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New York times Nicholas Kristof "What Have We Liberals Done to the West Coast?"
New York times ^ | 15th June 2024 | Nicholas Kristof

Posted on 06/15/2024 9:24:15 PM PDT by Cronos

As Democrats make their case to voters around the country this fall, one challenge is that some of the bluest parts of the country — cities on the West Coast — are a mess.

Centrist voters can reasonably ask: Why put liberals in charge nationally when the places where they have greatest control are plagued by homelessness, crime and dysfunction?

I’ll try to answer that question in a moment, but liberals like me do need to face the painful fact that something has gone badly wrong where we’re in charge, from San Diego to Seattle.

...the truth is that too often we offer a version of progressivism that doesn’t result in progress. ...Democratic states enjoy a life expectancy two years longer than Republican states. Per capita G.D.P. in Democratic states is 29 percent higher than in G.O.P. states, and child poverty is lower. Education is generally better in blue states, with more kids graduating from high school and college. The gulf in well-being between blue states and red states is growing wider, not narrower.

So my rejoinder to Republican critiques is: Yes, governance is flawed in some blue parts of America, but overall, liberal places have enjoyed faster economic growth and higher living standards than conservative places. That doesn’t look like failure.

So the problem isn’t with liberalism. It’s with West Coast liberalism.

...the West Coast’s central problem is not so much that it’s unserious as that it’s infected with an ideological purity that is focused more on intentions than on oversight and outcomes.

...Maybe a healthy Republican Party keeps the Democratic Party healthy, and vice versa.

Without opposition party oversight, problems aren’t always fixed expeditiously.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections; US: California; US: New York; US: Oregon; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: 1619project; blackkk; blackliesmanors; blackliesmatter; blacklivesmatter; blather; blm; bluestateexodus; california; californication; corrupticrats; criticalracetheory; crt; cya; demagogicparty; durablemajority; ecoterrorism; ecoterrorists; figleaf; gavinnewsom; genderdysphoria; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; hollywood; homosexualagenda; kamalaharris; kristof; losangeles; marxisttyranny; nancypelosi; newscum; newsom; newsomfornia; newyork; newyorkcity; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; nicholaskristof; oregon; sandiego; sanfrancisco; seattle; singlepartyrule; singlepartystate; singlepartystates; washington
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To: pigeoninthepark
When’s the last time you have been to “mostly white” North Chicago?

Please name some neighborhoods. The ones I have traveled in recent years- my daughter and her husband live in a Northwest neighborhood-not a suburb- and my son in law’s family lives around the North Shore, and I can tell you, there are people of every ethnicity in those areas.

AND, I might add, while crime is there, it’s not NEARLY as bad as South and West of downtown.

And lastly, I have been a patient at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, not the safest area, but a helluva lot better than Austin and Garfield Park.

101 posted on 06/16/2024 6:35:57 AM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: DIRTYSECRET

“If they kill one person the whole idea will go the way of Solyndra.”

https://www.wired.com/story/uber-self-driving-car-crash-arizona-pedestrian/


102 posted on 06/16/2024 6:36:25 AM PDT by Jonny7797
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To: Cronos

“So the problem isn’t with liberalism. It’s with West Coast liberalism.”

This guy’s saying that West Coast liberalism is a failure, but his brand of liberalism will get it right... this time.

Heard that before.


103 posted on 06/16/2024 6:37:33 AM PDT by moovova ("The NEXT ELECTION is the most important election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
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To: Cronos
*Click on the image to see the clip*


104 posted on 06/16/2024 6:40:46 AM PDT by know.your.why (<>)
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To: Cronos
"some of the bluest parts of the country — cities on the West Coast — are a mess.

And creating new and even more discussing depravity everyday...

105 posted on 06/16/2024 6:42:46 AM PDT by unread (I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the REPUBLIC..!)
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To: aquila48

Freedom isn’t the problem. Lack of personal accountability is.


106 posted on 06/16/2024 6:51:55 AM PDT by MRadtke (Light a candle or curse the darkness?)
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To: Freest Republican

Children in US are the most vaxxed...just sayin’


107 posted on 06/16/2024 6:56:03 AM PDT by goodnesswins (Climate cultists think we should go back to the goo"d times when people starved)
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To: MayflowerMadam

*Self driving cars. It could give the elderly more freedom, and make the roads safer.*

Think of all the work you could get done while riding.
You’d have to think a whole lot more people would spend their free time on the road. More ammo for the global warming alarmists.


108 posted on 06/16/2024 6:58:40 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: Cronos
"Democratic states enjoy a life expectancy two years longer than Republican states. Per capita G.D.P. in Democratic states is 29 percent higher than in G.O.P. states, and child poverty is lower. Education is generally better in blue states, with more kids graduating from high school and college."

They just can't stop lying can they

109 posted on 06/16/2024 7:00:13 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary Clinton remains free, the USA will never have equal justice under the law)
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To: Leep

Yup. “GOOD INTENTIONS…” and all that.


110 posted on 06/16/2024 7:14:21 AM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: hal ogen

“Don’t be so lazy. Drive your self and go where you want...when you want. Freedom does take some effort.”

What a jerk. Do you really want to be in the roads with people with poor eyesight, slower reflexes, and disabled limbs driving cars?


111 posted on 06/16/2024 7:23:15 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Navarro didn't kill himself.)
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To: hal ogen

“Don’t be so lazy. Drive your self and go where you want...when you want. Freedom does take some effort.”

What a jerk. Do you really want to be in the roads with people with poor eyesight, slower reflexes, and disabled limbs driving cars?


112 posted on 06/16/2024 7:23:17 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Navarro didn't kill himself.)
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To: Cronos

There needs to be competition. There are some areas where Republicans were in charge for years and they became corrupt and complacent too. There is less of a chance if Republicans are in charge but it does happen.


113 posted on 06/16/2024 7:29:21 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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To: Cronos

But if you excluded the impact of blue cities in those red states . . .


114 posted on 06/16/2024 7:38:18 AM PDT by Timmy
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To: know.your.why

Bravo


115 posted on 06/16/2024 7:39:47 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: ConservativeMind

Yes. Interesting that the NY Slimes writer overlooks the East Coast and other Dem controlled cities.

It’s not just Cali.


116 posted on 06/16/2024 7:43:39 AM PDT by Jane Long (The role of the GOP: to write sharply-worded letters as America becomes a communist hell-hole.)
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To: DIRTYSECRET

“Self driving cars could go a long way towards fixing it provided they can be perfected. People would get rid of their own and the uber driver will not need to get paid anymore. Insurance-not needed. Fewer cars parked on the street to get broken into. They’d have to be gas powered. No highway patrol needed. I’d be awesome.”

Nice dream, would be good if it comes true. I’ll add one that I was just talking to my wife about yesterday, which is the idea of self-driving taxis, particularly in foreign countries. It would likely end the scams that make me very reluctant to ever use them.


117 posted on 06/16/2024 7:45:47 AM PDT by BobL
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To: Cronos
The word FREEDOM has been co-opted bt the commies, so it has to be better defined before such arguments as these can be entertained.

Are we FREE from having to support the fat, the lazy, those who have access to free education yet remain ignorant and untrained? No.

Are we FREE to be able to support our own families without having to support several other indigent families and their disproportionate broods? NO. Are we FREE from having to support all the hordes from the rest of the world who want to come here from corrupted lands so as to line off our earned wealth, and render our country corrupt? NO.

We aren't free at all. We are slaves to the hordes. Foreign and domestic. This idiot columnist has it all wrong. We value our true freedom way too cheaply. We are giving it away to pigs who don't even know what freedom is.

The commie elite don't want us to be free, but slaves. They want us to be forced to care for them and make money for them as servants, so thay they might live as royalty.

You'll own nothing, and be happy.

They are selling the OPPOSITE OF FREEDOM. And there are a lot of takers.

118 posted on 06/16/2024 7:46:41 AM PDT by caddie
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To: Freest Republican

“Leftists and uniformed foreigners like the Singaporean who’s healthcare system my tax dollars subsidize should educate themselves.”

What you say is totally true, but how many here even understand how it’s done?


119 posted on 06/16/2024 7:47:00 AM PDT by BobL
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To: Cronos

“Democratic states enjoy a life expectancy two years longer than Republican states.”

Republican states include the South, states that are highly populated and significant more, how do you say, ‘diverse’, yeah, that works. And then you have meth/fentanyl, which is pushed on red states far more than blue states.


120 posted on 06/16/2024 7:49:38 AM PDT by BobL
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