Will Progressives Learn from the Cities?

Will Progressives Learn from the Cities?
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

After a year of violence and unrest, large American cities serve as a cautionary tale for the progressives in Washington who want to move the country further to the left. The Democrats’ airtight lock on the urban vote has allowed political leaders to pursue ideological agendas without fear of reprisal, which has revealed just how much the elite left – comprised mostly of affluent, liberal whites who dominate media narratives – is out of step with the concerns of rank-and-file urban residents.

Take crime. “Defund the police” was always an unworkable project, but that never stopped progressives from working on it. Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s infamous “no more policing…it can't be reformed” may have been more extreme than the Democratic norm, but its basic sentiment dominates the elite left’s obsession with policing injustices and relative indifference to street violence. White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s inability to acknowledge America has a crime problem, is but one example of the conventional left’s unwillingness to depart from the standard script.

Meanwhile, the five cities that reduced their police budgets the most in 2020 (Austin, New York, Minneapolis, Seattle, and Denver) saw murders spike over the past year well above the national average. Thirty-six of the 50 largest cities in America saw murders rise at double-digit rates. Compared to 2020, shootings and homicides in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles were way up. Crime in large progressive urban strongholds far outpaces more moderate and right-leaning cities.

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