Washington Examiner economics columnist Tiana Lowe Doescher slammed Democratic socialists’ progressive agenda, arguing that it’s ‘so divorced’ from what everyday Americans actually want.
“Like men and women’s sports, like voter ID, it’s an 80/20 issue. It’s so divorced. Progressive activism is just so divorced from what ordinary people want, which is ‘don’t lock up the toothpaste, lock up the criminals,’” Doescher said on Fox News at Night on Friday.
New York assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, a democratic socialist, spoke at a rally on Thursday protesting against jailing people who steal items, such as personal care products, as a result of living in poverty.
The assemblywoman argued that the “true crime” is not that people are stealing these items; rather, it’s that people can be “thrown in jail” for “simply having a biological need” due to “incredible wealth disparity” in New York City.
“Most of what we saw were crimes of poverty, people who are stealing things like toothpaste, people who are stealing things like soap. That means if you are stealing those things, you need them,” Gallagher said in a video posted on X.
“We are choosing to protect billion-dollar companies like CVS and Walgreens over the people who are struggling to get by,” she continued. “So, I would say that the true crime is that there is such incredible wealth disparity in this city that there are people who can be thrown in jail for simply having a biological need.”
The video concluded with her saying how she is fighting at the state level to ensure criminal justice reforms are being maintained.
“One of the things that I’m fighting for at the state level is to make sure we pass things like ‘treatment not jail,’ and that we hold the line on the incredible criminal justice reforms that we have done over the last 10 and 20 years that are constantly being threatened by right wing media who are looking to fear monger about people who are actually just in absolute dire straits,” she said.
THE SOCIALIST FUTURE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS HERE
Doescher pushed back against the narrative, saying, “The fact is that, in this country, it’s vanishingly rare to actually be dying of material impoverishment.”
“Look, we know what works. What works is policing,” Doescher said. “Here, in Washington D.C., when President Trump brought in the National Guard, it resulted in a 24% production in property crime.”