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In a sign of either hope or desperation, Portland, Oregon, voters decided to abolish their entire government structure and replace it with a weaker mayor, expanded City Council, and ranked-choice voting.
Secular progressivism has been Portland's pride, but now the city is in chaos, with 19 people running for mayor and 98 people seeking seats on the City Council. All are blaming "unexpected circumstances" for the city's current collapse and running for office on a leftist agenda—the same beliefs that put the city where it is today, causing thousands to flee.
The city lies as an extreme reflection of Seattle, San Francisco, and other leftist-controlled cities.
It also reflects the story of the ancient cultures that collapsed under the weight of the same political and moral beliefs as the other cities and nations that traveled the same path.
While only 2 are officially running for President of our country, the same deadly issues that face Portland and other Leftist cities also face our nation.
And the same beliefs and policies will either lift or destroy our beloved America.
It all comes down to your vote.
Be informed, not misled.
POLITICO has published an article titled "This proud liberal city is throwing out its entire government."
The research for their extensive article is excellent, but the conclusions are not.
I've drawn from some of their research for my comments.
This is a profile of how leftist, secular progressivism kills the culture, whether it's Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago...we all know the list.
In Portland, a major driving factor was the passage of “Measure 110,” decriminalizing all drugs in 2020, which was backed by 74 percent of Multnomah County’s residents. Voters couldn’t — or at least didn’t — anticipate how this policy change would reshape a city already strapped for money, dealing with a public health crisis, and confronting rising rates of homelessness and fentanyl abuse.
Drug use shot up, homelessness worsened, and taxpayers fled.
I understand that the pandemic closures, protests, elevated crime rates, and rising homelessness buffeted many liberal cities in recent years, including San Francisco and Minneapolis. However, policy choices made by the city and state aggravated their impact in Portland.
Consequences
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a retiring Democrat congressman who has represented parts of Portland since 1996 and, before that, served on both the Multnomah County Commission and the City Council, said parts of downtown look “like Dresden in World War II.”
“I’ve spent 54 years trying to make Portland the most livable city in the country or in the world,” said Blumenauer, his voice cracking, in a mid-September interview as he prepared to pack up his Capitol Hill office. “No one’s going to describe it like that now.”
Sadly, many leftist "progressives" actually believe their policies and beliefs can work.
The summer of rage.
While Seattle's then-mayor publicly referred to the riots on Capitol Hill---a.k.a. CHOP or CHAZ --- as a "summer of love," Portland had its 2020 "summer of rage."
Politico tries to explain: "At first, Portlanders turned out in droves for Black Lives Matter protests — laying down for nine minutes in remembrance of George Floyd on Portland’s iconic Burnside Bridge. But as summer stretched on, the tone shifted: Destructive protesters commingled, the latter attracting folks from beyond the city who just wanted to fight or damage property."
For more than 100 nights, downtown Portland became bedlam. President Donald Trump sent in federal law enforcement officers. There were reports of protesters being snatched and hauled into vans by federal agents. The Portland Police Department was criticized for not doing enough — and then for doing too much. In August, a member of the Patriot Prayer group was shot.
The New Yorker labeled those days in Portland the "Summer of Rage."
The City Council instituted some changes that BLM advocates were asking for, like cutting $15 million from the police department budget... following findings that it disproportionately targeted Black and Brown men. But in the aftermath, gun violence shot up, reaching an all-time high of 101 homicides in 2022.
Terrence Hayes was chair of the community oversight group for the Portland Police Department’s new Focused Intervention Team. He's one of the many running for City Council.
Hayes, whose cousin was killed by a police officer in 2017 and who served time in prison himself, says that some of the policy changes spurred by 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests had a negative impact on Black communities like his. Shutting down the Gun Violence Reduction Team, for example, hurt his community more than it helped.
“Nobody considered that there would be an uptick in gun violence … especially in Black communities,” Hayes said. “Because we didn’t really listen to those communities. We spoke for them, and we made decisions for them.
Rene Gonzalez, who is running for mayor, says, “Things got so bad that politicians could tell the truth. I could be 100 percent honest and couldn’t be guilted into saying things different than what I was seeing.”
Carmen Rubio, one of the mayoral candidates, told Politico, “We have to move away from this dichotomous view of things. We can hold multiple truths at the same time."
Multiple truths?
The future and reality.
“We’re losing money every day,” Schroeder said, projecting that the restaurant’s revenue this year will be less than half what it was before the pandemic.
“If you look down the street at nine o’clock on a Friday — I have video — it is empty,” she said. “You’d think they were filming a movie.”
A report by real estate firm Colliers ranked Portland No. 1 in the nation for office vacancy in 2023: More than 30 percent of the city’s central business district is vacant.
The new city charter passed by Portlanders in 2022 does not even clearly define the role of mayor.
How does order come out of chaos when the players won't even have a clear picture of what their job should involve?
Blumenauer, who is not endorsing anyone so he can be available to help those elected, says, “We have no idea how these pieces fit together. I don’t think anybody has fully thought through how these pieces will fit together.”
Schroeder, whose business could depend on the next mayor, isn’t optimistic.
She says, "I feel forlorn."
Takeaway
Allen West says, "Liberal progressivism evolved after our Constitution. It has repeatedly failed all over the world so why do we think it could be successful here in the United States of America? "
Glenn Beck says, "Progressivism is the cancer in America and it is eating our Constitution, and it was designed to eat the Constitution, to progress past the Constitution."
Thomas Sowell says, "Facts are seldom allowed to contaminate the beautiful vision of the left. What matters to the true believers are the ringing slogans, endlessly repeated. Darwinian adaptation to environment applies not only to nature but also to society. Just as you don’t find eagles living in the ocean or fish living on mountain tops, so you don’t find leftists concentrated where their ideas have to stand the test of performance."
This election has got to be about performance, not platitudes.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful. VOTE.