Posted on 10/16/2019 5:12:12 PM PDT by Kaslin
Its one thing to read about the decline of San Francisco. Its another to see it for yourself.
I could hardly recognize this once-captivating city of breathtaking views, delectable food and cool jazz. Today its occupied by an army of homeless men and women who have turned Baghdad-by-the-bay into Bombay-by-the-bay with some of the dirtiest slums in America.
I first visited San Francisco in 1964 as a member of Barry Goldwaters political team that wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination for the candidate who offered a conservative choice, not a liberal echo.
Then, we freely roamed the streets and hills of the city. Today, you watch your step lest you slip on human feces. Then, Goldwater Girls in their white cowboy hats and boots welcomed delegates and guests at the Cow Palace. Today, homeless men openly urinate in Union Square.
Then, we shared copies of The Conscience of a Conservative. Now, the homeless share their needles. Then, we opposed the legalization of marijuana. Now, Californians seem to grow more weed than oranges.
What has happened? Why is America slouching like some rough beast not toward Bethlehem, but Gomorrah? Beyond dispute, things feel as if they are failing apart, and the common rules of a civil society no longer seem to apply.
Then, most Americans agreed that the family is the basic bloc of society. Now, according to the rising generation, the nuclear family is disappearing, gay rights take precedence over every other kind of right, Washington is accepted as primarily responsible for our welfare, and socialism is the tidal wave of the future.
What has happened? A major reason is the influence, in and out of the academy, of political philosophers such as John Rawls, who argues that everything is relative and there is no absolute right or wrong. Rawls is the liberals favorite philosopher because he believes, as politics professor Jerome Foss puts it, that the purpose of government is to rectify every injustice. Not the Founders, who instituted a system of checks and balances to limit the role of government.
The government that Rawls envisions, says Foss, is empowered to enforce a theory without any institutional restraints. So much for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and their reliance on certain self-evident truths, accumulated through 2,500 years of Western civilization from Jerusalem to Athens to Rome to London to Philadelphia.
I was a stranger in a strange land in San Francisco as I watched the people tread the sidewalks carefully on the way to work and shrug in embarrassment about the feces and the needles and the homeless tents that sprout like weeds. I reflected on what the plain-speaking Barry Goldwater might say about the tragic decline of this once magical city, and I believe it would be something like: Lets cut out the crap and clean it up! And then he would quote Milton Friedman on the importance of freedom and, equally, the importance of what you do with that freedom.
I might have gone home depressed and saddened by what I had seen, but my next stop was Dallas. After a day among its shining skyscrapers, clean streets and parks, and optimistic can-do residents, my spirits soared. All was not lost.
The young professionals whom I met were excited about what tomorrow might bring. Dallas, not San Francisco, is the future, unless the citizens of Baghdad-by-the-bay resolve to take back their city.
It’s the Democrats vision of the future.
If libtard socialism gets its way.
Overrun by Indians, Chinese, liberals, communists, socialists, illegals and homeless
This is the product of of and the future of socialism.
America is becoming more like San Francisco, than San Francisco is becoming like America.
Their slogan: Aim Low.
If the democrats have their way with us. Listened to the debate last night. They all have big plans for us.
Its the Democrats version of the present.
I think its clear to anyone not deep indenial that Frisco is the result of 55-60 years of liberal ‘planning’ and control.
You can see it occurring in every major metro area liberals have run for long, lomg times. Detriot, Dearborn, Chicago, every major libtard run area are in the same kinds of decline and crime issues, illegal aliens issues, pc bs issues, denial of ineptness by libtards regarding their proven failure ‘strategies’ that I believe many implement to bring about decay and decline. On purpose.
God have mercy on all of Cali. JimRob, I envy you not.
ff
Take a look at Honolulu for another example of a third-world sh!th*le. More homeless per capita than SF. Everything falling apart, taxes going through the roof.
Why do we still need the Constitution now that we have algorithms?
San Francisco looked pretty slummy in the dressed-up horse operas that made Clint Eastwood a major star.
By my calculation from Nob Hill to the bay, it is down hill.
Yes, San Francisco is the new prototype for urban America under the rule of millennial donkeys.
Suck it up buttercup.
QM made some parts look ok.
QM made some parts look ok.
The crabs will flourish and the mussels will multiply.
Of course, eating them will make you sick.
Again, suck it up buttercup.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.