Well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of their own actions.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) is furious Walgreens is closing in a predominantly black neighborhood in Boston, saying it’s a “life-threatening act of racial and economic discrimination.”
But it’s not racism that’s driving Walgreens out, it’s crime. In 2018, the state passed a criminal justice “reform” bill, backed by progressives like Pressley, that raised the threshold for felony theft from $250 to $1,200.
What happens when you decriminalize shoplifting? You get a lot of shoplifting. And for retailers like Walgreens, the cost is just too much.
It’s a story being repeated again and again and again across the country in recent weeks. Democrats furious at the disasters they themselves created.
Portland declares a state of emergency for the fentanyl crisis, after decriminalizing drugs and fueling the epidemic. Oakland panics over the death of its downtown, after deciding that prosecuting crime was racist. Chicago, Denver, New York — all bearing the huge cost of migrants because of their Sanctuary City promises and President Biden’s open border.
Liberal friends of Israel aghast at the antisemitism they let fester on college campuses.
Progressives like Pressley bizarrely claim that “white supremacy” is to blame. It can’t possibly be our soft-on-crime policies that caused an increase in crime!
But there are a few who, seeing an electoral disaster in the making, are speaking out.
Gov. Hochul went from quoting Emma Lazarus to saying that the migrants who beat two cops should be deported. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) waved an Israeli flag from the roof and told the Squad to sit down.
And Tom Suozzi, who is running for a House seat in a special election on Long Island, admitted Thursday, “I think that the progressive left wing of the Democratic Party is hurting Democrats throughout the country.”
They are all cowards.
Where were they when it mattered? When Albany was deciding to get rid of bail, and the New York City Council was tying cops up with paperwork?
Who was speaking out during the Black Lives Matter riots, saying that “defund the police” was a terrible idea based on a lie? Tent cities didn’t sprout up overnight. It took months, years of societal indifference.
These so-called “moderates” lacked a backbone when it counted.
We’ll take the people who were right the first time around. Who said enforcing laws for shoplifting, drugs and immigration make the country a better place.
That the moral choice between the tolerant democracy of Israel and the bloodthirsty terrorists of Hamas isn’t a choice at all.
Who understand that the real racism in this country is acting like black and Hispanic neighborhoods don’t want exactly what everyone wants — safe streets, good schools and a chance at prosperity.
We’ll start with Mazi Pilip, the Republican candidate for Congress who should win against Suozzi on Feb. 13. Then to the fall, when Biden and Democrats in Washington face their reckoning.
Vote for people who didn’t need a change of heart, because their hearts were already in it.
Perhaps losing power will give those “centrist” Democrats something to think about. Principles only matter if you stand by them.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
