In politics, hate is mostly a cover for incompetence. American leftists used to be good at running things. From the 1960’s through the early 2000’s, Boston Public Schools were among the very best in the world. Ditto New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle – all were famous for having excellent public-school systems. Now? Boston Public Schools spend over $30,000 per kid per year, and only 23 percent of students who graduate are considered college or career ready. Among Black students, that number drops dramatically. Only 31 percent of students in Los Angeles are proficient in basic math, including just 18 percent of Black kids, and that includes private schools, which perform far better than their public-school peers. The same metrics hold up in virtually every other big blue city. And despite what the Teacher’s Unions say, it is NOT a case of underfunding: every one of these cities sees public school spending in excess of $25,000 per kid each year – enough to pay for tuition at most of the best private schools in the country.
It’s not just schools, either. Look around any major U.S. city and the decline from even a decade ago is staggering. A massive increase in homeless populations. Crumbling roads, bridges, and infrastructure. A faulty and vulnerable power grid. Declining public safety. Unreliable (and dangerous) public transportation. Again, it’s not a lack of funding. Government revenues at the federal, state, and local levels increased dramatically over the same period that government performance cratered.
Take a look at this chart from the St. Louis Federal Reserve:
Why is this happening? Why have tax and spend leftists suddenly become incapable of delivering results no matter how much money they’re given to spend? There’s a good hint in my hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, where voters are about to decide whether to implement a new General Plan – the guiding document for city operations.
Here’s what the Phoenix City Council had to say about the changes (highlights mine):
“This General Plan Update builds on the concepts established in the 2015 General Plan that a unified policy framework of all the City’s various initiatives is one of the best strategies to employ to realize a collective vision, values and goals.
The Vision to be “a more connected city” has been carried through for decades of planning in Phoenix and consistently referenced in plans, policies and initiatives to this day holding its place atop the General Plan Framework. The next tier within the framework has been slightly modified to further address “Planning Equity” through the lens of the already established 3 Community Benefits. These updated Community Benefits provide critical guidance in achieving the Vision and informing Goals in a more inclusive and equitable way. Each of the 5 Core Values have also been updated to align with new goals and priorities.”
“Collective vision” is code for socialist policy, the rest is code for the racially divisive Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and Critical Race Theory (CRT) – programs that have moved to the very center of Phoenix’s focus, as demonstrated in their own planning document. Back in the 90’s, Phoenix used to focus on things like being the best run city in America – and won awards for doing so. Now? The focus is on leftist handout programs. Hiring is done to meet diversity goals, not find the best employees. And city spending is focused on giveaways to politically-favored NGOs.
And it’s not working, Phoenix is a worse place to live now than it was 10 years ago, when it was a worse place to live than it had been 10 years before that. Leftists used to want to spend money delivering a vast array of quality services, and took pride in doing so. Now? All they do is find new and creative ways to line each other’s pockets – local Democrat officials are managing to follow the DC leaders and are becoming millionaires doing jobs with middle class pay.
What does all this incompetence and corruption have to do with hate and our current, charged political environment? If your people are suffering and it’s your fault, the easiest way to avoid the consequences of your failure is to blame someone else – convince people to hate them instead of blame you. In that, American Democrats are following a playbook laid out all too well by dictators like the Ayatollahs in Iran, the Chavistas is Venezuela, and virtually every other tin-pot dictatorship in history. That’s also been the playbook for Black American Democrat leadership post MLK who always seem to fail their people, but never fail to get rich doing it. Now that approach has been adopted by Democrat elected officials nationwide: why bother trying to do hard things, when it’s easy to get rich failing and blame someone else?
Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Sam Stone only and not his co-host Chuck Warren or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.
