Given that I remain a denizen of a rural community in Alaska, I'm an odd one indeed to be writing about the state of America's urban areas and Democrat/leftist jurisdictions. If you've been reading my work at all, you know I grew up in a rural setting in Iowa and am now a content rural dweller myself. I have little time for cities, despite having lived in them for four decades. I find them unpleasant; crowded, noisy, and, to be honest, they smell bad. I like the clean country air of the Susitna Valley, and if that means I have to put up with the occasional bear wandering around the neighborhood, that's fine.
Given that, why am I still worried about America's cities? Because our cities are the beating hearts of our nation. Much of the country's economic activity happens there. Urban areas host much of the country's industry and academia. What's more, our cities used to be the pride of the nation, but that's less the case now. Case in point: Our major cities are showing an ever-increasing trend towards socialists, if now outright communists, in local and congressional elections. Here are just a few examples:
Claire Valdez, a New York City "democratic socialist", won the primary for New York's District 7.
Darializa Avila Chevalier, another "democratic socialist", won the primary for New York's District 13, defeating the incumbent, Rep. Adriano Espaillat.
Brad Lander, endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and New York's socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, won the District 10 primary, also defeating an incumbent, Rep. Dan Goldman.
There are more. And the worst part of this is that it's not a fringe movement in the Democratic Party, a near-majority of which, according to a recent I&I/TIPP poll, view socialism "favorably."
In the latest online national poll, taken from May 26 through May 28, 1,589 voting-age respondents were asked the following question: “In general, do you have a favorable or unfavorable view of socialism?”
Those answering the poll, which has a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points, were surprisingly sanguine in their views: 33% said they were either “very favorable” (12%) or “somewhat favorable” (21%) toward socialism, compared to just 44% who said they were “somewhat unfavorable” (19%) or “very unfavorable” (25%) toward socialism.
Another 23% said they were “unsure.”
Here's the onion:
So one out of three voters in America thinks socialism is a good system.
But who are they? Mostly, Democrats. Among members of the Democratic Party, a plurality of 46% find socialism favorable, versus 32% unfavorable. Independents are slightly less, at 27% favorable, 44% not favorable, a plurality but not a majority.
Only among Republicans does an actual majority not like socialism: 26% favorable versus 58% unfavorable. But note also that even among GOP members, the conservative party of our tripartite system, one in four find socialism favorable.
It goes beyond party affiliation, with sharp splits by age (18 to 24 years, 44% favorable, and 25 to 44 years, 42% favorable), dropping with advancing age (45 to 64 years, 27% favorable and 65 years-plus, down to 21% favorable).
The age part of this isn't surprising; there's an old, apocryphal saying, generally attributed to Winston Churchill, that states, "If at age 20 a man is not a liberal, then he has no heart. If at age 40 a man is not a conservative, then he has no brain." People do tend to moderate politically as they grow older and (we hope) smarter, broadly speaking. But this poll also reveals a disturbing trend towards socialism among Democrats; there are no more moderates in that party, save a few holdouts like Senator John Fetterman (D-PA).
Why is this starting to affect elections in places like New York?
Read More: In New York, the Democrat Establishment Dug Their Own Graves
Dem Senator's Reply to 'Where Socialism Has Worked' Says It All, As Party Chaos Continues
The likely cause of this is as sad as it is obvious: The productive are leaving these major urban areas, driven out by high taxes, high regulations, high crime, and expensive real estate. The productive - business owners, entrepreneurs, investors, and the large corporations that employ so many, are leaving; they are heading for greener pastures in places like Florida and Texas. This isn't just a New York problem; it's happening as well in California, in New Jersey, in the Chicago area; everywhere where local politics are shifting ever farther left. The productive are, for the most part, more moderate politically. Some may be liberals, but they are much less likely to be socialists/communists.
So who's left in the big urban areas? The dependency class, who will vote for whoever promises them more of someone else's stuff, and the wealthy, cocktail-party elites, who can afford to vote for commies, being largely able to shelter themselves from stupid policies by their wealth, and who are more capable of quickly bailing if things become truly stupid. This, in large part, seems certain to be behind some of these truly unfathomable election victories, from the victory of Zohran Mamdani in New York to the recent spate of commies winning primaries in districts where winning a Democratic party primary is tantamount to winning the general election.
Socialism and communism never end well. They start as an anarchic revolt and end up with grinding poverty and, as another old saying goes, an equal distribution of misery, excepting, of course, the ruling class. These ideas won't end well in our cities, any more than they did in the Soviet Union, any more than they are in Cuba or North Korea. Bad times lie ahead for these major urban areas.
