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Nov 1, 2022·edited Nov 1, 2022

For any normal voter, simple walk trough downtown Portland or Seattle (in Washington) is best argument to stop voting for Democrats. 15 years ago, both cities were amazing with booming economy, today well, they look more as several gated communities for the elites, while rest of population is leaving in dystopian world overrun with crime drugs where no law exists.

I personally didn't believe that those cities got so bad, untill one of my friends (young progressive voter) told me she is leaving Portland since city isnt livable anymore, she is tired crime that is out control. Then she told me, that all is fault of Republicans and their racist policies, well I just continued to laugh, some people will never change.

But good to see that not everyone is like my friend

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The fundamental problem with progressive policies is that they are founded are in conflict with human nature. They are built on a fantastical utopian vision that is in conflict with reality and everything that history teaches us.

The problem with progressives is that their mentally unable to adjust. Once committed to an idea they are never able to admit it might have been a bad idea and instead push to double down on that bad idea as a solution to any failure. They are never able to grasp that an idea that sounds good in theory can fail when confronted with reality.

In some ways, they are like the academic economists that could never understand how completely unchecked free trade could actually produce bad results.

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The complete failure of Democrat logic escapes me.

The diesel shortage on the east coast (coming soon to your area) was predicted at my dinner table after CA and the feds decided that their Utopia requires everyone to drive electric cars and gasoline will be outlawed.

Why would any refinery make repairs to an installation when the powers that be have announced intentions to criminalize your industry?

If the government told you your house is being taken by eminent domain and you’ll be forced to leave it in two years are you going to go through with the kitchen remodel? Upgrade your AC? Of course not!

Hence we’ve lost millions of gallons of refining capacity. Duh.

Legalize heroin and meth smoking yet surprised to watch your city/state devolve into an open air cesspool-- there’s a relationship between the two.

The only word I can think of for people who think this way: juvenile.

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My question for the common sense staff is, “how did this particular brand of progressive politics become so ensconced in American institutions?”

I left my career as a Southeastern academic physician partially due to the internal pressure to conform to progressive medical views and moved to a rural part of Georgia that I only half jokingly refer to as Trumpistan. I am a political moderate and was actually nervous about landing in such a conservative hotbed.

Not 6 months into my new job our hospital administration announces Ibram Kendi as a guest speaker. Our catchment area and hospital staff is almost 90% rural white Appalachian types or Hispanic immigrants, two groups I view as relatively anti-progressive in a political sense.

I cannot square how this could have happened spontaneously, but I tend to view conspiracy theories with trepidation.

Does anyone have a rational explanation as to how much of the power structure running American organizations came to believe such a non-functional and maladaptive worldview? I enjoy the coverage of how this is a problem in Portland and other areas, but what I’m really searching for and would be interested in from the common sense view is: how and why it came to be.

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Ah, freedom from the "trap" of marriage and family now shits on the streets of Portland. That damned "patriarchy" -- so OPPRESSIVE. Better to be high all day, on some kind of welfare, childless and dead in an unmarked grave!

An elderly white man was beaten up on the subway in NYC the other day for asking the "oppressed" to turn down their music. Imagine. A (ssshhhhhh,,,black) man and a (sshhhhhh black) woman BEAT HIM IN THE HEAD.

Of course they did. White man bad! White man OPPRESS! White man cause HARM just by sitting there being white!

(I learned this in faculty meetings).

Police BAD for hauling these monsters into prison for no reason other than they black! Now they can rob, beat, and disturb everyone with their shitty music thanks to:

PROGRESSIVES.

Finally allowing myself to see through the bullshit, I defected from the Democratic Party several years ago. I do hope that more and more people see through it.

But then I read memes on Facebook that scream they're voting for the party that doesn't "force women to give birth."

Ironically, if they did give birth, they'd be forced to GROW THE HELL UP.

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Last night was Halloween. Democrats are like the parents who allow their kids to gobble up all the candy and then express dismay when they get sick. Except they allow the kids to eat candy all year round. Or kowtow and bribe the toddler having a fit in the supermarket.

This lunacy could be ended in a hot second if we wanted it to end. It is simply a failure of will. Giuliani proved that in NYC decades ago.

At this point I'm not sure I even want to live in the same neighborhood, let alone the same country as people so lacking in common sense. And, as far as the coming election......if the so-called red tsunami fails to materialize, we'll know that the suspicions about 2020 were not tinfoil hat fevered dreams. Because what's going on may really not be the sheer stupidity described in Oregon, but something much darker.

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A good piece for sure. The reason I subscribe here is that it is a gateway for real people to talk once again. Generally speaking, conservatives tend to run organizations that have risk(for-profit) and progressives run ones without risk(non-profit). When there is risk the right decisions tend to made for the benefit of everyone.

For decades conservatives have allowed progressives to frame us and that was violently disrupted with the election of Trump. We ended slavery, gave women the right to vote, and passed the CRA. We man the military, fire hoses, and police stations. We run businesses that benefit everyone overall by providing the tax revenue needed to fund said police, fire, roads and sanitation, et al. We take care of our own business and leave everyone else alone. Live and let live.

Progressives take. They contribute only to themselves and their tribes. They are pro-crime and anarchy.

Vote Drazan, folks. Johnson is only there to siphon votes from Drazan - do not fall for it.

Respectfully.

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The dichotomy of safe, comfortable, gated communities for the elite surrounded by dystopian shambles has been a staple of futuristic movies forever.

The future is now here.

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“I work really hard for my $10 pack of cigarettes”

The progressive hipster lament, uttered while sipping their $8 Starbucks latte and trashing Donald Trump and The Patriarchy.

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I have no pity or compassion for Portlandians.

They're shocked, SHOCKED to discover that there's public human defecating, homelessness, rampant drug addiction and unending, often violent crime going on here.

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Great article. Only question is why are Liberals so damn dumb. They have to completely destroy and ruin everything around them. Then they pause with finger to lip and think, ah maybe this wasn't a good idea!

Disregard everyone telling you that. No you have a better idea and can make it work. For me, you reap what you sow. Want a shit city, well you got it.

The only hope is if the entire country says to hell with Liberals and there bag of snake oil. You can't save the world. Save your area and hope others do the same. However Brandon and his merry band of idiots are trying to double down. Just can't fix Stupid!

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Born and raised in Oregon for 45 years and left last year to live in a red state. I just couldn't raise my kids there anymore. Even if Drazan wins, I believe there will be so much opposition that not much will change, it will just slow down the monstrous decline.

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Thank you, Mr. Woodhouse. I live in Austin, Texas, the home of progressive city government in the Lone Star state. I recently went downtown for breakfast with a colleague. The smell of urine and feces on the sidewalks of Congress Avenue was overwhelming. We left downtown immediately.

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You could write this about SF too. My home town was always a bit edgy, but it wasn’t dirty and lawless. To what kind of mindset can you attribute the willing decline into decay?

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The problems started when all of high fallutin nonsense bruited about in the faculty lounges of our "great" universities got translated into Democrat policy. Everyone of them is contra to human nature! What damn fool couldn't see that homelessness is not about affordable housing; defunding police will bring a helluva a lot more than social justice. Your High School diploma is not worth the paper it's printed on and so on ad infinitum. We have let the inmates run the asylum and now we have to start again from scratch to rebuild and if you ever vote again for a Democrat u deserve what u get!

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When society deteriorates to the conditions described in this article (assuming the "conditions" are more endemic than anecdotal), a governing position to restore order for the good of the community is necessary. Restoring order requires a change in Portland governance and leadership which I doubt is forthcoming. I would expect the downward spiral to continue until the corporate entities in Portland begin to vacate downtown and take their employees with them and the city growth rate in general declines. The best way to effect change in Portland is to leave.

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