When all else fails, blame fiscal irresponsibility. California Democrats know it better than anyone.
During violent riots in Los Angeles over Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, President Donald Trump deployed National Guard members and Marines to aid officers. The cost associated with doing so is reported to be $134 million.
Naturally, the Democrats have latched on to that number. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is awed by “how much veteran nutrition assistance and housing” Trump could provide instead of using the troops “as pawns.” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass decried it as “an absolutely shameful use of taxpayer dollars that could be used to help people.”
Newsom and Bass are used to this style of insult. Trump blamed much of California’s fire wreckage on the governor’s efforts to preserve a small fish, called a smelt. Truthful or not, it was an effective claim, partly because everyone knows the state is poorly run.
The keyword in the Democratic politicians’ comments is “could.” California certainly has the financial resources to take measures similar to the ones its Democratic politicians prescribe to Trump. Its homelessness and housing costs warrant more attention than Newsom, nicknamed “Gaviner Gruesome” by some residents, has the courage to apply. Whether for demographic tiptoeing or plain disinterest, California finds itself in an increasingly unworkable situation.
Newsom’s billions of taxpayer dollars go toward a high-speed rail project, the reality of which is years delayed with “no viable plan” and an overall cost upped to $128 billion.
It’s clear that their financial attacks are an equally unviable path for effective criticism of the president. Whereas California Democrats might do better to overplay Trump’s threats of authoritarianism and rule-of-law trespasses, though this route, too, has failed many times over, they choose to whine over deliberate spending.
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The longer they do so, the more Republicans they birth. Immigration control was already a national consensus. Rioting doesn’t help moderate it, nor does riot denial. Upcoming battleground states, which Democrats are hoping to dilute, include several border states. Recent polling tells us that “87% of Texans support increasing targeted deportations of criminal illegal aliens.”
Likewise, blatant un-American preferences further disconnect California from the rest of the country. Flag burning, law flouting, and utter disrespect for the armed services make the state a no-go for the patriotic veterans whom Newsom seeks to support. In the Democratic ideal, no young men are willing to join the military in 30 years, and California is left screaming in the rubble.