By krissikunterbunt @Adobe Stock
Why Things Don’t Work
What happens when a society defunds the police, legalizes lethal drugs, open its borders, ignores the law, ends bail, weakens energy reliability, deficit spends trillions annually, declares white people evil? Probably not expect to survive, might be one person’s opinion.
James Freeman writes in the WSJ of the struggle he is having of “keeping hope alive.” Not wanting to be called a “quitter,” yet still striving to maintain an “open mind,” he admits how discouraging it is:
Seeing the destruction wrought by progressive policies on great cities and towns across this country, one wonders how long it will be before even the most radical elected officials refuse to self-identify with the tarnished label.
Elizabeth Warren Not Altering Course
The progressive brand stands for “human degradation,” blames the WSJ journalist.
As U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) campaigns for a third term this year, her campaign website proclaims her “one of the country’s leading progressive voices.”
To take one example, Sen. Warren still wants fewer cops and more treatment providers responding to drug-related 911 calls.
Progressives Need to Be Honest
On the other side of the country, however, “another high-profile experiment in progressive drug policy has gone catastrophically wrong,” continues Mr. Freeman.
Katia Riddle for the Gaurdian (Oregon) reports:
When voters approved Measure 110 in 2020, they made Oregon the scene of a novel social experiment in the US by decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of hard drugs and funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into substance abuse treatment.
A Dystopian Nightmare
The vote was celebrated as a groundbreaking step toward a compassionate approach to substance use disorders, one that prioritized treatment over punishment. But nearly three years after its passage, the law has become the subject of fierce debate as Oregon, like many US states, grapples with a spiraling opioid crisis…Lawmakers are now considering a number of bills that would reinstate criminal penalties such as fines and jail time for drug possession – a decision that could come any day.
At a community forum in January, the Eugene district attorney Christopher Parosa summed up the recent prevailing mood. “What has developed in the last three years is not the utopian Shangri-La that we have been promised with ballot measure 110,” said Parosa, “but rather a dystopian nightmare that is akin to a grim Hollywood movie.”
A Fiasco
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek was once considered among of the country’s leading progressives. Over the last year, however, Governor Kotek has been preaching pragmatism over ideology. Recently she spoke to reporters on plans to revive downtown Portland:
“I think this is about: Can you make stuff work? I am very progressive when it comes to public policy, but I am pragmatic and I’m tired of things not working.”
