Blue State Blues Gets Worse

Who is happy with widespread lockdowns?

Policy changes are generally hurting everyone, but in Democrat-majority or “blue states”, it hurts the most.

During 2019 we have seen democrats tolerate peaceful protests even when they turned violent with looting, arson, murder, and mayhem. After $1-2 Billion in damages to dozens of cities across the US, many small businesses were targets, and urban centers decimated. As a result, rebuilding has been nearly impossible, jobs lost, investments by owners lost.

Coinciding with this we have seen the rush to “defund police”, increased emphasis on “identity politics’, restrictions to free speech and the “cancel culture”, and the politicization of just about every issue one can imagine. The left-liberal “woke” forces are running ramped over America’s culture.

This has resulted in crime spiking in many Democrat governed areas, especially sanctuaries, along the West Coast, and in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, NY City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. Homicides, shootings, theft, car-jackings, assaults, and rape are all increasing at alarming rates with increases of 20% to 35% and higher not uncommon.

What is mind-numbing during this time is that leaders are releasing prisoners, including felons, with no cash bail and relaxed or unenforced laws. Incredibly more than seven States have prioritized vaccine shots for prisoners over the most vulnerable: the elderly and healthcare workers.

Political leaders justify extreme action on “social justice” reforms with apparent fake guilt regarding those minorities who have suffered for centuries. Of course, it is deliberate pandering to win votes and gain power.

And it gets worse: due to Covid-19, unemployment has been relentless and is increasing, homelessness has increased along with drug use, robberies, and other felonies. Many crimes don’t get attention from police who are under siege. Defunding has resulted in thousands of police fired or quitting to avoid the stress, disrespect, and lack of political support.

But wait, there’s more. Hypocrisy runs rampant among our politicians. The list grows every day with those who reinforce the infuriating notion that they are above the law and their self-righteous edicts. It is all about the “do as I say, not as I do” mentality held by Governors, Mayors, and even Congressmen.

We have Governors Cuomo, Newsom, Whitmer with celebrated examples of violating their requirements to deal with the Covid-19 crisis. The Democrats erred with their “French Laundry” scandal.

It doesn’t stop there, the Mayors of cities like San Francisco, Denver, San Antonio, Chicago, New York City, and others tell their citizens what they can’t do but exempt themselves from compliance.

Worse, they flaunt the hypocrisy shamelessly. Mayor DeBlasio closes Times Square for its world-famous celebrations on New Year’s Eve, shutting out hundreds of thousands due to the pandemic, yet is pictured dancing alone with his wife in Times Square.

Governor Cuomo speaks offhandedly that he would love to watch a Buffalo Bills football game in the stadium. Later, he announces that arrangements have been made for over 6,000 fans to attend the game. Other venues remain closed, including hundreds of restaurants, gyms, schools, etc. All this comes after receiving awards and writing a book about his success in managing the Covid crisis, yet over 6,000 elderly citizens died in NY nursing homes due to his executive orders.

Identity politics stops people from thinking of themselves as Americans but instead as a persecuted subgroup in a systemically racist society. This creates division in America and allows people to be more easily manipulated to support causes that would otherwise be considered too extreme and irrational.

Trump was a perfect target and so the political war developed to the Democrat’s advantage to win the White House. But it may be a pyrrhic victory.

Democrats have lost many seats in Congress. Storming the Capitol building was wrong but is being used to punish all Trump voters. The backlash to the second Impeachment will not go away.

Hopefully, America can advance beyond false racist accusations, the crippling divisions of identity politics, the fake enticements of career politicians who seek power and money, brutal anti-Trump action, and the astonishing offers to shower members of the party with free stuff.

To do that, we must reinforce to all, especially our youth, that dependency on government is not better than the freedom to pursue individual happiness and success.

Government does not create a growth economy, enterprise does. Free-market enterprise has been the recipe for the greatest accumulation of individual wealth in the history of humanity while dramatically affecting hunger and poverty with positive results.

Capitalism is the best and proven way we know for obtaining property and wealth while creating a more perfect union. It forms the American Dream.

Fracturing it with the false promise of socialism, in whole or part, is suicidal.

History has also proven socialism eventually turns to tyranny.

That’s when blue and red states turn black.

John Shoemaker can be reached at [email protected]