Portland Mayor "Will Not Run Again"

On Thursday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said he would not seek a third term in the 2024 election.

“Addressing our city’s critical challenges while, at the same time, fundamentally reshaping city government requires all of my attention over the next 15 months,” Wheeler said in a Wednesday statement. “As such, I will not be seeking another term as your mayor.”

He fiddled while Portland burned---much like Seattle's former mayor Jenny Durkan.

These "leaders" and the cities they are elected to lead are a profile of what to expect from Democrat leadership--- Everywhere. Every time.

The Washington Free Beacon took an honest look at Portland. 

Be informed, not misled.

Note: On Friday's radio program I mentioned I would include comments sent to me by a retired US Air Force Command Pilot who listens to our program.

Dan Matthews lives in the Seattle area and recounts his reaction when he heard the terrorist attack begin to unfold on 9-11.

It's both inspiring and informative. Take a moment and read it.

The Willamette Week noted, "One of the events that was perhaps pivotal to that decision was the April memorial service for Walter Cole, who performed as the legendary drag queen Darcelle XV. At that event, Wheeler spoke—and was viciously heckled by mourners.

When he tried to bond with the rioters while they were burning downtown Portland in 2020-21, they booed him, telling him to leave the downtown area, which he did.

"This is the Future Liberals Want"

Last Thursday the Washington Free Beacon published this headline: This Is the Future Liberals Want: Reckless Cyclist Brawls with Naked Hippie Outside Burger Joint Flying Gay Pride Flag."

The sub-head read, "Just another day in Portland, Oregon."

The introduction said, "What happened: An obnoxious cyclist careened recklessly through traffic before starting a fight with a nude hippie in front of a trendy burger joint displaying the gay pride flag in its front window while a couple of stoner bros looked on and captured the incident on video."

Jarrett Stepman, a journalist with the Heritage Foundation, remarked on "X," formerly Twitter: "I've never seen a more perfect encapsulation of a post-civilizational West Coast city."

I've never seen a more perfect encapsulation of a post-civilizational West Coast city. https://t.co/0XvVWaU8xA

— Jarrett Stepman (@JarrettStepman) September 13, 2023

This is the culture the left creates when elected to power.

So why does it matter if I don't live in Portland?

Here's why: This is the future liberals want. Deranged cyclists terrorizing law-abiding motorists. Naked hippies prancing. Random fistfights in the street. Trendy restaurants are destined to close due to rampant crime and vagrancy. Performative wokeness in the window.

On Saturday Victor Davis Hanson, America's premier conservative historian in my opinion, published an article turning the light on "Post---postmodern America."

The mess we're in, and how to get out of it.

Victor Davis Hanson, or "VDH" as he is known says, "When the progressive woke revolution took over traditional America, matters soon reached the level of the ridiculous."

He gives examples.

Take the following examples of woke craziness and hypocrisy, perhaps last best witnessed during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.

The Biden administration from its outset wished to neuter immigration law. It sought to alter radically the demography of the United States by stopping the border wall and allowing in anyone who could walk across the southern border.

Over 7 million did just that. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden ignored the role of the Mexican cartels in causing nearly 100,000 annual American fentanyl deaths.

Then border states finally wised up.

They grasped that the entire open-borders, “new Democratic majority” left-wing braggadocio was predicated on its hypocritical architects staying as far away as possible from their new constituents.

So cash-strapped border states started busing their illegal aliens to sanctuary blue-state jurisdictions.

Almost immediately, once-magnanimous liberals, whether in Martha’s Vineyard, Chicago or Manhattan, stopped virtue-signaling their support for open borders.

Instead, soon they went berserk over the influx.

So now an embarrassed Biden administration still wishes illegal aliens to keep coming, but to stay far away from their advocates — by forcing them to remain in Texas.

That means the president has redefined the U.S. border. It rests now apparently north of Texas, as Biden cedes sovereignty to Mexico.

The president has no answers to the harm his policies have caused. Much like Ted Wheeler. Or Jenny Durkan. Or Seattle's current leadership.

Leftist leadership in America is a quagmire of chaos. So they fiddle as our cities burn. And claim to be making "progress"---pretending the problems they are trying to fix were somehow foisted on the American public by someone other than themselves and their policies.

Does Portland, Seattle, or other cities like them have the will or desire to elect someone outside the Leftist camp who could actually solve the problem of rot in the city?

Takeaway

Hanson concludes with this:

The common theme of these absurdities is how contrary to human nature, impractical, and destructive utopian wokism, whether in matters of energy, race, crime, or illegal immigration.

There are two other characteristics of the Woke Revolution.

One, it depends solely on its advocates never having to experience firsthand any of the nonsense they inflict on others.

And two, dangerous zealots with titles before, and letters after, their names prove to be quite stupid — and dangerous.

So, what can we do?

Last December Victor Davis Hanson wrote, "Most Americans know something has gone terribly wrong—and very abruptly—with the United States. They are certain that our wounds are almost all self-inflicted. The current pathologies are not a result of a natural disaster, an exhaustion of natural resources, plagues, or an existential war."

He gave a 10-point plan to help fix America. I would encourage you to read his comments on each of the 10 points. The points for American recovery are:

Cut the debt, secure the border, "tap natural resources, oppose discrimination, disrupt and reform higher education, revive the Armed Forces, fix voting, drain the swamp, upend the welfare state, and reform norms."

One additional point for fixing America is found in a comment made by President Ronald Reagan: 

"If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

National recovery must begin with spiritual recovery.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Bold. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.