Democratic Corruption, Not Racism, Ruined Baltimore
President Trump is absolutely right to suggest Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) spend more time in his home district, which includes most of the City of Baltimore. What credibility can Cummings have as chairman of a congressional oversight committee when his own city, Baltimore, is corrupt, crime riddled, and a testament to failed Democratic governance and failed oversight?
Where was Elijah Cummings, during his 23 years (so far) as a congressman, as Baltimore became one of the most dangerous cities in America? And rather than launching a twitterstorm of comments (mostly retweets, actually) accusing President Trump of racism, why doesn’t Cummings admit that Democratic politicians have failed Baltimore?
Even the mainstream press agrees with the president: Only four months ago, the liberal New York Times ran an in-depth feature entitled “The Tragedy of Baltimore.” Among the facts cited in the article was this gem:
“In 2017, it [Baltimore] recorded 342 murders — its highest per-capita rate ever, more than double Chicago’s, far higher than any other city of 500,000 or more residents and, astonishingly, a larger absolute number of killings than in New York, a city 14 times as populous.”
One may wonder if the editors of what is arguably the most reputable liberal news source on the planet are regretting their decision to publish an article that confirms President Trump’s recent characterization of Baltimore.
Where the New York Times documents out-of-control crime in Baltimore, the liberal PBS.org documents corruption, as does mainstream Bethesda Magazine.
And while Townhall may not be a bastion of liberal reportage, they have just published what is nonetheless a scrupulously well sourced column that even verifies Trump’s most incendiary tweet which made use of the supposed code word “infestation.” The title speaks for itself, “Yes, Baltimore Is ‘A Disgusting, Rat And Rodent Infested Mess’.”
Quoting the liberal Baltimore Sun, on July 29th Cummings accused President Trump of “exploiting racism for their [his] own gain.” This, like so many liberal accusations, is a deliberate inversion of reality. The sad truth is that for over 40 years, Democrats have used the issue of race, and accusations of racism, as a weapon to silence critics.
Here’s the reality that “King Elijah” – a fitting nickname given his membership in a liberal elite that has run America’s inner cities like an aristocracy – expects us to ignore: Since the mid 1960s, Democratic policies have done far more to harm African Americans than white racism.
In at least three critical areas – welfare, education, and law enforcement – liberal policies have destroyed opportunities for African Americans.
Welfare has destroyed the African American family, by taking away the incentives for fathers to stay with the mothers of their children. Only one-third of African American children are now living in a home with both parents. In 1960, over two-thirds of African American children were being raised by a married couple.
Decades of being dominated by liberal labor unions has grossly undermined the quality of public education. A telling example is found in this mesmerizing testimony in the 2014 Vergara case, where it was demonstrated that union work rules affecting teacher tenure, layoff and dismissal policies had a disproportionately negative impact on disadvantaged communities.
As for law enforcement, as reported by the New York Times in March, 2019, corruption, along with capitulation to misguided activists, has led to an explosion of crime in Baltimore. There is no end in sight.
King Elijah, along with the rest of the Democratic party, are explicitly to blame for the destruction of the family, failed public education, and rampant crime that plague African Americans in Baltimore and other major cities.
If King Elijah truly cares about his constituents, he will call for a complete overhaul of welfare policies that provide benefits without sufficient preconditions, he will call for the abolition of teachers unions, and he will support the type of broken windows policing that rescued New York City.
Don’t hold your breath.
Almost lost in the media frenzy over President Trump’s alleged racist tweets – and they’ve stopped even bothering to use the word “alleged” in their “reporting” – is the fact that Trump’s criticism of governance in Baltimore was prompted by comments made by Kimberly Klacik of the Baltimore County Republican Central Committee, who is herself African American!
It’s inspiring to see growing ranks of African American conservatives who are willing to stand up to the Democratic aristocracy. King Elijah’s preference – and Klacik’s transgression – was best expressed by one of his partners in the racist Democratic race hustle, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), who said “Democrats don’t need any more black faces that don’t want to be a black voice.”
It’s also inspiring to see more white Americans, starting with President Trump, who are willing to do more than just, as the Democrats would have it, “know your place,” “shut the f— up,” or be a “better ally.” Because the people who are telling white conservatives to know their place, shut the f— up, and be a “better ally” are the people who are the racists. They are the ones who have inflicted grievous harm on African Americans.
Not only are Democrats the true racists, but in this walk away era, Democrats have gone a step further – they are increasingly dominated by die hard socialists, extreme environmentalists, and corporate globalists who, unchecked, will take away American prosperity, American freedom, and American sovereignty. The hard currency of their politics is stoking racial resentment. It works.
Democrats today manage to capture around 90 percent of the African American vote, and they’ve managed to convince roughly two-thirds of other “people of color” to also vote Democrat. The Democrat’s divisive message of racial resentment is convincing a supermajority of swing voters to support an extreme agenda that is not just going to ruin the lives of the “disadvantaged,” it’s going to destroy America.
Facing this, whites are supposed to be silent? Not a chance.
Americans of all ethnicities need to band together and reach out to communities that to-date are hoodwinked by the Democratic aristocracy. Perhaps Kimberly Klacik should run against King Elijah in Nov. 2020! Her victory would shock the pundits even more than that of AOC. For that matter, where is the Republican “squad” in Congress?
The potential for practical alternative policies to garner the support of America’s inner city voters, ending decades of racist Democratic exploitation, is huge indeed. King Elijah, and all the other kings in all the other fiefdoms in this land, could be dethroned at any time. And all the accusations of racism in the world will not save them.
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Edward Ring is a contributing editor and senior fellow with the California Policy Center, which he co-founded in 2013 and served as its first president. He is also a senior fellow with the Center for American Greatness, and a regular contributor to the California Globe. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Forbes, and other media outlets.
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