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ALPERN AT LARGE - Let’s be honest and blunt: our cities have become as blighted and corrupt as the European cities that the first settlers fled from for freedom centuries ago. The groupthink, the filth, the lack of free speech, and the presumption that “no hope” was the “norm” made everyone from the Pilgrims to the Irish to the Jews all flee West.
Let’s again be honest and blunt: we’ve been seeing Republican, Democrat, and Independent voters of all means and races flee San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and L.A. to live with less crime, less grime, less slime, and more free time.
Show me a corrupt Republican urban leader, and that person will be pilloried as he/she should be…so when it’s referenced that Democratic mayors and governors are BOTH fighting Trump AND defending indefensible crime and corruption it’s not so much that they’re Democrats as much as they’re simply bad people…
…as in there are LOTS of Democratic voters who despise Garcetti, Trump, Bass, Vance, and Newsom alike…and they want BETTER leadership in our cities. Maybe not Republicans but certainly not THESE Democrats.
As stated from all sorts of academic sources, Americans are fleeing Democratic states…NOT because they want to be Republicans but because they want to live with less crime and more economic opportunities.
However, as The Hill reports, the New York Times and other sources are quoted as having new Democrat voters lag far behind new Republican voters.
Which doesn’t mean Democrats should become Republicans, but it does mean that if the historically centrist portion of the Democratic Party doesn’t assert itself again (think JFK and Bill Clinton), and at least recognize where the Trump-led GOP has a point or two among Independent voters, things will not go well in in the future for Democrats.
But if it’s any consolation, Republican leaders like G.W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and Mitch McConnell are absolutely DESPISED by the growing wave of Republican and Independent voters lining behind Trump and his Administration…arguably these individuals are more beloved and respected by Democrat than by GOP voters.
Enter Washington, D.C., where the National Guard has (despite the sad need for them to be there) dropped crime to nearly zilch in the last few weeks. The political leadership, be they black or not, were going on and on and on about how things were getting better…but most of us honestly wouldn’t want to walk in D.C. alone at night!
Ditto for Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and L.A. To suggest that things are juuuuuuuust fine is pure gaslighting.
White Governor Pritzker in Illinois, and his black counterpart Mayor Brandon Johnson, who reign over Chicago and a state that is notoriously corrupt (one big joke, huh?), both want Trump and the National Guard to have no part in cleaning up crime in Chicago.
But do Pritzker and Johnson want no part of Trump and his National Guard because they fear protests and chaos, and violations of individuals’ civil rights, or because a sharp reduction in crime would show that they are failures as leaders?
And the question of whether it’s OK to have shootings and crime and miserable qualities of life for brown/black neighborhoods in our urban centers as “normal”, and that “it’s getting better because the deaths and crime aren’t THAT awful anymore”…
…isn’t setting the bar low as horrifically racist as any? I don’t want ANY American, be he/she brown, black, Asian, or white to live in fear and angst.
So hence the numbers of new GOP and even pro-Trump Americans of all races going up should be a wakeup call for “law and order liberals” to declare that “zero crime” is a “Democrat thing” as much as a “Republican thing”.
And for those who point out that higher homicide rates in red states exist over blue states, the sad reality is that those rates exist in cities that are NOT run by the GOP.
But street cred is street cred, and the opportunity to exploit that shouldn’t be dismissed. Maybe Democratic leaders have the credibility to reduce crime in ways that Republicans do not.
And maybe the political will of Democratic leaders to reduce crime in truly substantial (no gaslighting or data manipulation, but “for reals” crime reduction) ways isn’t there because the Far Left owns too much of the Democratic Party at this time.
But it’s not OK, it’s not kewl, it’s not funny, and it’s not a shoulder shrugger of a “THOSE PEOPLE DO THAT TO EACH OTHER ALL THE TIME” for any of us to tolerate and allow a “norm” of neighborhoods (mostly brown and black) harming each other when economic prosperity and law-and-order should tie into each other instead.
Let the Democratic leaders of our nation strive for a “new normal” of zero tolerance for crime, and for Americans of all colors to have a better shot at life.
Because if Democratic leaders in our cities don’t…Trump will certainly try to do it instead, and on his terms.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
