So, reality finally catches up to the horrifically destructive policies of the progressive left.
We see a number of Democratic officials and pundits preaching, and even taking action, in direct contradiction to their earlier policies on homelessness, the border and general governance that wreaked such havoc in blue states and in the nation as a whole.
Three reversals in particular over the last few months come to mind. First, there was Joe Biden finally working with Mexico, at least claiming to curb asylum seekers. Then, New York Governor Kathy Hochul suddenly addressed the mentally ill homeless. And finally, left-leaning CNN analyst Fareed Zakaria admitted that red Florida does it better than blue New York.
Let’s start with Hochul. New York City Republican mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg controlled the homeless situation by insisting that the criminally mentally ill homeless either be jailed or institutionalized. Progressive Bill de Blasio came in and eviscerated this commonsense approach, allowing crazy people to take over parks, sidewalks, and subway trains. When conservatives called for a return to the sensible and provenly correct Giuliani/Bloomberg approach, they were labeled as inhumane racists by the progressives and their allies in the media. Random killings spiked and New Yorkers’ quality of life plummeted.
But now, after a subway rider was lit on fire and another thrown onto the tracks in a single week, Governor Hochul has suddenly come to the conclusion that we need to institutionalize the severely mentally ill. Hallelujah! Too bad it’s twelve years too late.
How many people needlessly died because Democrats such as Hochul, de Blasio and former Governor Andrew Cuomo allowed this insanity to continue for so long?
Earlier, we saw Democrats panicking over the border as the 2024 election approached. For three-and-a-half years, they played a game of deliberately opening the border to bring in millions more individuals. hoping they would vote their way in future elections.
But the public eventually wised up and demanded action. Just a few months before the election, the lightbulb goes off in the Biden Administration that the way to try to stem the flow of illegal aliens from coming in is by simply declaring asylum. They would simply reinstate the Trump policy Biden voided upon taking the oath. His administration then bragged about how they lowered the number of border crossings (even though that was a deception, since they were now allowing the illegals to come in alternatively through an app and inaccurately calling it a legal entry).
Nevertheless, Biden did at least publicly seek to change his view before the election, realizing the public was in revolt mode. Again, too little, too late, after fifteen million illegal aliens entered the country with little to no vetting.
Most recently, we heard from the generally liberal Zakaria, who wrote an outstanding piece about how Democratic elected officials in charge of blue states and cities have run these places into the ground.
He did what many conservative pundits had been doing for years: comparing the low tax, anti-crime policies of Red State Florida, which attracts newcomers from all over the country, to the progressive high tax pro-criminal policies in New York, which created a mass exodus due to exploding costs and chaos in the streets.
We’ve been saying for years that Florida does it better. They don’t tolerate homelessness, as does New York. They have three million more people than the Empire State, yet have a budget that’s half of New York’s. Meanwhile, New York spends twice as much per pupil, yet Florida’s test results are at least on par, if not better, than the student performance of their northern counterpart.
For years, frustrated observers begged for progressives to change their ways. Since the 2024 election bloodbath for Democrats, at least some of the party faithful, are at least talking a different talk.