Residents of America’s big blue cities have quickly done a U-turn on the “Defund the Police” movement. New Yorkers look as though they are prepared to elect a new mayor who is a former police captain and has promised a tougher stance on crime than the current radical Gracie Mansion inhabitant, Mayor Bill de Blasio. New Yorkers and others are tired of the Democrats’ mantra of defund the police. They just want their streets back after a year of pandemonium. Pat Buchanan writes about New Yorkers’ embrace of Eric Adams:
On Tuesday, Brooklyn Borough President and former police captain Eric Adams took the lead in the New York mayoral race with 32% of the Democratic primary vote, 10 points more than progressive Maya Wiley, who had the endorsement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
How did Adams beat the elite? Said The New York Times:
Adams built “an old-school political coalition that united Black and Latino voters,” and was “able to persuade working-class people, largely outside Manhattan, that he was the best candidate to make the city safe from crime.”
Adams’ anti-crime and pro-cop campaign carried four of New York City’s five boroughs, including Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional district in Queens. He lost only Manhattan, though, under the ranked-voting system New York uses, his victory may not be confirmed for a week.
Wednesday, President Joe Biden went before a White House podium to outline his program for dealing with the plague of shootings, killings and murders that have marked and marred the five months of his presidency.
What does all this tell us?
“Law and order,” the issue that arose in the ’60s to tear apart President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal Coalition, is back. And the emotional anti-cop wave after the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis a year ago, manifest in the “Defund the Police!” demand of Black Lives Matter, has receded.
America is saying: We don’t want rogue cops, but we do want more cops in our neighborhoods and our communities to stop the shootings that are terrorizing, wounding, maiming and killing us.
Despite the embrace of a more realistic view of governance in New York City, not far off to the northwest, Democrats in Buffalo, NY elected an avowed socialist, India Walton, as their nominee for mayor. Jimmy Vielkin of the WSJ reports:
New York progressives cheered last week after an insurgent socialist defied the odds and defeated a longtime incumbent to decisively win a Democratic primary for mayor—of Buffalo.
First-time candidate India Walton upset four-term Mayor Byron Brown on Tuesday in a victory supported by the left-leaning Working Families Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, of which Ms. Walton is a member.
Leaders of the groups say the victory in New York’s second-largest city is proof that their movement is gaining strength and can succeed beyond the parts of Brooklyn and Queens where DSA members already hold office.
If Buffalo elects Ms. Walton, the city may soon find itself in the same circumstances New York City faces today after years of rule by a radical socialist.
Blue state residents aren’t happy about continued COVID restrictions either and are increasingly repealing them. After governors went wild putting barriers between people and masks on their faces, a heatwave in the Northwest has encouraged an abandonment of social distancing rules. The WSJ reports:
The Oregon Health Authority suspended pandemic-related capacity limits at swimming pools, movie theaters, shopping malls and cooling centers, as well as on public transit, to give residents more options to beat the heat. “We know that when the temperature reaches a certain point, especially when we’ve never had this type of heat for so many days, it’s a public-health emergency,” said Dan Douthit, a spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management.
Joe Biden and other Democrats in Washington are getting scared of the pushback against “defund the police,” and COVID lockdowns. They’re looking for a way to buy off blue state voters. With the new infrastructure bill on the table, they think they’ve found it. They’re going to use money initially meant for unemployed residents of red states to repair roads and bridges in blue states. The WSJ explains:
The more we examine the bipartisan Senate infrastructure deal, the worse its details look. Consider its plan to pay for new spending in part with unemployment-benefit savings from GOP states that are recovering faster economically and ending the $300 federal bonus.
The outline of the deal includes an estimated $25 billion in revenue from unused jobless benefits. In March Democrats extended the $300 bonus into September and expanded enhanced benefits by 53 weeks, plus an additional 13 to 20 weeks in states with persistent high unemployment. Workers in states like California (7.9% in May) and New York (7.8%) can qualify for 99 weeks of benefits.
But the faster economic recovery and early benefit terminations by some states are resulting in lower unemployment spending than the Congressional Budget Office forecasted in March. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, federal spending on unemployment benefits will likely be about $56 billion lower than CBO predicted.
Guess where most of those “savings” will come from? Answer: the 26, mostly GOP-led, states that have announced plans to end the bonus before its planned expiration after Labor Day. Florida, Texas, Georgia, Utah and Oklahoma stopped theirs on Saturday.
What you and I know is the infrastructure deal is about anything but infrastructure. Is anyone paying attention? The answer, at least on the state level, where most of the infrastructure of our country is handled is, yes.
It is on the state level where leadership is coming from today as the Red States are saying enough of the free money from Biden. And of course, it’s no surprise the Blue States are going to get the savings. What’s mind-boggling is anyone is on board with this, but as one client said: “It’s all about robbing Peter to pay Paul, and Paul’s cheering it on.”
Action Line: Biden is desperately trying to hold on to the blue cities with money for infrastructure and more police (to replace the money Democrats defunded). To keep up with the current state of the country, click here to sign up for my free RAGE Gauge monthly report. But only if you’re serious.
