressive values, need to look in the mirror. They are not taking the actions that are consistent with their liberal, progressive values. Not just in small areas but in some of the most important policy choices, they are denying people the opportunity to prosper and to thrive and to build better lives. And it is happening in the places where Democrats control the levers of policy.
Bottom line: Leftists, progressive and neo-communists cannot construct and deliver real world progress, equality and opportunity. Their politics is a shell game. Say one thing knowing that all those lofty sounding “theories” are not workable or acceptable to the American people.
This is not a debate about policy. In the political arena, competition is required and expected. This is about attacks on fundamental America; its heart and soul. This is not about the confrontation of Liberals and Conservatives. Both of those terms have little to do with America’s current political polarity.
The current Democrat Party is a very big tent stretched to and sometime beyond its limits. Within this tent are Blue State Centrist’s, progressives, socialists and neo-communists. On most issues these groups within the Democrat Party compete for patronage. This competition deepens their inherent polarization. However, for purposes of this discussion, the Left is comprised of aggressive progressives, socialists and neo-communists.
The Left is championed by much of academia, by media at many levels, by some within the larger Democrat party and by some corporate leaders.
The Democrat Party has become the party of urban America. There are zero Republican mayors in cities with over 1 million population in the United States. Of the 24 cities between 500,000 and 1 million there are 20 Democrat mayors.
As a result, their core constituency is focused on solving urban problems often using Leftist theories. However, Leftist politics in the cities and states where they dominate have generated the greatest degree of suffering. When in control, the Leftist’s do not follow their stated agenda, goals or political philosophies. In cities and states controlled by Democrats, there is the least affordable housing, the highest homeless populations, the most school districts basically separating rich and poor and the races. They have the highest tax rates, the highest crime rates and the greatest multi-generational poverty.
Leftists pour poison into the American well in at least these areas.
- Freedom of speech- restrained speech is not free speech
- Destruction of the individual
- Destruction of our heritage
- Making equity the enemy of equality
- Returning to race-based politics
- Shell game politics
In university campuses across North America as well as social and broadcast media, anyone who varies in word or intent from the “accepted” Leftist word usage is called out and attacked. In recent years, new threats to speech have emerged on some college and university campuses. They include the concepts of safe spaces, trigger warnings, and micro-aggressions. Safe spaces can refer to university policies that shield students from uncomfortable or unwanted ideas either written or spoken. In this environment some “words” are defined as “attacks” from which students must be protected.
This concept of safe spaces is threatening free speech, because the purpose of higher education is to expose students to different and challenging ideas. Trigger warnings refer to professors telling students in class before discussing concepts that may be upsetting to certain students. Whether requiring trigger warnings violate the First Amendment depends on whether a public college or university mandates that college professors issue trigger warnings. Administrators mandating trigger warnings demand compelled speech. Compelled speech is anti-American, unconstitutional and destroys academic freedom.
National newspaper writers have been fired for using a “prohibited” word. Leftist’s lead in the cancel culture that rules movies, tv and liberal media at every level. When a college dean wrote that “All lives matter,” she was required to publish an apology or face loss of her job. Left leaning social media moguls often ban individuals for their “speech.” Some are banned in total due to a perceived history of “dangerous and or “unapproved” statements.
Leftist university policies leave students feeling that they can’t express their true feelings or ideas if they fall outside of the “accepted” point of view. In a majority of American universities, students report that they do not feel free to express opinions or have open inquiry. Here a just a few samples.
Northern Arizona University
58% of students say shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is acceptable.
61% of students say they have self-censored on campus.
54% of students say they are worried about damaging their reputation because someone misunderstands something they have said or done.
For every one conservative student, there are roughly 1.8 Leftist students.
University of Washington
69% of students say shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is acceptable.
57%% of students say they have self-censored on campus.
63% of students say they are worried about damaging their reputation because someone misunderstands something they have said or done.
For every one conservative student, there are roughly 5.6 Leftist students.
Columbia University
73% of students say shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is acceptable.
64% of students say they have self-censored on campus.
73% of students say they worried about damaging their reputation because someone misunderstands something they have said or done.
For every one conservative student, there are roughly 6.8 Leftist students.
Destruction of the individual
At core of the American uniqueness is the fact that we are sovereign individuals. We are each born equal and with certain inalienable personal rights granted us by our creator. Each is equal before the law. Each is equal in their quest for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. American history is a story of the continuous application of these individual rights to more and more Americans. Except in Wyoming, women could not vote in until 1920; a full 144 years after the founding. Black Americans did not reach full respect of their civil rights until 1965; 189 years after the founding. America has continued its mission to ensure that every individual citizen shares the same equality of opportunity as all other citizens. Equality of opportunity is not an achievement. It is America’s unending mission.
The fall of classic communism, resulted the murder of over 200 million of their own peasants, artists and intellectuals. American Leftists have now re-imagined all the clap trap that comprised classic communism under the banner of Intersectionality and Post Modernism. Intersectionality focuses on the power imbalance between groups and the resulting exploitation that results.
Post Modernism preaches that there is no one “truth” about anything. Reality is whatever you happen to believe at the moment. America is thus founded on “myths.” There is no such thing as equality or justice or anything other topic that has rules that must be followed.
The complementary component of Leftist dogma is that there is no such thing as a sovereign individual. We are all part of competing groups. Achieving power for our group is the only objective. We are all oppressed by one or more other groups and all groups are oppressed by the Male Hierarchy which rules the world. Every gain achieved by one group comes at the expense of another group. There is no such thing as an individual. Individuals are comprised totally of the insights, attitudes, life experiences and identity that come only from the groups to which they belong.
Of course, this is just an expansion of the Marxist theory of the battle between the bourgeois and the proletariat. In America it results in endless groups fighting for their “rights,” political power and status with zero concern about the existence or “rights” of the individual.
Destruction of Our Heritage
Leftist, like old line communists, need to see history as one continuous march in one direction; theirs. The process used is called “Presentism.” This is a way to see history through current values, philosophies and a self-righteous political lens. Thus, all of American history is one of total disaster awaiting only the arrival of the “new” age, be that Leftism or Communism. One result of this distorted view of history is to see only villain’s and corruption. Everyone is either an oppressor or the oppressed. in America’s past. The founders are despised as slave holders, religious bigots, rapists of the environment, vicious despoilers of native people and cultures. Later America was run by warmongers, predatory Capitalists and corrupt political leaders. Of course, the only way history can be viewed this was is by applying current political, ethical and moral values to those who came before us. Their intent is to describe an America absent of any moral or ethical value. It’s founding documents only crafted to serve the political and economic interests of a tiny minority of rich white land and slave owners. To them our founding documents are a declaration of oppression.
Making Equity the Enemy of Equality
Two of the great political movements of America’s 20th century were for equal rights. The first fight was for equal rights for women. The second was for equal rights for non-white citizens. The moral, ethical and legal basis for these movements is secured by our Constitution.
The Constitution established the right of equal opportunity to all citizens. There is no doubt that America has not yet achieved equal opportunity for all citizens. Many school districts in America graduate students that lack even basic skills in reading and math. Many Americans live in communities governed by street and drug criminals. Many Americans live in polluted environments that dramatically and negatively affect their health. Many in America find it very difficult to find affordable housing. 35% of Americans rent. 38% of America’s children live in a single parent home. These and many other participants in the American experience find their opportunities unequal.
Each American generation is called upon to expand equality of opportunity. The historic approach to expanding equality of opportunity is to identify the root causes of inequality and bring forward solutions in law and in social services such as education and healthcare. The fundamental belief is that equality of opportunity will result in a vibrant meritocracy in which each individual is prepared and free to achieve their aspirations through the ever-increasing value of their contributions.
To Leftists, the solution to all forms of inequality is to call for equity. They believe that the single source of solutions is governmental regulations that provide direct advantages to those deemed “disadvantaged.” The leftist theory, extracted from communist dogma, is that it is responsibility government is to make things “equal.” Men make, on average, more money than women in the workforce. The equity solution is to “require” that in all employment men and women doing exactly the same jobs must be paid the exact same compensation. If a company has 100 engineers, they are expected to hire 50 men and 50 women. Black Americans comprise approximately 13% of the population but because of “historic” underemployment, the government requires that employers must be audited to insure they are hiring Black Americans at rates greater than 13%.
Because Leftists see the American population as a large number of competing groups, they believe that the role of the government is to provide equity by balancing the rights among and across all those groups. The fundamental theory is that government alone is capable of creating a vibrant and equal society by incentivizing certain “victim” groups over other groups to a higher place in the social, economic and political hierarchy. To Leftists there is no such thing as “meritocracy.” You are higher in the social and financial hierarchy because you have “privilege” and not because you earned it. You were born with it.
Return to Race-based Politics
Because Leftist believe that politics is competition for the allegiance of groups, their policies and practices have returned the Democrat party back to the party of race-based politics. Today 87% of black American voters vote Democrat. That is partly because a large part of the black population occupies urban areas. However, it is also a result of a calculated plan to sow fear of Republican policy which they see as benefitting suburban, rural, rich and white voters. While this appears on the surface to be a very effective political ploy, the impact on the urban black population of American has been devastating. There has been little or no improvement in the life of urban black Americans for the past 120 years. By every standard of measuring quality of life, urban back Americans have been left behind. Their politician’s commitment to Leftist theories enrichens Leftist politicians but leave non-white communities in ruins.
Shell Game Politics
Housing
There are 18 states in the U.S. where Democrats control the legislative and executive branches or else have some veto-proof majority in the legislature.
What do Democrats actually do when they have all the power? First, they ignore the Democrat Party Platform. At the same time the 25 wealthiest Americans in those states pay little in income taxes compared to their fortunes, sometimes nothing at all.
In California housing policy is a demonstration of Leftist shell game politics. The Democrat Party platform uses the word “housing”over 100 times. Children who are born in neighborhoods with degraded environmental conditions, with a lack of access to high-quality public services, poor schools, poor public transit are at a permanent disadvantage. And they even say verbatim, “Housing in America should be stable, accessible, safe, healthy, energy efficient and above all, affordable.”
“Housing is a human right.” “Housing is a human right.” “The rent is going through the roof. Housing is a human right.”
There is little or no affordable housing in California because in California, the cost of housing is so high that for many people, it’s simply unaffordable. The state has simply, for the most part, stopped building housing at a rate insufficient to keep pace with California’s population.
The median price of a home in San Diego County is now $830,000. All around California, there are cities full of people who say that they are Leftists, progressives, and liberals. They say they believe in a more equal America, a more diverse America. Their single-family neighborhoods are actually the result of specific policies, intentional policies that keep these neighborhoods spread out and full of single-family homes, as opposed to higher-density buildings like duplexes or apartment complexes.
Strict zoning of single-family (low density) housing is strangling California’s premier work centers. Over the past eight years, the San Francisco area has added 676,000 jobs but only 176,000 housing units.
Palo Alto wanted to change it from low-density housing to higher-density housing so that they could build a 60-unit affordable housing complex for elderly members of the community.
The overwhelmingly liberal residents of Palo Alto decided to hold a vote to overturn the decision, to revert it back to low-density, single-family housing. And it passed. And the zoning was overturned. So now when you go to this plot of land, instead of an affordable housing complex for the elderly, what you’re going to see is this, a row of just a few houses, all of them massive, and worth around $5 million each.
The top 10 cities for homelessness are all Democrat cities and they comprise 55% of all the homeless in America.
That is why Leftist politics is a cynical shell game. Say all the “right words” but never implement them. Here Leftist policies actually focus on benefitting the richest citizens at the expense of the poor.
Taxes
Democrats say they believe in a progressive tax system, where the rich pay a larger share of their income than the poor. This is like the most basic policy vision of a progressive movement. It’s front and center in Democrats’ policy platform.
Another example of the Leftist Shell game can be seen in Democrat run Washington State. The Democratic Party talks about taxation, saying that our tax code has been, quote, “rigged against the American people.” Democrats all the time are decrying the fact that tax cuts are going to the wealthiest Americans. “It is time for a wealth tax in America.”
However, in Washington State, you will find that less-affluent families pay a much larger share of their income in taxes than the wealthiest residents of Washington State. People like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, two of the state’s most famous and wealthy residents, are in this lovely situation of paying less in taxes as a share of their income than the poor people who live in the same state. This is a fundamental inversion of the values that the Democratic Party professes. There is no state with a more regressive system of taxation than Washington State. Other Leftist run states also are in the top 10 of most regressive tax regimes, like Nevada and Illinois.
Education
Another major theme in the Democrat Party platform is education. The Democrats say, quote, “We must provide a world-class education in every ZIP code, to every child, because education is a critical public good.” They use this word “ZIP code” to represent the fact that in America, schools get their funding based on the real estate taxes of the houses within that school district. The more expensive the neighborhood, the more funding goes to the school.
In Illinois, which is the quintessential liberal state. In Chicago they have decided to divide themselves into more than 140 school districts. So now you have all these tiny school districts which are like gerrymandered around the richest part of town. Thus all of the taxes from these rich homeowners go into one little bucket and then only get distributed to the schools within this rich region of the county.
It can be on the same block that the town line runs through the middle of it. And if you live on one side of that line, you’re consigned to an inferior education by virtue of the fact that you and your neighbors don’t have as much money. And if you live on the other side, you’re basically a member of a club that is sponsoring a private school, essentially, for the benefit of that small group of kids who are lucky enough to live in that affluent community. Poor communities have less money to educate their children and rich communities have more money to educate their children. Leftist actions speed louder than their words. In the Democrat city of Chicago, the kids who have the greatest needs have the fewest resources.
The same thing is happening in wealthy, liberal Connecticut and other blue only states.
But for some of these foundational Democratic values of housing equality, progressive taxation and education equality, Democrats don’t actually embody their values.
Blue states are the problem. Blue states are where the housing crisis is located. Blue states are where the disparities in education funding are the most dramatic. Blue states are the places where tens of thousands of homeless people are living on the streets. Blue states are the places where economic inequality is increasing most quickly in this country. All the while affluent liberals show up at marches and talk about how they love equality.
Leftists do not live their values. People who live in blue states, people who profess liberal progressive values, need to look in the mirror. They are not taking the actions that are consistent with their liberal, progressive values. Not just in small areas but in some of the most important policy choices, they are denying people the opportunity to prosper and to thrive and to build better lives. And it is happening in the places where Democrats control the levers of policy.
Bottom line: Leftists, progressive and neo-communists cannot construct and deliver real world progress, equality and opportunity. Their politics is a shell game. Say one thing knowing that all those lofty sounding “theories” are not workable or acceptable to the American people.