In looking around at the sad shape that our country
is in today, I would argue that if we continue to elect Democrats, as well as
those on our side who, while they profess to believe in conservative principles,
most certainly do not, those most often identified as RINOs, then it has been
over the last several weeks that we have been offered a glimpse into the future
of America. And it’s not a very pretty
sight. You see, it is the city of
Baltimore that has provided us with that glimpse. Because unless the American people are able
to come to the consensus that a pretty dramatic coarse change now needs to be
made, and soon, then it is Baltimore that the rest of the country will soon
come to look like.
And yet, even after all that has gone on, Democrats
remain very proud of what it is that they have managed to accomplish there in
Baltimore, excluding, of course, that which was essentially a direct result of
their efforts, the recent death of Freddie Gray. That, of course, they are quick to blame on
those unwilling to spend even more money on top of the vast resources that have
already been wasted, in that they have accomplished so little. Democrats are so proud, in fact, that Marty
O’Malley, Democrat, intends to announce his presidential campaign there. Perhaps he’ll use a burned-out police car or a
looted storefront as his backdrop. After
all, either could be considered as being a monument to his success.
The former Maryland governor, and Baltimore mayor,
did his best to blame last week’s unrest on such thing as structural problems
in our economy, outsourcing and a failure to invest in infrastructure. The fact
is, Marty’s whining notwithstanding, that it’s Marty and the Democrats that own
Baltimore and the disaster it has become.
As one resident who met Marty at an inner-city food drive just last week
put it, “He’s walking into the aftermath of his legacy.” But to be fair here, it’s not Marty’s legacy
alone nor is what Baltimore been turned into all Marty’s fault. It’s also the legacy of all those who voted
for him, as well as every other Democrat.
Because voters have played a role in creating the mess they will be
passing down to their children.
Because the fact is that the last time Baltimore had
a Republican mayor was back in 1967, or nearly five decades ago. Indeed, the People’s Republic of Maryland has
had just two Republican governors since 1969, and one of them took office just took
office four months ago. The stark
reality of things is that Baltimore is a deep blue city buried within in a deep
blue state. The mayor is a Democrat. Every member of the city council is a
Democrat. The school system is run by Democrats, and their teachers’ union
overlords. Hence my rationale for
declaring that the voters can be said to be just as much to blame as the
politicians. It was the voters who saw
fit to elect those who have been so effective in the outright destruction of
Baltimore.
And I would think it very fair to say that Baltimore
could be, and should be, used as being the poster child for the left’s failed
war on poverty. The only kind of ‘war’ that the left seems to be willing to
‘fight’ and to waste trillions of dollars on in the effort. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson launched what
has been called the Great Society. He promised, “Our American answer to poverty
is not to make the poor more secure in their poverty but to reach down and to
help them lift themselves out of the ruts of poverty and move with the large
majority along the high road of hope and prosperity.” Which, I suppose, may have sounded pretty
good at the time, but 50 years later, we see how empty those words really were.
So, what level of success was achieved through the
implementation of Johnson’s mater plan?
Absolutely none! The national
poverty rate today is 14.5 percent, which is virtually unchanged from 1966,
when most of Johnson’s Great Society programs first took effect. And in Baltimore things are even worse, the
poverty rate there is 24 percent of all residents and 35 percent of children
living below the poverty line. The unemployment rate for black men in Baltimore
between the ages of 20-24 is 37 percent. To put that in perspective, the
unemployment rate during the Great Depression was just 22.9 percent. You know
you have failed when reaching the employment levels of the Great Depression
would be progress.
The New York Times reported Monday morning on a new
study which found that “among the nation’s 100 largest counties, the one where
children face the worst odds of escaping poverty is the city of
Baltimore.” Low-income boys who grow up
in Baltimore earn 25 percent less as adults than low-income boys who moved away
as small children. Now there is a
ringing endorsement of liberal policies if ever I have heard one! And yet all we hear from those in charge of
this city, as well as Democrats everywhere is how it that all we need to do to
cure what ails Baltimore, and every other city that finds itself in a similar
situation, which are many, is to simply spend more money. Because more money fixes everything! Or does it?
In the very Baltimore community of
Sandtown-Winchester, where the riots took place, The Washington Post reported
on Saturday that city officials “injected $130 million into the community in a
failed effort to transform it. Instead there are block after block of
boarded-up houses and too many people with little hope.” Nearly half of all Sandtown-Winchester high
school students missed at least 20 days of school in 2011 and just 6 percent
graduated from college — less than a quarter of the rate for the rest of the
city. The community’s murder rate is double the average for Baltimore (which,
in turn, had the fifth-highest murder rate last year among major U.S. cities).
The state spends $17 million a year just to incarcerate Sandtown-Winchester residents.
The problem, as former Baltimore Housing
commissioner Daniel Henson III told The Post, was that the city knew how to
build houses, but “what we did not know as well was how to improve human capital.”
Clearly, the Democrat approach of throwing money at the problem has not worked.
In 2014, Baltimore public schools ranked third in the country in per-pupil
spending, behind only New York and Boston. Yet, according to the 2013 National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 55 percent of Baltimore fourth
graders scored “below basic” in reading while just 14 percent scored at the
proficient or advanced level. Meanwhile 54 percent of eighth graders scored
“below basic” in math, while just 13 percent were proficient or advanced.
Marty says recent events in Baltimore should serve
as “a wake-up call for the entire country.” He’s right about that. After five
decades of virtually uninterrupted Democrat rule, Baltimore is nothing short of
a complete and utter disaster. The left’s approach to poverty has failed. Reflecting on Baltimore’s dismal record, a
former aide to former Mayor Kurt Schmoke told The Post “We meant well.” I’m
sure they did. But meaning well is no excuse for over 50 years of failure. And what sort of message does it send when
you can have literally hundreds of people involved in all manner of wanton
destruction of a city, and arrest next to no one. Not one person was arrested in Ferguson, and
thus far none, or very few, have been arrested in Baltimore.
And in looking beyond Baltimore, what is it that we
have seen taking place in America just over the course of the last 6
years? Well, it has been under Barry’s
reign that today we 10 million fewer people in the nation’s work force than we
did the day he took office. We have
millions more who essentially been force onto food stamps, millions more now on
disability and no fewer than 100 million Americans now on some form of
government ‘assistance’. That my friends
is a recipe for disaster that puts America on course to become a nation-sized
Baltimore. And people can still justify
voting for Hitlery Clinton, yet another devoted socialist? Really??
How ignorant, lazy, greedy of self-centered must we be to keep voting
for Democrats?
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