Liberal policy failure is all around us and destroys
lives every day. In California, the destruction of society and
individual lives has become so overwhelming, the state’s liberal
overseers now spend their time covering up where they can and
normalizing the chaos as much as possible.
Since 2013, when now-liberal icon Eric Garcetti was
elected mayor of Los Angeles, and the nation had just re-elected Barack
Obama as president, Los Angeles’ homeless population skyrocketed 46
percent. During the Obama years, where unchallenged liberalism was
pushed and accepted (wrongly) as the new normal, we saw the leftist
economic menace rage through the entire nation, destroying businesses
and the full-time jobs that went with them.
In California, the destruction is particularly acute.
As the social structure in major cities continues to break down, the
state focuses on banning plastic straws, whether to release from prison a
mass murderer from the Manson family, while cheering at becoming as
sanctuary state.
Just this week, the Los Angeles Times issued an
editorial titled, “Los Angeles homeless crisis is a national disgrace.”
Actually, it’s not — it’s a California disgrace. The editorial
exemplifies the refusal of liberals to not just admit their
responsibility to social destruction, but an inability to even relate to
reality.
The Times editorial board chided, in part, “Today, a
greater and greater proportion of people living on the streets are there
because of bad luck or a series of mistakes, or because the economy
forgot them — they lost a job or were evicted or fled an abusive
marriage just as the housing market was growing increasingly
unforgiving.”
They refer to the “economy” as though it’s a mean thing
with a life of its own, and simply “forgot” people. There’s no need to
consider the actual people in charge of policy and the economy. That
lost job, or domestic strife, a mean housing market are all pointed at,
as though they were all dropped on earth by Martians.
The other factor is, of course, the social justice
issue: “All the great social issues of American society play out in
homelessness — inequality, racial injustice, poverty, violence, sexism.
…” Never mentioned: idiotic and incompetent liberal leadership that
destroys business and jobs; regulations, waste, fraud and abuse that
leave human beings on the street because the theory of socialism is all
that matters.
Fox News reported that 25 percent of the nation’s half
million homeless live in California, the largest of any state. Why is
California in such trouble? Todd Spitzer of the Orange County
(California) Board of Supervisors “blames the problem on two issues:
legislation signed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown over the past several
years that has eroded the penalties for drug use, possession and petty
crimes to where police often don’t bother making arrests; and the change
in a law so that treatment is no longer forced for drug abuse or mental
health issues.”
For liberals, social chaos is their friend. They need
it to prey on the emotions of others, while then using it as an argument
for more government control of our lives.
As if living in those conditions is just another life
choice, the ACLU tried to stop Mr. Spitzer’s effort to clean up a
homeless camp of 700 people living along a riverbed next to Angels’
Stadium. He prevailed, but so dangerous was the environment, it took
hazmat crews to clear out the encampment.
“Trash trucks and contractors in hazmat gear have
descended on the camp and so far removed 250 tons of trash, 1,100 pounds
of human waste and 5,000 hypodermic needles,” the report said.
The left has a history of working hard to hide their
failure, malevolence and destruction of society. Years ago, this column
brought to you the effort by San Francisco to move their homeless to an
island. Now the story is about how the city spends $30 million trying to
clean city streets of hypodermic needles and human feces.
“[An] Investigation reveals a dangerous mix of drug
needles, garbage, and feces throughout downtown San Francisco,” reported
NBC Bay Area. Their “Investigative Unit photographed nearly a dozen
hypodermic needles scattered across one block, a group of preschool
students happened to walk by on their way to an afternoon field trip to
city hall. ‘We see poop, we see pee, we see needles, and we see trash,’
said teacher Adelita Orellana. ‘Sometimes they ask what is it, and
that’s a conversation that’s a little difficult to have with a 2-year
old, but we just let them know that those things are full of germs, that
they are dangerous, and they should never be touched.”
Congratulations, Democrats!
As Democratic leadership tries to normalize their
degradation of society, others have had to adapt. One person created the
“Human Wasteland” map that, according to the Daily Caller, “charts all
of the locations for human excrement ‘incidents’ reported to the San
Francisco police during a given month. The interactive map shows precise
locations of the incidents by marking them with poop emojis.”
Having used needles and human waste on your sidewalks
isn’t just a disgusting inconvenience, it’s a deadly biological hazard
and an indicator of the breakdown of civil society. So the next time a
Democrat tells you they know best, laugh and let them know your family
deserves better than poo maps, hazmat homeless camps, and little girls
having to avoid drug needles on the sidewalk.
This column originally appeared in The Washington Times.
Tammy Bruce is a radio talk-show host, New York Times best-selling author and Fox News political contributor.
