There simply is no other explanation for it. Not ignorance, not well-intentioned stupidity, not misguided but honest mistakes.
No one could inflict the kinds of cruelty that our politicians do unless they despised their constituents.
The horrible effects of destructive public policies are everywhere: in all our larger cities, in state governments and in the federal government. And yet, when earnest citizens make serious efforts to bring the negative effects to politicians' attention, when they ask for change or improved conditions, when they demand solutions to problems the politicians themselves have caused, the response is never an apology, reversing course, repealing terrible laws or working together to make things better.
To the contrary, the typical response has been to lie; to deny what Americans can see with their own eyes; to demonize and vilify anyone daring to point out the obvious; to use lawfare and to manipulate the electoral process so that American citizens can't remove those responsible for disastrous laws and will be saddled with their consequences — and whatever worse things the politicians can concoct — forever.
There are too many instances to include in a column with limited space. Independent journalist Nick Shirley exposed billions of dollars of fraud in Minnesota. You'd think an honest government would be horrified and commit to rooting out the theft of taxpayers' hard-earned money. Instead, Shirley and others are accused of being racists.
The estimated $9 billion in fraud in Minnesota is dwarfed by California's, which experts think approaches $200 billion in Medicaid, unemployment insurance, welfare and hospice care scams. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before Congress last week that the feds had cut off funds to more than 500 fake "hospice care" facilities — one in a burrito stand.
How does the California legislature respond? By crafting a proposed law called the "Stop Nick Shirley Act," designed to prevent and penalize the exposure of fraud.
Charities, nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations are a huge part of the fraud system, in California and across the country. After the Pacific Palisades was destroyed by wildfires (the catastrophe itself a colossal failure of city government), a "FireAid" series of performances raised more than $100 million. None of the Palisades residents saw a penny of it. Instead, it was distributed to NGOs. God only knows where it will end up. If past is precedent, a significant chunk will end up in politicians' campaign funds.
Actor Spencer Pratt, who lost his home in the fire, has turned his outrage into action and is now running for mayor of Los Angeles. Appearing on Joe Rogan's podcast last week, Pratt exposed yet another scam, in which an NGO called Northeast New Beginnings received a $16 million grant from the state, which they claim is being used to make modular housing that will provide 64 beds for the homeless. Pratt points out that that amounts to $250,000 per bed. Obviously, plenty of people other than the homeless are benefiting from that grift.
Illegal immigration continues to take its toll. A day doesn't go by without another headline about drunk driving homicides, shootings, murders, sexual assaults and other crimes committed by illegals. And yet our politicians protect them, not us.
Homelessness, untreated mental illness and open drug use are destroying our cities. But when residents complain about safety and health concerns, when restaurants and other businesses beg for help — or shut their doors and leave — politicians continue to promote policies that increase it.
Our public schools are a disaster. Educational and behavioral standards are appallingly low. By way of example, more than half the students in Chicago public schools cannot read at grade level. Seventy-five percent lack basic math proficiency. Sixty-two percent of Washington, D.C., public school students cannot read at grade level. Politicians and teachers' unions insist it's a money problem. But D.C. spends more than $31,000 per student per year — the highest in the country. And Illinois isn't far behind.
Across the country, Americans are being victimized by violent crimes that are completely avoidable. Judges are allowing repeat offenders back on the streets after literally dozens of arrests for violent behavior. The man who stabbed and killed Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte, North Carolina, train last year had been arrested 14 times.
OK, this is bad. But we can vote these losers out, right?
Not if our politicians have their way.
Consider Virginia, which just approved a (likely unconstitutional) law that disenfranchises half the voters by redistricting the state. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, the ex-CIA operative who ran as a moderate but has signed every extremist piece of legislation the Democrat-controlled legislature has put on her desk, now says Democrats are going to pull the same stunt in every state.
Spanberger and others are taking their cues from longtime Democratic strategist James Carville, who announced last week that when Democrats take back Congress, they'll make D.C. and Puerto Rico states, get four more Democrat U.S. senators, expand the Supreme Court to 13 and then pack it with "progressives." If they do take control of Congress, Democrats will likely do just that, as well as eliminate the filibuster, give citizenship to the 20 million-plus illegal immigrants currently here, and throw open the borders again. That will translate to millions of new voters given welfare, free housing, free education and free medical care. American taxpayers will be expected to pay for it all, while losing a meaningful voice in governance.
The country is descending into chaos and headed for a cliff. While most of the worst policies are the brainchildren of Democrats, Republicans are every bit as culpable, especially those in Congress. Despite their control of both houses and the overwhelming approval by Americans of all political persuasions, Republicans have failed to pass the SAVE America Act, or any federal legislation that ensures that the only people voting in our elections are living, adult humans who are United States citizens and not felons.
The House has passed the SAVE Act — twice. But the feckless and compromised Senate Majority Leader John Thune refuses to do what it takes to pass it in the Senate, refuses to put the legislation to a vote in the Senate, and refuses to require a talking filibuster. Which means, of course, that election fraud can continue to take place. And Thune knows it.
The excuse, casually tossed out, is that both Democrats and establishment Republicans hate President Donald Trump. That's bunk. The consequences of these policies and these decisions will be felt long after Trump has left the White House.
It's us they hate.