DC and LA Failures Play Into Trump’s Hands
Although clearly violating America’s long-standing federalist principles, Trump’s incursions are being justified by the incompetence of most blue-city leaders.
Donald Trump’s reviled takeover of the DC police and his earlier deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles serve as a direct challenge to the power of America’s big cities. To the Democrats who run these cities, this all seems part of an authoritarian plot. But it also may be one of Trump’s traps.
Although clearly violating America’s long-standing federalist principles, Trump’s incursions are being justified by the incompetence of most blue-city leaders. There is evident disorder in major cities, particularly those controlled by the Democrats’ progressive wing: quasi-socialist mayors in Chicago and Los Angeles may soon be joined by comrades elsewhere in the country. The explicitly socialist Zohran Mamdani is the Democratic candidate for New York mayor, while Omar Fateh and Katie Wilson could also win in Minneapolis and Seattle. All three elections take place on 4 November.
Big-city mayors see Trump’s antics as a get-out-of-jail-free card for their failures. But this won’t work. Americans know that these cities have severe problems which are driving people out. The demographer Wendell Cox notes that Americans are increasingly moving to suburban areas, despite consistent attempts from planners to encourage urbanization. Even with a surge of illegal immigration, Chicago’s population has shrunk to its lowest level since 1920. Meanwhile, the California Department of Finance predicts a reduction of more than a million people in LA County by 2060.
Politics
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