At last night’s GOP debate in Detroit one of Ted Cruz’s best moments – among many – was his excellent summary of the destruction wrought by the long-term socio-economic policies of the progressive regressive left. As Breitbart reported ~
Cruz brought the corruption theme around to Detroit in a memorable statement that makes one wonder why other Republican candidates aren’t using that tortured city – and peripheral disasters of Democrat governance like Flint, Michigan, which Cruz also discussed in the debate – as a club against left-wing opponents. No one in the Democrat Party really has an answer for what Cruz said Thursday night:
Let me start by observing that Detroit is a great city with a magnificent legacy that has been utterly decimated by 60 years of failed left-wing policy.
You know, Henry Ford revolutionized automobile manufacturing and brought automobiles to the middle class. During World War II, Detroit provided — funded the arsenals of democracy to help us win World War II. In — in the 1960s, Detroit was the Silicon Valley of America. It had a population of 2 million people, had the highest per capita income in the country.
And then, for 50 years, left-wing Democrats have pursued destructive tax policies, weak crime policies, and have driven the citizens out.
This city now has just 700,000 citizens. There are vacant homes, one after the other after the other. Crime has been rampant, and it is an outrage. And let me say to folks in the media: That is a story that the media ought to be telling over and over again, the destruction of left-wing policies and the millions who have hurt because of it.
Corruption of the most basic kind is a big part of the reason for Detroit’s woes, as generations of failed Democrat government drove out the tax base, and what funds remained were relentlessly misspent, or plundered. There’s no question the collapse of manufacturing hurt Detroit, but Cruz is absolutely correct that left-wing politics made it far, far worse than it needed to be.
Well here’s someone in the media – the always edifying Bill Whittle – with a very effective illustration of this shameful phenomenon, in Detroit and beyond ~
Why must we as a society be so deliberately obtuse, ignoring the forces (yes, they may have been well-intentioned but they clearly don’t work) behind these ruined metropolitan centers? Failing to confront the reality, failing to root out the corruption and reinstate common sense, conservative principles is simply dooming more cities – and their hapless citizens – to further decline and despair.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Related:
Getting some extra mileage out of the Motor City
