Doubling Down On Doom

In the aftermath of street violence in Cincinnati in July there was a lot of talk about the need for political leadership changes in the city.

Many people suggested that we were going to see the voters of Cincinnati rise up in November and vote for leaders who support law and order and reject the woke policies and sanctuary city status that have been instituted in the city in recent years.

I wrote in August that is what one would expect to occur if common sense prevailed. 

However, I suggested that was very unlikely to occur in Cincinnati or any other big city.

The election this week confirmed that.

Cincinnati voters just re-elected Democrat Mayor Aftab Pureval with 78% of the vote.

For context, Kamala Harris got 76% of the vote in the city in 2024.

Moreover, all eight Democrat incumbents on Cincinnati's city council who were running won re-election.

One member of council did not run for re-election but has been replaced by another Democrat.

Source: https://www.wvxu.org/politics/2025-11-04/democrats-sweep-cincinnati-city-council-race-second-term

All 10 elected leaders in Cincinnati are Democrats

On Tuesday New York City elected a self-described "Democratic Socialist" who in the past advocated for defunding the police, wants to provide free bus service, open city-owned grocery stores, freeze rents and build city-owned communes for people to live in.

He also said he wants to empty New York City's jails because violence is an artificial construction.

The real violence involves the district attorney who are prosecuting people for burglary, thefit and other crimes.

Link:https://www.empirecenter.org/publications/parsing-the-impact-of-mamdanis-tax-hike-plans/

Zohran Mandami says he can pay for all his plans by raising taxes on just 35,000 people out of the 8 million who live in New York City. 

Those 35,000 have incomes of $1 million or more who already pay the highest income tax rate in the nation. They also already provide 40% of the city's income tax revenue.

What could go wrong?

Mandami is also an ardent Muslim who says he will arrest Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu if he sets foot in New York City.

In my August blog post I wrote that common sense was no longer in play in our nation's big cities.

There is no longer a majority of voters living in big cities who believe in the things that we used to take for granted.

The simple truth is that the majority of voters in big cities are only interested in voting for who is going to give them what they want.

Free stuff for themselves and illegals.

Promises that they will make the rich pay more.

Big pensions for public workers paid by everyone else.

Reduced police patrols and crime enforcement.

Low bail policies.

Legalized drug policies.

The majority in a democracy rules and the majority in these big cities are voting for the people that tell them they will give them free stuff and let them do whatever they want on the streets.

Those that have common sense get smaller every year as they flee these cities and the liberal policies for the suburbs or rural areas where they can feel safe and free.

You might call it doubling down on doom.

The math is inescapable

America's large cities will continue to deteriorate.

They are in a death spiral with fewer and fewer people interested or able to make the necessary course correction.

A democracy gives people the government the majority wants.

It may not be what they need.

That is a big reason that our nation's founders established the United States of America as a constitutional republic which tempers majority rule with protections for minority, individual and property rights and limits on government power.

The wisdom of our founders becomes more apparent every day as we watch the doom  enveloping the nation's largest cities.