BLUE STATE MAYORS AND GOVERNORS

Conflicting (and Stupid) Policies

It’s Not Just the Hypocrisy

Going through three years of what was essentially a bad flu, we saw the total hypocrisy of mayors and governors (and in some cases, our Congress) regarding their “lockdown” policies.  They felt they had made good law, in part because none of it really affected them.  We could see they had no trouble getting a haircut or spa treatment, while our hair grew long and unwieldy.  On some level, they do think of themselves as royalty.  We shouldn’t. Recent policy shows how bad they really are.  Vote them out.

Crime

All of them got down with the “defund police” nonsense.  Of course, they all had private and/or publicly-funded security, so were safe from most crimes.  Did they ask their constituents?  Obviously not, as some of the people most affected, minority and poor communities, were people they relied on for votes.  What campaign promises can they make to this stricken community when police are not just minutes, but hours away?  Why are these people voting against their interest?

To make it worse, many have doubled down on protecting criminals, passing laws that make it only a non-prosecuted misdemeanor to steal under $950.  On our local NextDoor, more and more crimes of this type keep happening in formerly safe neighborhoods.  But the police know that even if they do the work to catch these perps, the DAs won’t even try to prosecute.  How demoralizing for the cops and devastating for the neighbors who can’t get justice (or even get their purloined goods back). 

The Soros-supported DAs seem to care more about criminals than they do about victims.  While January 6^th was pretty non-violent, except for that Capitol policeman who murdered Ashley, BLM riots were horribly violent, injuring and killing many, while also destroying property.  Where are the convictions for these people?  Blacks and their businesses were affected and yet, politicians still believe they are on the right track.  Blue pols love to lump people together, but in my friend base, my minority friends are on the same page as I am regarding crime.  No matter who perpetrates it, they want it stopped.  They value safety of their homes and neighborhoods, just as I do.

Access to Goods and Services

Along the same lines, we hear Blues complain about “food desserts,” areas in a city where people can’t get fresh fruit and vegetables, or even find a store larger than a 7-11.  How is this possible?  Don’t businesses want to be situated where they have buyers for their products.

It turns out that even many years ago, stores abandoned these blighted areas because of shoplifting.  But it wasn’t as dire a situation as it is now.  People actually had to sneak around to steal.  Now, store clerks in San Francisco stand helpless as brazen thieves simply walk in and help themselves to whatever they want.  Most downtown drug stores and even Whole Foods have abandoned downtown San Francisco.  The losses are too high and they can’t keep raising prices for good citizens to cover those losses.

What do you do in an emergency situation when your child needs a prescription and the nearest pharmacy is 50 miles away?  This situation is the result of politicians who claim to care so much about us, but pass laws that hurt the people they expect to vote for them.

Climate Initiatives

The Earth’s climate is always changing; that’s just how it is. But alarmists never change.  We were threatened with an impending Ice Age when I was a kid, then it was global warming, and who the heck knows what they think is coming.  However, when you force people to buy electric cars they can’t afford, that’s unforgivable.  And few of these people would have a way to fast-charge those cars, even if they could buy one.  After 10 years, they need to invest in a new, costly battery.  Just like me, many of these people expect to keep a car for around 20 years.

Swapping out your gas appliances is too costly for most of us.  We also can’t afford the added costs from various laws that seek to change our habits to save the earth.  (Most of these policies won’t do a thing; we actually can’t control climate all that well.)

What Works Better?

First, vote the bums out.  They live in a rich person’s bubble and have no idea, (nor do they care), about the impact of their policies on you and me.  Look for those who grew up less fortunate and who appreciate hard work and the value of money.  Stop voting for the pretty boy, (Gavin Newsom), and vote for someone who understands your pain, for real.

Next, get back to tough DAs.  Nothing keeps people from crime more than knowing they will pay for it.  Also, let store owners shoot these looters.  Yes, I mean that.  Let home-owners shoot looters.  In many places, this is actually law, though it is rarely seen that way by progressive DAs.  Consequences have a powerful effect.  How much will you feel you need someone’s iPad when you might die grabbing it? 

Let the private sector work.  During Covid, most government efforts were harmful and also, useless.  Creative types turned distilleries into hand sanitizer plants.  Students took their 3-D printers and made protective gear when it was in short supply. Farther back, Kevin Costner and his brother worked with scientists (and funded them) to create bacteria that eat oil, to solve oil spill problems.  Remember, the government just wanted to ban oil platforms.  And until Elon Musk, no one thought it was a good idea to make rockets reusable and more affordable.  NASA would never have bothered.

The free market is the best place to test ideas and discover great results.  When government is involved, we get vaccines, not treatments.  But scientists, on their own, found a bunch of viable treatments for Covid well before the vaccines were available.  In addition, they early on proved that having enough vitamin D-3 in your system ensured you wouldn’t die.  They also figured out who was more likely to die and why. 

Let’s stop relying on politicians who most recently resemble reality show stars than statesmen.  We can do better.  We have to do better.