Suffering through idiocracy

American Thinker ^ | October 7, 2025 | Mark C. Ross

[E. Pluribus Unum]

At least theoretically, because of open competition, democracies are supposed to choose their “best” members to be in charge of the public sector.  For some reason, however, that doesn’t often happen.

Examples of this defect abound.  About thirty years ago, here in Oakland, CA, the city’s moms and pops were clutching their pearls over the rampant crime along the near-bayside corridor defined by East 14th Street.  Having worked right there for the previous fifteen years, the situation was quite familiar to me.

Really conspicuous street crime began when the Barcelona bar closed.  Having been mostly a front for the procurement of prostitutes, the working ladies were compelled to hit the street in order to sustain their revenue streams.

Rather than beef up police patrols along the corridor, the pearl-clutchers down at City Hall came up with an amazingly silly “solution”: They changed the name of the street from East 14th to International Blvd.  The aura of global inclusion was expected to promote a much greater sense of responsible citizenship.

Imagine...they actually get paid to do this.

There was just recently a large-scale armed robbery attempt at a local pawn shop, but the guys working there were also armed, and they seriously damaged the would-be robbers, leaving two dead.

And the hits just keep on happening.  Many urban areas are littered with vagrant encampments, and deep blue Oakland is no exception.  Clinging to the goofy dogma that the problem is caused by a lack of “affordable” housing — instead of untreated insanity and drug addiction — those in power seduced the gullible electorate to approve a steep tax on vacant property.

In all fairness, this conforms to the often valid axiom that whenever something gets taxed, you usually get less of it. But what does this have to do with the horde of vagrants haunting the city?

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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: americanthinker; california; demagogicparty; gavinnewsom; idiocracy; markcross; oakland; sociopath

[spintreebob]

“because of open competition, democracies are supposed to choose their “best” members to be in charge of the public sector.”

False premise leads to absurd analysis.
1) There is no democracy in the public sector. It is a Constitutional Republic.
2) The “best” members are competing in the private sector. The public sector attracts those who want to impose laws and administrative ultimatums on others.